bcg blog

Prisoners of the Moment

It’s so easy isn’t it?
To be caught up in the whirlwind of success or the misery of failure.

Both stunt progress and impede growth. It really can be debilitating from either direction.

Success has a knack for convincing us that we’ve arrived, that we’re good enough. It jumps at the slightest opportunity to flatter us into becoming impressed with ourselves. Justifying that we could accomplish the same things with just a little less work, a little less struggle is the very description of complacency. Then, we wonder what happened? Where our warm and fuzzy success went. 

It’s still in the exact same place we left it.

Failure shows us the other side of the coin. It points us to the futility of the work we’ve invested. Failure begs for excuses to soothe the ego that wants to be impressed by itself. We rationalize all the obstacles we have that others aren’t encumbered by. And, we begin to lower the standards of expectation to the point that we no longer feel the pain of failure. 

Good enough, begins to be our calling card.

Why Should We Care?
You know who is really good at not being a prisoner of the moment? Little kids and dogs.

Little kids just play. No fear of embarrassment or failure and no expectation of making this crayon drawing their life’s work. They are rebels in the best sense of the word. 

They are unfazed with failure. Just consider the number of times a child learning to walk falls down and gets back up. At no point does he ever say, “Eh, maybe this walking thing just isn’t for me.” 

Kids treat success in a similar fashion. They never try to reduce their effort to the minimum necessary to accomplish the task. No way. It’s all out or nothing. Check out the kindergartner coming in from recess dripped in sweat with a hole in the knees of his pants. Less than all he had was never an option.

I love dogs and much of it is for this reason. They’re never prisoners of the moment. They don’t acknowledge failure and are blind to success. Our basset hound is as detached from the approval of others as any thing on the planet. It makes me smile.

And we adults think we’re the sophisticated ones …


REAL TALK - Action Steps
Avoiding the trap of becoming a prisoner of the moment is simple, but not easy. We’ve been trained for a long time to be victims of success and failure. A mindshift is needed badly.

• Define Success 
  
  • On your terms, not society’s. This may be one of the most critical leadership concepts there is. I’ve seen nothing more important. What is success, to you? Of course, I’m going to make the plea that you concentrate on a process you can control rather than a destination you hope to reach. The moment becomes a blip when living a process becomes our success. It clearly has no finish line.
    

• Undefine Failure
  
  • Kobe Bryant boldly claimed that failure doesn’t exist. “It’s not a thing.” We’ve attached so much meaning to the final score or quarter numbers that we’ve convinced people of a finish line that doesn’t exist. You have one finish line, we all do. Worry about that finish line and all the failures you see will turn to information for a better next time.
    

• Be a Rebel
  
  • The culture of society does not dictate truth. Nothing says you have to fit in. As a matter of fact, there’s some really important texts that say you should not fit into what society says is okay. Rebels detach from the approval of man, which is another huge key to not becoming a prisoner of the moment.
    

We want to be present. That’s when we’re at our best. However, our ability to immediately move to the next present moment will determine our lot in life. Leaders understand that life is a series of present moments and staying in any single one limits our ability to be our best.

For more information on building excellence in your teams, visit us at www.bluecollargrit.com. 
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