Cart is empty 
Spud, Inc. has some new Mantras
I going to be honest with you, my training sucks. Like everyone, I have been overwhelmed with work, the holidays, the flu and whatever else I can use as an excuse. I haven’t really wanted to write a blog because I didn’t have anything to pass along. I assume everyone reading this already knows how to do walking lunges, kettlebell squats, dumbbell presses and shit like that. And, I am fairly certain that everyone has either walked or run on a treadmill at one point, so I can’t even teach anything about my boring cardio.
And yet, lovely Lindsey, our Social Media Guru is on me to start back up writing my blog. She has forced me to evaluate what I do have to offer that may be outside the realm of training and I have come up with some stuff. This year’s blog is going to be less focused on my training and more focused on what I am learning and doing. This is a year of big changes: we are creating a whole new paradigm at Spud, Inc., I am enrolled in Seth Godin’s altMBA program which will kick my butt all of February, I am starting down the road of intermittent fasting, I am listening to some fantastic podcasts AND I am reading a ton of good books.
That is what I am going to bring to you, and I hope you find it useful or entertaining or at least not boring.
I want to start off with the Mantra’s that the Spud, Inc. staff has embraced for 2019. We have them hanging on our wall to be a reminder of the changes we are challenging ourselves to make this year.
Mantra #1: “No Time? Re-evaluate Your Process”
We have all, at one time or another, used the excuse “I didn’t have time”. Maybe you really didn’t have time. Or, maybe you didn’t have time because you didn’t manage your time well. Maybe you didn’t have time because you just had to finish your video game, or Netflix series or something else that could have waited. I don’t know, but I found that this excuse was being used often at Spud, Inc. This mantra is to remind everyone that in an 8 hour day, you really do have time if you stop to take the time to strategize. And, when faced with a true crisis of time you just need to step back and re-evaluate, usually that is when you are able to see a way aroundyour time crunch.
Mantra #2: “I can’t because….”
This is no mantra at all. It is pretty much what our collective mantra was in 2018. “I can’t do that because” stops the conversation and is a good way to stop growth and change. Let me throw some roadblocks in the way and maybe you won’t make me do the thing that I don’t want to do. This is our anti-mantra which leads into the true mantra.
Mantra #3: “I can if….”
This is how I hope to re-start communication efforts and revitalize the way we see situations. Unlike “I can’t because” which is the death of a conversation, “I can if” opens up a wealth of new possibilities that can be explored. Drawing all three together “I can’t because I don’t have enough time” will hopefully become “I can if I only check emails for an hour a day” or “I can if I learn to ask the right questions” etc. “I can if” statements also usually lead to other similar statements. “I can have more time in my day if I only check emails once a day” leads to “I can get away with checking emails once a day if I communicate clearly in each email what a solution to the problem is and what the next steps are for the customer”
This last Mantra hasn’t made it up on the board yet….but it will.
Mantra #4: “Assume positive intent”
I stole this from a Tim Ferris podcast. He likes to ask the people he interviews this question: “If you could put one message up on a billboard for all the world to see what would it say”. One of his guests gave this phrase as his answer and I LOVE it. It is so much easier to assume we are being screwed, or that some one is trying to get over on us than to assume that people are coming from a place of positive intent. If you start off every interaction with the assumption that the other person is coming at you from a positive place then things just end up much better. I love this sentiment.
Over time I hope to fill up our entire wall with Mantras. Loads of good advice that we all need and that can keep us in a happy place.
Do you have any Mantras that shape your life? Or, perhaps you made a resolution for the New Year that you would like to share? I would love to hear what words or phrases you are focusing on in 2019.
— end the article —
For more detail about us (Spud-Inc-Straps). Please feel free to call us 803-788-2852 or to message us visiting our Contact page and you can visit our Facebook page.