Matt S. Law Studios

Tag: blog

  • The Greatest Nation is Imagination

    The Greatest Nation is Imagination

    Have you ever seen someone fail badly when attempting something new? Whether it’s a skateboard maneuver or public speaking or trying to de-claw a cat? After they fall, stammer, or get sliced, did they say, “I knew that was going to happen…”?

    If you knew it was going to happen, why didn’t you do it a different way?

    They didn’t know they were going to fail. They imagined that they would fail, which increased their chance that they would fail.

    “Creative visualization” is a tool used by professional athletes and many successful leaders and experts. It is essentially imagining yourself succeeding at a task. Golfers paint a vivid picture in their mind of making a successful putt or drive before they step up to the ball. Basketball players imagine the ball swooshing through the hoop before they take the foul shot.

    There has been tons of research and many books on this subject, but suffice it to say, that your autonomic nervous system cannot tell the difference between you physically performing an action and you carefully imagining performing that same action. It’s “virtual practice.”

    So by visualizing yourself succeeding at the task before you attempt it, you increase your chance at succeeding. After all, you’ve already done it once before, right? But by worrying, by holding a failure picture in your mind before you execute, you are practically begging to fail.

    Because he was worried about falling, the skateboarder wiped out. And because she was worried about being embarrassed, the speaker blew her presentation. And let’s face it, your cat can smell your fear.

    Imagination is a powerful tool. But if you are not using it to help you, you are probably using it against you.

    I always talk about spending 15 minutes a day performing some activity that will move you towards your goals in life. Maybe right now, you don’t have a job or business vehicle to take you where you want to go. But you can spend 15 minutes dreaming. Creatively visualize. Paint a crystal clear picture of the life you want to live and the person you want to be. Write it down, imagine it, envision it. It will help prepare your mind for success and enable you to take advantage of the next opportunity that you come across.

    Am I advocating daydreaming as a course of action? Yep. It will help you a whole lot more than worrying about not being able to pay your bills.

    “Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” George Bernard Shaw

  • Urgent Murders Important

    Urgent Murders Important

    Urgent (adj) compelling or requiring immediate action or attention.
    Important (adj) of great significance or consequence.

    The most important concept that should be taught to young leaders, corporate execs, and anybody that wants to accomplish anything of significance in their lives is to finish tasks in the order of their importance. The problem is that many people confuse the urgent with the important.

    Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

    Urgent things demand our attention immediately, but they may not be important in the overall scheme of our lives. That’s why the really important things, the things that will add value to our lives over the long term can get put off indefinitely; because they are not screaming for our attention.

    When making your to-do list, prioritize your tasks according to this standard:

    1. Urgent and important
    2. Non-urgent but important
    3. Urgent and non-important
    4. Non-urgent and non-important

    Completing your urgent and important tasks first is a no-brainer.

    The hardest thing, will be deciding whether to handle the number 2 or the number 3 items first. When something urgent comes hurtling towards you, arms flailing, it will command you to take care of it right now Now NOW! It takes discipline, but before addressing this incredibly urgent and demanding task, ask yourself “is this important?” A question I ask myself is “will this matter five years from now?

    If this urgent task that requires your immediate attention is something that can be delegated, rescheduled, or even ignored without causing you long-term harm, then ditch it. Take care of what’s important first.

    Then the things that are neither urgent nor important, you work on those when you have absolutely nothing else to do. Watching television goes in that category.

    What are some urgent tasks that seem to always pop up in your life?

  • Be The Leader Of Your Own Pack

    Be The Leader Of Your Own Pack

    Leaders are expected to be examples not exceptions. I would rather watch a sermon than listen to a sermon any day. I don’t think that I am unusual, in that I have zero respect for someone that says one thing, but does the opposite.

    How often have you heard about people in so-called positions of leadership that don’t think that they have to obey the same rules or laws that the rest of us serfs and peasants need to live by? How much do you respect them?

    I know right off the top of your head you may immediately think of wealthy businessmen, politicians, professional athletes and entertainment celebrities. Those that are above the law. The “American Royalty” as it were.

    But how about you? You are a leader even if you’re not a CEO, an actor, or a relief pitcher. Do your words match your actions around your children?

    We tell them to clean their rooms when our home office is a mess. We tell them to be honest, then they hear us tell a little white lie to someone on the phone. We tell our children we love them more than anything else in the world, then yell at them to be quiet when we are watching television.

    “Leadership is influence, no more no less” – John C. Maxwell. You are the number one influence on your own children. So make sure that your words match your actions. In the little things, not just the big things. And in front of the little people, not just the big shots.

    If we mess up, if we forfeit our credibility with our children, and lose our place as the main leader and influence in their lives; Then who will they end up following? Probably someone in that American Royalty category that you were blaming a few paragraphs back.

    Would you want a rock star to take your place as the main influence in your child’s life?