When you try to create your life on a shaky foundation, you risk stagnation – getting stuck in place, making no progress; burnout – trying to do too much with too little; and frustration – feeling your lack of progress and taking it out on your loved ones or yourself. However, the practices that get you on solid ground free up energy, time, and other resources so you can focus on growth and self-actualization. You are going deep so you can build high.
Why a Strong Foundation Matters
We need a strong, solid foundation upon which to build our Excelerated Life™! If we’re going to set BIG (Bold-Important-Gratifying) goals, focus on and take right action to reach them, while making important contributions to our family, our jobs, and our world, we must take time to develop a deep, firm, rock-solid foundation.
Here are a couple of stories to illustrate why this is important. The first is from Brian Johnson, Founder + CEΦ of Heroic: https://www.heroic.us/brian-johnson
“Imagine you’re at a construction site.
It’s the first phase of the project.
If you wanted to guess how tall the building on that construction site was going to be and you couldn’t look at the architect’s plans or ask anyone about it, what’s the best way to guess how tall the building will be?
Answer: Look at how deeply they’re digging the foundation.
A shallow foundation will work for a single-story house.
A skyscraper with over one hundred floors? They’re digging very, very deeply.” [Johnson]
And, from the book of Matthew, Jesus’ parable about the two builders:
These ideas are foundational practices, practices “to build a life on. If you work [them] into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
“But if you . . . don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.” [Matthew 7:24-27 The Message]
Do you want to go high? Then dig deep so that you are building on solid rock, not slippery sand.
The Excelerated Life™ Foundational Principles
To create the Excelerated Life™ model, I took ideas from some of the best coaches, from Positive Psychology, from my own training as a life coach, and from the books I’ve read. The result was the areas of Foundation, Framework (fka “Excelerating”), and Maintenance. Each of the three areas consists of two principles and each of the principles contains three practices.
To create your Excelerated Life™, as we saw in the opening illustrations, you must have a strong foundation on which to build. These foundational principles, Get On Solid Ground and Positivity/Happiness, set the stage for growth, self-actualization, and fulfilling your potential. Following the practices in these two principles ensures that you have a solid foundation in place on which to begin building.
The Principle of “Getting On Solid Ground”
To Get On Solid Ground, you begin with Excelerated Acceptance™ – dealing with unresolved issues that are draining your energy, your time, and other resources. You first identify the people and issues you struggle with and accept them for who and what they are, not what you wish they were. Then, using the practice of Excelerated Response™, you take steps to deal with all those annoyances once and for all, so you can focus your resources on growing yourself and your abilities, maximizing your potential, and fulfilling your purpose, to become all you can be. In the third step, you identify the core values you want to live by. You develop a plan to live by those values, and you begin carrying out the plan to ensure your life reflects your true values, your Excelerated Values™.
When you try to create your life on a shaky foundation, you risk stagnation – getting stuck in place, making no progress; burnout – trying to do too much with too little; and frustration – feeling your lack of progress and taking it out on your loved ones or yourself.
The goal of the practices that get you on solid ground is to free up energy, time, and other resources so you can focus on growth and self-actualization. You are going deep so you can build high.
The Three Practices
In the coming weeks, we’ll look at the three practices to Get On Solid Ground in detail. For now, here’s a brief introduction. (And of course, you can read the blog posts about the practices here, here, and here.)
Excelerated Acceptance™: Identifying and Accepting Struggles
“Acceptance doesn’t mean approval or agreement or condoning, consenting or endorsement. It simply means you understand that things are what they are and that what is, is.
“This doesn’t mean you can’t change things. But struggling and fighting and expending great amounts of effort are usually not the best ways to make changes. Once you accept the situation, you can relax and explore the possibilities for change.
“When you embrace the Excelerated Life™, you don’t ignore or step over anything. You examine all areas of your life and determine what you need to change or eliminate. You accept that some things aren’t working for you. Then you decide how to address them.” [Huskey]
Excelerated Response™: Addressing and Resolving Tolerations
“When you ignore a thing, your propensity to accept it grows. In Take Time For Your Life, Cheryl Richardson says, ‘By ignoring the problem, you raise your threshold for pain and make it easier to put up with more.’ Soon, petty annoyances drop off your radar, minor annoyances become petty, and major annoyances become minor. Then your life falls apart or you get stuck in place because you aren’t dealing with your stuff.
“When you live an Excelerated Life™, you periodically take stock of the situations, articles, and relationships that aren’t working perfectly but that you’ve been tolerating anyway. You make a list of these items, then make specific plans for dealing with them. All of them.” [Huskey]
Excelerated Values™: Defining and Living by Core Values
“Values are principles or qualities that we deem as worthy and desirable. They represent activities and behaviors that, when we engage in them, bring us joy, contentment, and feelings of well-being. Everyone has values, whether they realize them or not, whether they can name them or not. One of the keys to creating an Excelerated Life™ is to choose your values and consciously take steps to live them.
“Values are intrinsically neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’ but some can serve you individually better than others. Some will appeal to you more than others. Sometimes, we get so caught up in the busyness of living that we fail to honor the values that are important to us – our Valid Values. When this happens, we feel disconnected from our lives, harried, and unfulfilled.
“When your life is in congruence with your valid values – the principles you deem as important and desirable – you feel in harmony and balanced. If you are feeling out of touch or disconnected, you may not be living out of your values. It’s a good idea to check in from time to time to see that you are being true to your values, whatever they may be.” [Huskey]
The Ripple Effect of Getting On Solid Ground
One benefit of working on these foundational practices is that an improvement in one area often ripples out so you make improvements in other areas. We don’t live, work, and play in a box; there is an interconnectedness of life such that all areas function together (even when we don’t see it). When you address one foundational area (e.g., responding to tolerations), it often creates clarity in others (e.g., finances, relationships).
Another aspect of this ripple effect is the power of momentum. To paraphrase Stephen Guise, you are more likely to do what you’ve already done. That’s the essence of momentum. It’s how starting with small changes builds your confidence and encourages you to make larger shifts.
Because we don’t live in a box, when we make positive changes it may inspire others around us – family, friends, relatives, and colleagues. When others see you take the actions to build a strong foundation and begin crafting your life on solid ground, it can inspire them to do the same.
So, over to you. How might addressing one area of your life (acceptance, tolerations, or values) create positive ripples elsewhere?
Bringing It All Together: The Solid Ground Mindset
The three practices to help you Get On Solid Ground create a rock-solid platform to begin crafting your Excelerated Life™. You find inner peace that comes when you learn to accept the things you cannot change, to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. [1] You expand your energy reserves by dealing, once and for all, with those irritations and annoyances you’ve been tolerating. You define and live by your Valid Values, making for an authentic, true-to-yourself life.
We’ll look at the three practices to Get On Solid Ground in the coming weeks. For now, here’s a way to get started. During the coming week:
- Accept something you’ve been resisting.|
- Resolve one toleration.
- Identify one core value and take a step to align with it.
Keep in mind as you go that building a solid foundation is a continuous process, not a one-time task. As the old cliche goes: It’s a journey, not a destination. And when you embrace the journey of personal growth and self-actualization, you embrace your Excelerated Life™!
What’s the practice that could make the most difference for you as you build a solid foundation for your Excelerated Life™?
Do you need to accept something you’ve been resisting? Deal with a situation you’ve been tolerating? Or more closely align your life with your values?
How could you take a step in that direction this week?
Share your experience by leaving a comment below.
To Get On Solid Ground is the first Foundational principle for creating your Excelerated Life™!
Read more about the Excelerated Life™.
Footnotes:
[1] Adapted from “The Serenity Prayer” by Reinhold Neibuhr:
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.”
Resources:
Guise, Stephen. The Magic of Momentum. Selective Entertainment, LLC. 2022.
Huskey, Steven M. The Excelerated Life Source Book Volume 1. E-book ed., Kindle Dierct Publishing, 2021.
https://www.amazon.com/Excelerated-Life-Source-Book-Flourishing-ebook/dp/B09R9C7218/
Johnson, Brian. Arete’. Ashland, OR: Heroic Blackstone Publishing, 2023.
This blog post includes research information and suggestions provided by ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI. The content was generated with AI assistance and is intended to provide information and guidance. Please note that the suggestions are not official statements from OpenAI. To learn more about ChatGPT and its capabilities, you can visit the OpenAI website. https://openai.com.