Personal Change is the Pursuit of Perfection
“We should always pursue perfection, we just might reach excellence” – Vince Lombardi
Let’s talk about a simple process that we can use to make changes to our lives. This process works in any part of life where repetition leads to success, such as learning to play the piano or learning to speak Spanish. Anyone familiar with feed-back loops will recognize those as the foundation of the Rocks to Diamonds Cycle.
- Rocks represent people in their raw state, before they’ve discovered and developed their gifts.
- Diamonds represent people after they’ve discovered and developed these gifts.
Here are the 4 steps in the Rocks to Diamonds Cycle:
Step 1: Rocks represent our potential in life. Every single one of us has lots of potential that we don’t use. Our bodies could perform at a much higher level than they do now. Most of us are not using our brain capacity, and we are not engaging our Spirit nearly as much as we could.
Step 2: Effort is the action we take to use our potential to accomplish the task at hand. We apply our body, mind, and Spirit as well as we can at that point in our lives. We choose how much effort we exert each day. Since it is our choice, why not choose to give it our all?
Step 3: Result is the outcome of the effort we applied to our potential. We might think that the more effort we apply, the better the result we would obtain. However, both the quantity and the quality of the effort determine the outcome.
Step 4: Belief refers to what we believe about ourselves and about our abilities. At step 2, we begin to believe in the result we’ll get from step 3. After step 3 is complete, one of three things will happen: our belief in our ability to obtain the desired outcome will increase, decrease, or stay the same.
Repeat Step 1: We go back to Rocks, our potential. Now that we’ve had experience from going through the previous loop, we can change our performance. If our first run through the lop was successful, our belief in our ability to obtain the desired outcome is now greater, and we will apply that new belief to our potential. Our potential hasn’t changed but we now believe that we have more potential than before. When we complete another loop, we should see greater results than the previous time.
Repeat Step 2: We will put forth better effort this time because now we are more confident that we will have success in our endeavors. Remember, since success breeds success, we need to challenge ourselves. However, failure breeds failure, so if we had a bad result the first time, we will have to put forth more and better effort this time.
Repeat Step 3: The result will probably be better than before: we’re improving. This improvement may be only incremental, but as we complete the cycle more times, the increments add up to a significant improvement. Never give up!
Repeat Step 4: Our belief in ourselves will increase further as we see improvement. The ideal outcome is that our belief turns into certainty. Then we will be performing at the highest level and we will truly be “diamonds”.
We can continue through the loop as many times as we want or need to. Hopefully, we get better every time we cycle through. Truly there is not limit to our success.
This is an excerpt from my book Attitude Determines Destiny. In it you will learn how to get the most out of life by changing your attitude and making personal changes…changes that can lead you down a life-long path of personal growth.
As a motivational speaker, I conduct seminars and workshops based upon the ideas in my book. I will entertain and inspire your audiences, and I can customize my topics to fit your needs and desires.
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