Success Principle: the 212 Degrees Attitude
Success Principle: the 212 Degrees Attitude
Have you ever boiled water for tea or soup? Do you put the tea kettle or pot on the stove and walk away, or do you stand by the stove to wait for the water to boil? If you have ever stood there and wait (that's usually when you need the water in a hurry), you probably felt like it was taking forever for the water to boil.
You watch for the slightest sign that the water is getting close to boiling. But, the more anxious you are, the slower the process seems to be. Nothing seems to change until the water reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit, which is water's boiling point.
Nothing seems to happen until the temperature turns from 211 to 212 degrees.
That one extra degree makes all the difference.
Imagine if you become impatient and give up before the water reaches its boiling point, what would happen to your water? If you have turned off the stove, thinking that you have wasted your time and effort, and that the water will never boil, what would have happened then?
Working toward a goal in life is much like boiling water on the stove. Far too often, we either did not give our 100%, or we give up way too early, for various reasons. Maybe your self-doubt got the better of you, maybe you became impatient, maybe you had fears of failure or success, or maybe you lost faith in your Higher Power, your ability, vision, or dreams. It's like a football team quitting on the one yard line, instead of going all the way for that winning touchdown. If you did not make enough efforts to make it happen, or if you give up too early, you would have really wasted all your time and effort without return.
Training in martial arts also taught me the importance of mental toughness, perseverance and following through. Lack of self-confidence, half-hearted efforts and fear of pain sometimes would literally bring you more pain. When you are breaking boards, or sparring, or competing in tournaments, there is no room for self-doubt or fear. No matter how much you practice or how good you are, if you don't believe you can win, you have already lost before you even begin. Anyone who knows how to break boards would tell you that you don't aim at the boards you want to break. You must aim at a few inches behind the boards, and make sure your strike goes all the way through the boards. Second-guessing yourself, stopping short before reaching the boards, or stopping your strike at the surface of the boards would not only result in failure to break them, it often causes more pain or even injury to your hand or foot. Believe me, I've learned my lessons the hard way, and now I know better.
"Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown." -- H. Ross Perot
So, what would you rather do? Go that extra mile and give it your all? Or, give a half-hearted performance and wonder what could have been?
Sometimes we need to take a leap of faith and believe that our dreams will come true. To get what we've never had in life, we must do what we've never done before. That extra one degree of effort could make a world of difference for you. Watch this movie 212 Degrees, and think about it.
It's your life, your choice.
Success Principle the 212 Degrees Attitude - To learn more about this author, visit Hueina Su's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
© copyright 2007 Hueina Su, MS, BSN, CEC
Have you ever boiled water for tea or soup? Do you put the tea kettle or pot on the stove and walk away, or do you stand by the stove to wait for the water to boil? If you have ever stood there and wait (that's usually when you need the water in a hurry), you probably felt like it was taking forever for the water to boil.
You watch for the slightest sign that the water is getting close to boiling. But, the more anxious you are, the slower the process seems to be. Nothing seems to change until the water reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit, which is water's boiling point.
Nothing seems to happen until the temperature turns from 211 to 212 degrees.
That one extra degree makes all the difference.
Imagine if you become impatient and give up before the water reaches its boiling point, what would happen to your water? If you have turned off the stove, thinking that you have wasted your time and effort, and that the water will never boil, what would have happened then?
Working toward a goal in life is much like boiling water on the stove. Far too often, we either did not give our 100%, or we give up way too early, for various reasons. Maybe your self-doubt got the better of you, maybe you became impatient, maybe you had fears of failure or success, or maybe you lost faith in your Higher Power, your ability, vision, or dreams. It's like a football team quitting on the one yard line, instead of going all the way for that winning touchdown. If you did not make enough efforts to make it happen, or if you give up too early, you would have really wasted all your time and effort without return.
Training in martial arts also taught me the importance of mental toughness, perseverance and following through. Lack of self-confidence, half-hearted efforts and fear of pain sometimes would literally bring you more pain. When you are breaking boards, or sparring, or competing in tournaments, there is no room for self-doubt or fear. No matter how much you practice or how good you are, if you don't believe you can win, you have already lost before you even begin. Anyone who knows how to break boards would tell you that you don't aim at the boards you want to break. You must aim at a few inches behind the boards, and make sure your strike goes all the way through the boards. Second-guessing yourself, stopping short before reaching the boards, or stopping your strike at the surface of the boards would not only result in failure to break them, it often causes more pain or even injury to your hand or foot. Believe me, I've learned my lessons the hard way, and now I know better.
"Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown." -- H. Ross Perot
So, what would you rather do? Go that extra mile and give it your all? Or, give a half-hearted performance and wonder what could have been?
Sometimes we need to take a leap of faith and believe that our dreams will come true. To get what we've never had in life, we must do what we've never done before. That extra one degree of effort could make a world of difference for you. Watch this movie 212 Degrees, and think about it.
It's your life, your choice.
Success Principle the 212 Degrees Attitude - To learn more about this author, visit Hueina Su's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Hueina's articles
 |
|
Intensive Care for the Nurturer's Soul - This blog contains articles, insights, tips and tools for women nurturers to practice Intensive Self-Care, manage stress, prevent/overcome Nurturing Burnout, and achieve Work/Life Balance.
|
|
 |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Learn From Success Emotions Drive Behavior The Flowing Point EQ Coaching Report Your Life Your Legacy |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Blogs For Startups
Top Blogs To Watch In 2008 | |
 |
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009
Top 50 HR Blogs 2009 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||