Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

Tonight, my wife made a statement that I found rather thought provoking.  She said in an unusually melancholy voice…”I keep waiting for the point in life when things get easy.”

My immediate response was that I didn’t think we were at the point in our lives where we wanted easy. She wasn’t in the mood to entertain my response and left the room before I had a chance to expound.

What I was trying to say, however, is that if someone wants an easy life they could have it by simply accepting their current circumstances as is.  They could just be satisfied with life as they know it.  They could avoid change at all cost, and live life without ever rocking the boat.

You see, my wife and I are entrepreneurs and just like 99.9% of all entrepreneurs, we’re the total opposite of this.

Entrepreneurs think life as we know it isn’t all it can be. Entrepreneurs are ambitious. Entrepreneurs crave change. Entrepreneurs yearn to rock the boat.

Entrepreneurs just don’t do easy. 

Easy may sound good.  It may even smell and taste good too, but easy sure doesn’t feel good to me.

I don’t know if I’m looking forward to the point in life when things get easy.  That may mean I’m almost dead.  What do you think?

Today, I’m trying a new way to beat stress.

In the past, I’ve tried a simple to-do list to help me gain control of stress. However, to-do lists seem to exacerbate the stress.  Seeing a long list of stuff to do just doesn’t help me.

As an alternative, instead of keeping a to-do list, I’m now keeping a “to-relax” list. The “to-relax” list is a list of outcomes that will relax me.  For example, if I’m stressed out about doing a specific task, I will write that down.  Next, I will write down the best case scenario to remove the stress and allow me to relax.

I tried this today and it worked great as a stress reducer.  The main reason why is because once I wrote down the best case scenario, it became obvious on what I needed to do to trigger this scenario. Once I did that, I relaxed.

What do you think? What do you do to reduce stress?

The 4th quarter is all that matters in football.  From my perspective, the other 3 quarters of football just don’t mean anything. There are three reasons for this:

1. Above all else, I just don’t have time anymore to waste my entire Sunday watching a bunch of people I don’t know live their dream
2. If I wait until the 4th quarter, I can decide if the game is worth watching, then catch the highlights of the early part of the game and watch the most exciting part of the game live.
3. In a close game, the 4th quarter is all that matters

This is the first season I started taking this approach to watching football and I couldn’t be more happy with the results.  I spend more time with my two boys on the weekend, so they are happier.  I spend more time with my wife, so of course we are a happier couple, and in the process I think I’ve discovered a valuable lesson about life.

In life, there are hundreds of options for spending your time.  Each of these options fall in 1 of 3 categories:

Category 1 –  The things you enjoy that don’t produce a lick of value in your life other than a few hours of pleasure

Category 2 –  Things that you don’t enjoy that produce a tremendous amount of value in your life and those of others

Category 3 –   The sweet spot that combines the two, enjoyment and value.

I’ve learned that watching Football is in category 1.  Instead of eliminating category 1 activities, I am finding a way to discover the equivalent of that activities 4th quarter.  Instead of avoiding category 2 activities, I try to schedule these activities right before I start a category 1 activity. That way, I am giving myself a carrot.

As for category 3, it’s all about recognition. Recognizing that an activity is in this category and maximizing how often I spend my time with these activities.  I’ve found that writing, running, family outings, and taking my two sons to wrestling practice fall into category 3.

Up until recently I spent way too much time in category 1 and too little time in category 3.  Now that I am aware of this, I’ve flipped the script.