IN THE COMMON VERNACULAR, a power move or power play is something that gets done to you.
The person with power demands an accommodation, or switches the venue, or has an assistant call you instead of calling you himself.
Someone with a resource who makes you jump a little higher before he shares it…
Little diva-like gestures meant to send a message and to reinforce who has the upper hand.
What about moves that are rooted in integrity, or courage, or selflessness?
Those type of moves take real power, real character, real leadership…and doing the right thing is the ultimate power move.
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
Success requires those who seek it to develop an enormous threshold for discomfort and inconvenience because of the many hard choices and sacrifices involved.
This truth applies to every definition of success; it applies to everyone and to every endeavor. In short, to be successful, you must get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Inconvenience and discomfort are part of the foundational building blocks of achievement.
Every person who has ever been legitimately successful has nurtured the habit of doing the right things…the things that others don’t like, or don’t have the character or moral compass to do.
Unfortunately, society has placed such a high premium on convenience, entitlement, expediency and risk avoidance that it has enabled weakness, while also creating an inability for many to perform at peak levels.
The acceptance of inconvenience and discomfort explains why people with every apparent qualification for success become disappointing failures, while others achieve outstanding success in spite of many obvious and discouraging handicaps.
In other words, we’ve got to realize right from the start that success requires an unconventional approach, and a much different philosophical view.
True success is something that only a minority of people manages to attain. It is unnatural, and it’s not realized by following our natural likes and dislikes. Nor is it guided by our natural preferences and prejudices.
We have to accept that becoming uncomfortable is not a nuisance, but rather a necessity to growth, excellence, and success.
While the list of things by which most people don’t want to be inconvenienced is much too long to entertain, saying that they all emanate from a willingness to embrace easy, convenient, risk avoiding, short-term solutions to just about any situation can dispose of them all.
It’s sad. It’s pathetic. It’s the truth…and it’s bizarre…as we always, instinctively know the right thing to do.
Confucius was absolutely right when he said over 2000 years ago…”To see what is right and not to do is cowardice.”
That’s why perhaps the greatest challenge you will ever face in your lifetime is to choose to do the right thing even when it’s risky, inconvenient and uncomfortable.
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