Are you burning or burned out?

They came in chattering and bubbling; a young boy and girl – brother and sister – at Bonnie’s on Aspen Mountain. Like me, they, their Dad and instructor had stopped in for breakfast before spring skiing. As they threw down their gloves, helmets and coats on the table, the little girl rushed over to the window, looked outside and exclaimed with all the drama of an Academy Award winning actress, “I want one of those icicles… badly!”

I had to laugh. I said to her, “Remember this when you’re older, and you wonder what to do for a career. Remember I told you to go into sales, because you are an absolute natural!”

Right then, her brother piped up and said “And I want the biggest one!” I told their Dad, “We could take these two and go do a sales training seminar right now.”

Without thinking, they hit on the two things you need to win.
Those two are a burning desire to do or get something…. and to do or get something Big! The trouble with kids is that their desires can be short term. In this case, moments later, they were rushing into the other room racing to see who would get the biggest pancake first. They had forgotten about the icicles, even the big one.

Most adults too often are the opposite.
They’ve given up on doing anything really big in their lives, beaten down and discouraged the real world. But one thing they do have is consistency. They keep doing the same things over and over, year after year. They are dependable because they don’t want to lose their job and they need the income.

Winners have the best features of kids and adults.
They are motivated to do big things as fast as possible and they have a laser focus. They don’t vary. They lock in on their goal and move forward as fast as possible until they get there. You need dependability and relentlessness, but they need to be combined with child-like enthusiasm. That way you can not only get and stay excited but you can assemble a team who is motivated the same way. Many adults are stalled out, bored and yearning to get involved in something stimulating. If they’re serious they should spend some time around kids and see how excited they get about things and how they throw themselves into their passions.

All many adults need is the enthusiasm of a child to set themselves on fire and free themselves up to do really great things.