Skip to main content

Check Your Fuel



How often do you check your fuel? Well, when it comes to your vehicle, you probably have a reminder right there on your dash showing where your fuel level sits. At the gas station, you have choices for several different grades of gasoline, all methodically tested to perform at different levels of efficiency.  The higher the octane level, the higher performance the fuel is capable of producing. Some vehicles will run fine at 85 octane gasoline, but a Ferrari requires 93 or even higher. The more performance desired, the higher quality of fuel required.

Checking your car’s fuel is convenient and straightforward, but how often do you check the fuel for your life? Your body requires fuel to perform and junk food fuel will produce garbage performance. Your mind also needs to be fed, and sludgy, toxic fuel will produce destructive tendencies in your thought patterns and perspectives.

You can’t expect great results with mediocre fuel. If you desire excellence as an outcome, your life will require superior fuel. And just as outcomes are tied to inputs, a half-hearted effort is like mixing water with your gas. Things aren’t going to run well and the consequences will be costly. You can’t really be too upset with what is coming out of your life if you were never careful about what was going into it.

Your life will reflect the quality of the fuel you’ve provided it. After all, it’s exactly what got you to where you are right now. So the question is: Are you feeding your life with the right fuel to get you where you say you want to go?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Toxic Humility

We have all seen false humility: the guy who tries to hide his arrogance with feigned modesty. It’s usually pretty obvious and always obnoxious. But there is also another variation of false humility out there: toxic humility. This is often displayed in self-deprecating talk and a lack of self-confidence, belittling or undermining one’s own talents and abilities. The danger in this kind of behavior is twofold: it is too often accepted as true humility and like a virus, it spreads doubt and disbelief. To clarify, it is not that the bearer of this toxic humility isn’t honest about his view of himself. That is the very issue: he absolutely believes he has little value or utility. He thinks downplaying his own worth is humility but I disagree. CS Lewis said it best when he wrote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less.” His point being, true humility is not an ever-present raincloud of self-doubt that follows you around. It’s a focus on

Glutton for Punishment

I’ve learned over the years that being comfortable can be a dangerous thing. I try to find paths to discomfort to push me out of my realm of “safety.” However, I have noticed my ability to develop comfort zones amidst discomfort. I’ve found ways to be comfortable in uncomfortable circumstances. I wonder, do I need to be stretched beyond those areas as well? One of the areas in which I have adapted to the discomfort is the gym. I don’t go to the gym to exercise, to get stronger or even to be healthier. It’s grown beyond that. Now, I go to the gym to clear my head by testing my will and resolve. I do it to see how hard I can push my limits and I strive to outwork everyone else there. I may not be the strongest, the fastest or the fittest. I may not lift the most weight or even do the most reps – I can’t control any of those variables – but I can control my effort. So one of my goals for each workout is to unleash more effort than anyone else at the gym. But along with this

Commitment

  You know what the problem is with a lot of goals and grand plans? They are mostly fueled by emotion rather than commitment. It is why most New Year’s Resolutions are long forgotten by now and many aspirations quietly fizzle out over time. True commitment is sticking with the effort even – if and especially when – the emotion has diminished or disappeared. Emotion can be a great initiator of action, like kindling on a fire, but it lacks staying power. Commitment is the logs that keep the fire burning long after the kindling is consumed. The butterflies after falling in love, the best intentions of waking up at 4:30am every day to work out after you join a new gym, the excitement of your first day on campus, even the sleep-deprivation induced euphoria of a new baby: all kindling. But it is commitment that keeps you working hard on the marriage twenty-three years after “I do.” It is what causes you to keep going when you do not want to make one more sales call, do one more presentat