Be it, Do it, Have it...

My journey to start blogging was a long one.   I came up with a number of excuses to not move forward; e.g. I'm not a journalist.  Would I provide any value?  What should I name it?  What would others think?   I just don't have the time.   You name it, and I probably came up with an excuse.

I talked to a few people who I respected, and the message was almost always the same.   Just do it.  Go ahead and get started.   Inevitably they would ask me what's stopping me, and I really did not have a good answer.  After some self-evaluation, I knew there were two things that I had done to myself to create drama around this for myself.  The first being I made a story out of the situation without truly just evaluating the facts, and secondly I found that I had conveniently created myself a set of excuses utilizing the Have It, Do It, Be It way of thinking versus the Be It, Do It, Have It way of thinking (taught by Cy Wakeman).   I'm planning to write more on the story telling portion that we all do to create unnecessary heartburn for ourselves in a future post, but for now let's focus on the Be It, Do It, Have It way of thinking that we should all try to achieve.

I have always set forth different goals and objectives for my career, and in doing so one of them was to find an avenue to share what I've learned about leadership with others.   I wasn't sure what direction to go, but blogging came to mind as a potentially great fit for what I wanted to do. It not only seemed simple to implement, but I actually have a cousin who has a highly successful cooking blog in Europe and watching that grow in itself has been inspirational.   (My cousin is a successful journalist and great photographer in her own right, and she took her combined passions into a blog which has landed her commercials, sponsorships, and even opportunities to meet celebrities like master chef Gordon Ramsay.)

I was pumped and ready to go, but rather than just starting, I started to focus on the Have It way of thinking, and I immediately started to get in trouble.  I started to convince myself to be a successful blogger I needed to HAVE get a good office so I'd have somewhere to focus to write and be left alone.   I needed to HAVE a catchy name for my blog otherwise it wouldn't get noticed, and I had to make sure the domain name was available.   I convinced myself that to really be successful I needed to HAVE a full social media presence, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, ect...  I had it in my head if I could put all these things in place and start actively utilizing them on a daily basis (Do It), that I would become a successful blogger and educator helping me achieve my goals (Be It).   I was wrong, and really at the end of the day, I needed to change my mindset.

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds, cannot change anything."

- George Bernard Shaw

In reality, you don't become something by Having It first.   How many running backs in the NFL do you think got there because they bought great shoes?   How many journalists won a Pulitzer prize because they paid great money for a computer or bought an expensive pen?   None.   To be a great running back, you need to practice your running and your movements in and out of tight situations.  To be a great journalist you need to practice your writing and your research capabilities.   You need to Be It first.  The journey starts at Be It, have confidence in yourself and your skills, and jump right in.  Know that you may fail, but get up and just try again as Theodore Roosevelt indicates in this great quote.  At its essence, it signifies that it is better to have tried to succeed than to not try at all.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

- Theodore Roosevelt 

Knowing my cousin, she would have told me, "who cares what others think, just go out there and do it for yourself; otherwise, it's not worth it."   I'm going to have some blogs that are great and that I'm really proud of, but at the same time I'm going to have some blogs that probably could have seen better days.   But at least I'm trying.  I'm going to do my best to be a blogger and an educator (Be It), I'm going to look for other avenues and opportunities to continue to refine my skills (Do It), and then maybe I'll worry about getting that office, domain name, or Facebook account (Have It).    

Work on changing your mindset.   Catch yourself in the Have It, Do It, Be It mentality.  It's not easy to catch, and honestly not easy to change, but if you are at least conscious that the way of thinking exists you are better off for trying to right the ship and flip it around.    Make yourself "Be It" first, "Do It" second, and worry about "Have It" later, and hopefully your changed mindset will also get you closer to your goals.