Monday Muster: Do the Things You Don’t Want To Do

This week we talk about how we should do things we don’t want to do.

Last weekend I attended a golf retreat with a friend. I love golf but I am a marginal golfer at best. And the golfers at this retreat were phenomenal – like birdie, birdie, par phenomenal.

And it was a competition and they were all as competitive as am I.

So, what did I do with my marginal golf skills up against these great golfers? I tried to will myself to play better golf. But with every swing and micro adjustment, I continued to get worse and worse.

It is tough to be good when you are totally stressed out and not relaxed. We played three days of golf and it was ABSOLUTELY the worst golf I have ever played. At every hole I wanted to quit and walk off the golf course. With every swing, I wanted to break my clubs.

It was a ferocious test of my emotional and mental leadership.

Because you see, doing things you don’t want to do builds mental and emotional leadership. Because when the rage is reaching its boiling point, you must relax, take a breath and drive forward.

When I wanted to kill the other people around me hitting great shots, I had to pause, take a breath and say, “John, Great shot man. Nice Birdie!”

You see, nothing builds an Overcome mindset more than doing the things you don’t want to do or that you are not good at. Pushing through the discomfort and the rage builds emotional leadership.

In this life, we will always have to do things that we don’t want to do or we don’t like. It takes emotional leadership to push through and stay positive.

3 Benefits of Doing Something You Don’t Want to Do

And doing things we don’t like to do, or doing things we want to quit doing, does three key things:

Number 1 – It builds an Overcome Mindset. When you are forcing yourself to drive forward despite your desire to quit, that builds resilience. Pushing forward despite that voice that tells you, You don’t belong here (a.k.a. Imposter Syndrome). Riding it out builds an Overcome Mindset that makes you more resilient to tackle future adversity.

Number 2 – Doing things we don’t want to do builds Emotional and Mental Leadership. You want to quit but you don’t. That is Mental Leadership. It is uncomfortable to do things we don’t want to do or we are bad at doing. And doing things we are bad at, surrounded by others who are good at them, builds Emotional Leadership. Despite your desire to scream (which I definitely felt!), you must manage your emotions and stay civil.

Number 3 – Doing things you don’t want to do or doing things you are not good at, hopefully, forces you to want to become better. And wanting to become better usually forces you to figure out, how do I do that? This leads to self awareness and moves us towards decision points; Is this a waste of time? or, Do you commit to get better? And that leads us to create a plan on how to get better, which leads to goal setting and execution.

So what’s the moral of this story?

Keep doing those things you don’t like or are not good at doing. I guarantee it will make you better.