That Field Won't Plow Itself

Hello everyone and thank you for listening to episode six of The Blue Collar Executive podcast.  I am your host Lewis Taulbee, Jr.  Today let's talk about self-motivation.  Lord knows that's something we all lack from time to time.  In fact, the hardest person we will ever try to motivate is ourselves.  If we think about it, the most important person to motivate is ourselves.  That field won't plow itself.  I heard that a thousand times as a kid.  That grass won't cut itself.  That wood won't chop itself.  I suppose you could use that line about anything.  Dad said it often, but he was always talking to himself.  After a long day's work at the factory, he would come home pour himself a glass of iced tea, look out the window at what needed to be done and I would hear him mumble.  It won't do itself and out the door he would go to tackle whatever job needed done.  It was as if he needed to motivate himself.  You see in farming, if you start one thing late you'll be late in all your work.  You can't delay planting your crops and then expect to catch up by rushing them to grow.  You can't rush the birth of a calf because you didn't get your cow bred and time.  It just doesn't work that way.  To this day, I still use the same tactic.  It's just a simple little saying, but it's like telling myself that the job won't get accomplished if I don't get to it.  I even use it every time I sit down and do this podcast.  The bottom line is you got to get it started if you're going to get it done.  Starting any project is always the hardest part.  Once you get started, it's easy to keep rolling.  At least that's how it works for me.  If you decide to start a diet or an exercise program, isn't the hardest part the first day of craving something sweet or taking that first step on a treadmill?  I believe this is how we're wired as humans.  We all have things that we aspire to do or things we want to improve in our lives but if we don't push ourselves to take that first step, we'll never achieve our heart's desire.  You know Solomon says in Proverbs that a man's heart devisith the way, but the Lord directs his steps.  So like I've said in every podcast, God puts the desire on our heart and even shows us the path, but he leaves it up to us to take it or leave it.  I have five acres of grass to cut at our home.  The hardest part for me is getting my butt on the mower but when I roll out of that barn I start on the front lawn and I don't stop until I cut the last blade of grass in the back 40.  My wife calls that impatience, but I view it as ambition  or my internal get her done drive.  I learned the true value of dad's simple saying when I started my own business.  I rolled out of bed that first morning and thought now what do I do?  Up until then I was always dependent on having a boss or a company laying out my job description or duties.  Now there I was.  I was my boss and the success of my business was a hundred percent dependent upon me and every action I took.  I sat down with my first cup of coffee, a pencil and pad in hand and said, “okay, what can I do today to move my business forward?”.  I wrote out my plan for that day and that's what I focused on.  Of course I had an overall goal but this is about starting.  You have to approach everything from starting line to finish line one inch at a time.  Otherwise you'll just overwhelm yourself and never get started because the mountain in front of you looks too big.  Now I'm not saying take small steps.  I'm just saying one step at a time.  Your first step can be a giant leap.  I never liked the saying take baby steps because in my experience if you try that, you're going to get stepped on by somebody that's taking adult steps.  There's always somebody competing with you.  If you allow them, they'll beat you.  So stop hesitating and beat them out of the gate.  When you put feed out for cattle, the first one to get to the feeder gets to eat the most.  Mark Twain once said the secret to being ahead is getting started.  Yes, I'm also a little competitive, but that's another topic for another episode.  This just doesn't apply for things we don't want to do.  You can love what you do and even be passionate about it but sometimes it's still hard to start.  I have a friend who's a professional musician.  Performing is his love and something he has done his entire life.  He once told me that sometimes he has to push himself onto that stage.  Once he's out there, he loves what he does.  Just motivating yourself to take the first step can be hard.  Today will never happen again so don't waste it with a false start or not starting at all.  Look at perhaps the greatest shipbuilder of all time, Noah.  I know he was a farmer, but when God told him to build an ark he went right to it.  What if he had procrastinated?  It would be a whole different story for all of us.  May not even be a world at all.  He could have said, well, I don't know I got a few things I need to get done first.  I don't know how to build a boat or let me watch a few YouTube videos go buy some tools, research the best wood.  Thank goodness he just went to the shed, grabbed his hammer and went to work.  We all have aspirations in our hearts, but too often we delay acting on them.  Just like God put in Noah's heart to build that boat, he put those desires in our heart.  Don't argue with yourself or allow yourself to delay in getting started.  You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.  It's not what you got, it's what you do with what you got.  A person that can read is no better off than a person that can't if they never read anything.  We all need someone to hold us accountable and inspire us.  We also have to learn to push ourselves.  We have to take that first step even when what's ahead is scary or uncertain.  Motivating yourself to do something that scares you is incredibly hard, but you can do it if you have two things.  Belief in yourself and knowing that the consequences of what you're doing is worth it.  Remember to always be careful what you say to yourself because someone very important is always listening.  Be a self-starter even when you don't know how to do something.  Don't be paralyzed by analysis or doubts.  Start it.  Be a person of action.  Helen Keller once said, “what I am looking for is not out there it is inside of me”.  It's inside of all of us.  Go do something with it.  Do it now.  The biggest disaster in life would be never achieving your dreams because we never took that first step.  I want to go off script for a minute.  I lost both my parents at a way too early age, but I know if they could come back and tell me anything they would say never delay in chasing your dreams because we don't know what tomorrow holds.  This is why I'm so passionate and sincerely asking you from the bottom of my heart to go after whatever is in your heart.  Don't wait another minute.  When you wake up in the morning, write down what you can do that day to take a step toward whatever your goal is, then hold yourself accountable and take that step.  I promise you that no matter what it is or as scary as it may be, once you take that first step, you will be so happy you did.  Remember that old Sunday school song we used to sing, “this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine”, well a candle can't even begin to serve its purpose if we don't light the wick.  Strike the match, light your candle, and not only will you see better, but you'll be a light to others.  Never use the excuse that you don't have enough time.  That's bull feathers.  We all have the same amount of time.  Be honest with yourself.  I hear people say that all the time, but then I know they sit in front of the television for three to four hours every night.  Nothing is more important than fulfilling the purpose that God put in our hearts.  Just like all of dad's simple little sayings, it's truly a very important principle for success and for life.  I encourage you to take that first step this very moment.  Don't delay anymore.  You'll never be any younger than you are today.  God gave us all dreams and abilities, but he also gave us deadlines.  Don't delay any longer and I'll shut up so you can get to it.  Always remember you can never laugh too hard, dance too long, sing too loud or love too much.  With that, we conclude another episode.  I hope you found some value in it or at the very least found it entertaining.  Thank you so much for listening.