It’s been a month and a half now, my performance at work is fluctuating, up one week and down the other; I tell myself, tomorrow I’ll do better. The next day, I say the same thing. My relationship at home is up and down, one day it’s great, the next day we’re arguing and fighting. I tell myself, I’ll do this or go on a date with her tomorrow not today. My alarm rings at 05:00 and I turn it off, I’ll just workout later tonight instead, when tonight comes I’ll just go to sleep early & workout tomorrow morning instead, then the same cycle repeats itself.
I had a great day with my lady, then the next night we’re fighting again, and this time around she said “Remember, you used to always tell me ‘the way you do one thing is the way you do everything’... ” and in that very moment, everything stopped. All my actions, thoughts, words, attitudes over the past month got clear in that very moment.
You’re getting the same results in every area of your life right now, because “The way you do anything, is the way you do everything”; like it or not. If you’re only putting 60% effort at work, you’re only putting 60% effort. It’s not “Oh I’m just doing it here.” No buddy, you can believe that, but as soon as you accept a behavior in one area, you’ve accepted that behavior and it will eventually fall into all of your areas.
The way you do the “little things” tells you how you’ll do the “big things”. I fell victim to a thought and process that I knew very well about and never wanted to be in, yet it creeped in on me, and I didn’t even know until I got hit in the face with it. Once you accept, its ok to not put my full effort in this right now, or the thought of “Its just this” or “Yea, I’ll do it when it matters most or when its important”, beware because you’ve already chosen to be mediocre in an area. Like it or not, that’s the truth. It’s a habit. Mental habits are sometimes not as evident as physical habits, but eventually they will be. You put this off and procrastinated about doing this, then you will do the same here with that, you’ll do the same with your finances, you’ll do the same with your relationships and eventually your life will be put off for everything and you’ll be living in that mental space of “not today, tomorrow” or “not right now, some other time”.
This is a major key in life, one thing that I remind myself every day. The way you do anything is the way you do everything. Do you thoroughly do your work, or do you do the minimum just to get by? Whichever one you do, is your choice and that choice creates a habit, that habit reinforces that choice and creates your now and your tomorrows.
“Men form habits, habits form futures”
Everything is connected. Remind yourself of that. In every way, we’re all connected. All of your actions are connected, all of our actions are connected, we may not always see it or recognize it, but I promise you they are.
Reminding yourself that the way you do anything is the way you do everything makes you present. It takes you out of the pattern and habit of not being right here right now. I’ve been guilty of being somewhere, say, at work and not being there. I am at my desk, however I am not present, my mind, attention and focus is elsewhere. Once I finish at work, I go home, only to be with my fiancé, yet not there with her, I’ll be present in thought about a sports game or about something else coming up. During these times, I find myself very impatient; I went to pick up my car from the mechanic, and he asked me to wait to go print out my papers & pull up the car, in that moment, internally I was in a rush to leave, I had nowhere to go or other obligations for the day, yet I didn’t want to be there, I needed to leave. The way I responded in that moment, was the same way I was responding at work or at home, I had nowhere else to be, yet I just didn’t want to there, wherever I was, I was looking to be somewhere else. I was never where I was.
These experiences and the thought of how I do anything is how I do everything, brought me back to one of my favorite bible verses, “Be Still”. It also reminded me of “The Karate Kid” remake with Jaden Smith & Jackie Chan, when Jaden tells Jackie Chan, “You mean she controlled the snake by doing nothing?” his response was, “Being still & doing nothing are two very different things”.
“Wherever you are, there you are”
In the end, it’s all about presence, intention & attention. Be where you are, whether that means in your physical environment, in your current circumstances or situation, be there. The power comes when you bring presence to it, when you bring your attention to it and your intention directly on it. How you’re responding in this moment, in this situation is how you’re teaching and programming yourself to respond in other situations. How you communicate right now with your spouse and the attention you’re giving them, is how you’re teaching yourself to communicate and pay attention to your children tomorrow.
Live intentionally, be your best in this moment, so you can be your best in every moment; because the way you do anything, is the way you do everything.
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