Randy Cantrell

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We’re all wired differently, but we share some common wires. Every wiring harness I’ve ever seen – in electronics, cars, light switches or anything else – has a red wire and a black wire. Red is power. Black is a ground. It’s universally true. I’m not terribly sophisticated so my wiring harness likely has fewer wires than yours, but I’ll bet you we’ve both got a red wire and a black wire.

Doubt, fear, procrastination. These are common wires shared by everybody.

There are switches in our brain connected by these wires. When these switches get flipped, BAM! On comes the RED LIGHT. The tires on our life and our business squeal and smoke as we come to a screeching halt.

There’s a signal light a few blocks from the church building where we worship. (Yeah, we always call them “stop lights,” don’t we? We never give people directions by telling them to go to the third green light or go light.) At any rate, a few weeks ago this light started staying RED a lot longer than it used to. I first thought it was hung. Traffic kept backing up behind me. We waited. We waited some more. No cars were coming from our left. No cars were coming from our right. Frustrated, I was ready to run through the intersection, but the green light appeared.

Sometimes in our lives – and in our businesses – we get stuck on a red light. We remain stopped until it turns green, growing more impatient. We seem to hit one red light after another. No sooner do we get a green light, accelerate up to full speed…until we hit another red light. One red light after another. It’s like all the lights have synchronized in a conspiracy to stall our momentum.

The majority of today’s show is a discussion of three “drop dead, stupid simple” things that I think can help me – and YOU – move forward by giving us a GREEN LIGHT. I’ll end the show addressing that last special episode about the future of this blog, podcast and the videos. Chime in and tell me what you think.

Thank you for listening. Won’t you drop by Apple iTunes and leave me a comment about the show? I wish you would. Or you can leave me some audio feedback at (214) 736-4406. I’d love to hear what you think.

Mentioned in today’s show:

• 2010/2011 NBA Champion – Dallas Mavericks
• 2010/2011 NHL Stanley Cup Champion – Boston Bruins
• Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner
• Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

We all do it. We look at our station in life and dream of being where the rich folks are. Look at their house, their cars and their lifestyle. Man, wouldn’t it be great if we could live like them?

Meanwhile, there are scores of people who look at our life and think similar things. We don’t pay much attention to them though. They’re not where we are and we don’t want to go backward. I mean, who wants to be poorer?

Falsely, we assume that by looking in one direction we can go in that direction. It seems right. Even logical.

What if we’re looking in the wrong direction? What if we’ve got it all wrong?

Success is hard. Failure, though, is far more difficult.

Sensation is often our problem. Well, a lack of sensation actually.

Where are we?

Hard to tell sometimes. Are we moving closer to success, or further away?

If only somebody could shout at us, “You’re getting warmer. Warmer. Warmer. Hot. Hot. Red Hot.”

Then, we’d know. But there are no such voices. There’s just the work. The process.

Get after it. Chase it down until you catch it. And whatever you do, don’t stop. Because if you do, others will run over you, leaving you to suffer defeat. And it will not be fun! Defeat is never as sweet as success.