By Brian Schwartz
Your most valuable resource is your time. Time is something that can never be restrained or saved up. Once it’s spent it’s gone forever. And every moment, like it or not, we lose it. Like an unstoppable army, time marches on. Where we choose to spend our time is the only aspect within our control. I love time because it’s the great equalizer. In the end, we all eventually run out of it.
We may strive to be more efficient, and doing so allows us to take on more. But when you stop to look where you are, many of us find that we’ve been heads down trucking down a path unintentionally.
The challenge of life (and the fun) is to pick the path that leads to fulfillment of our heart’s desire. When you are on the right path, you know it. Life is good, and you feel in control of your destiny and in your happy place. But I’m sure there are times you aren’t so sure, and you question if the path you are on is the right one.
Here’s my advice: Trust that the path you are on is the right path. Period. No matter where you are, know that you made the best decision you possibly could with the information you had at the time you made it. Everything is perfectly as it should be for you in this moment. Every day is a learning experience. Every day we make progress. Even when you are frustrated with your results, believe me when I tell you from my heart that we are all exactly where we should be.
This leads to a point I want to make about experience vs. education.
I have achieved far more in my life as a result of experience than I have from education. We do need some education to give us the confidence to take action and thus gain experience. The amount of education we need to take before action varies for each of us. I’ve discovered that those with higher self confidence will take action with less education. Less self-confident people need more education before they take action and gain that valuable experience that makes all the difference.
Take Doug Odell – founder of Odell’s Brewing in Fort Collins. He is probably one of the most self-confident individuals I’ve ever met. He is the godfather of the microbrewery movement in Fort Collins because he was the first to take action. When I voluntarily dropped out of corporate welfare in 2008, there was far more I had to unlearn than there was to learn. As a first time author, I needed experience. I had already learned everything I needed to know – what I needed was more experience. More experience, greater self-confidence, and better intuition.
With experience, comes intuition. The more experience we get in an area, the more our intuition will guide us down the right path. I firmly believe that you can never go wrong when you follow your intuition (or your gut), as long as that intuition is rooted in real experience (and not blind faith!).
But sometimes, the information gathered will be so compelling, that our quantitative mind takes command and our actions follow. Then, for a split second, somewhere along the way our gut tells us otherwise. And we’ve all made those decisions we’ve kicked ourselves for later. At the time, they made perfect sense. The logic added up. But we also knew in our gut, something wasn’t quite right.
Trust your intuition. I firmly believe that one of the unspoken and unteachable keys to success in life is having a strong intuitive muscle, and the faith to follow it.
So I want to invite you to utilize your membership with CIPA to build your intuition muscle.
Engaging with your peers, take action, and gain the essential experience. The more you get involved, the more you become. You can accelerate your experience through your participation in CIPA. The more we support each other, the more successful we all become. On May 18th, I would like to invite you to the 19th Annual CIPA EVVY Awards and support your peers. Tickets are just $40 which also includes dinner!
Our monthly meetings provide a unique opportunity to hear first-hand best practices rooted in reality, new perspectives based on others’ experiences, and actionable steps you can take to build your own experience and in turn your intuition.
Trust your intuition. Trust your gut. Trust in the perfection of the moment.
See you on April 20, and I hope again on May 18 at the annual CIPA EVVY Awards Banquet.
All the best to your self-published success!
Brian Schwartz
CIPA President 2012-2013