How You View What You Do
Recently I’ve been learning more about the inspirational message and story of Inky Johnson. As a kid Inky grew up sleeping on the floor in a rough neighborhood and difficult circumstances. He earned his way to play college football and had his eyes set on a career in the NFL, but experienced a career ending injury that his right arm and hand paralyzed.
He embraced this life change, found a new dream and purpose, and has become one of the most inspiring keynote speakers in the world. I share all of this to provide context around one of his core philosophies. Inky says “How you view what you do is how you do what you do.”
You are always in control of the story that is told. You are always in control of the end-result for anything that happens to you. And that’s because you get to decide the meaning you take from experiences, the way you perceive the things around you, to shape your personal reality. This is evidenced in the formula E + R = O. Event (or what happened) + Response (or how you interpret the event) = Outcome. The story and power of choice we have lives in the response.
How you view what you do is how you do what you do. Your thoughts and perspective lead to action. There is no separation between the two. The more empowering thoughts you have, the more empowering actions you take. The more dismissive thoughts you have, the more dismissive actions you take.
The opportunity then becomes, how can you be more present and intentional about the thoughts that make up your response? I believe that you must intentionally build it in as a core process or routine. During my night routine, I journal on a series of questions to help me shape my perspective. I call it my Failure Roll Call. I ask myself, “How did I fail today?” I write a few examples down. Then after I ask myself “What did I learn from my failure?”
This helps me to view my shortcomings as learning opportunities, which helps me to take inspired action. I’m controlling my response to the event and have a practice in place that helps me see the opportunity and learnings in the failure instead of the discouragement. How you view what you do is how you do what you do.
I’m in this becoming my best self just like you. If you want direct access to my own personal practices and systems so that you can quickly reach the next level in your own development, I’d love to tell you about the 3 step process I use that helps me implement new positive habits overnight, shape my mindset, and achieve a fulfilling life balance with strong relationships, inspiring accomplishments, and energizing health. Want to tell chat about how it can do the same for you?
