dama in grigio di Goya by elisabetta2005, on Flickr

A few weeks ago I was privileged to be featured on a David Wood podcast. I’ve bragged about it here before, but now I want to go in a little deeper on his answer to my question.

Here’s what I asked (OK, I admit it, I’m a groupie. Shoot me):

Hi David, I know your open heart and persistence have been major strengths in the incredible achievements of your life. I’m wondering, since all good things come in threes, whether there’s a third virtue we should be cultivating in our pursuit of the kickass life?

David demurred a bit at my use of the word virtues, but here is his response as written on the podcast website. You can listen to the (very short) podcast itself at the same link. This is copied EXACTLY as he wrote it, no editing. Perfection is not required here.

Virtues

Forgiveness- “Immediate Forgiveness” of self and others

Don’t hold on to ANYTHING.

Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting them to die.

G.O.Y,A get off your ASS and take action, and keep getting up when you fall coz “Every Master was Once a Disaster”

Tel the Truth all the Time with Compassion

As anyone who has been following this blog for a while knows, I totally love the last line and repeat it often. I’ve also recently been telling people the line about the poison – I know quite a few people who like to hold on to grudges and nurse and nurture them. I find the “immediate forgiveness” a hard thing to do, but it certainly makes life pleasanter not to spend any energy being angry at other drivers, for example. Of course it is harder to forgive people who really make me angry, but I’m working on it. Progress, not perfection.

This blog post, however, is about GOYA. Hence the lovely lady in the picture. Forgive me for being so punny, blame it on David. Get Off Your Ass is a very important concept! It is the alpha and omega of getting things done. You can prepare and think and plan until you are blue in the face, but until you get up and get things going, nothing will happen.

This is why I’ve launched my newsletter, in a leap of faith that people will be interested in what I have to say. I am not going to reproduce it on the blog. You can subscribe in the sidebar on this page to get it by email – that is the best way as hitting Reply will result in a direct response from me. You can also read it on Facebook and Twitter if you prefer, but email is the best way. I’ve started talking about the Lizard Brain, tracing the concept of battling it back to Seth Godin and to Steven Pressfield’s War of Art. I’ve been thinking though, that that metaphor doesn’t work very well for me. Does it work for you?

I’m also going to start a couple of other projects. They may result in a change in my Professional Enabler concept, as I define and refine what it is that I want to do and how I want to help people. Stay tuned.

What do you think, are you ready to Get Off Your Ass and get things done? Who will be my buddy? Let’s go!!