Step One: Jump

Preface

The word Purpose gets thrown around a lot. Find your purpose. Live your purpose. What does it all mean? For me, purpose is the reason I was put on this earth. Purpose is simple. It is not always eloquent or impressive on the surface. I believe, simply, your purpose is something you can do forever and stay truly jazzed about. Purpose sounds different to each of us.

I was seeking my purpose for so long that, when I realized it was as simple as Increasing the good of life around me, I almost discounted it. I used to think purpose had to be this big, complicated thing. That I’d have to travel to India and seek out a guru to find myself first. I didn’t have time for that. So instead, I did all of the exercises, stayed in motion, and jumped countless times. And there it was.

Today, I can hardly believe my luck that I am going to increase the good of life around me for the rest of my life. And I see within it so many facets. In every area of life. I realized recently that I am living my dream life. Right now. The one I wrote about, prayed about, visualized, and created. By pursuing my purpose, I now spend time with people I want to be around, the ones I want my kids around, and, amazingly, I get paid for it. So will you. I’m talking super-high-quality time with friends who are creating big lives. These are people who are out there living this gift of life at level 10. I want more time with them, and, through living my purpose, I get it.

It’s interesting how your dream life aligns with your purpose. You can live the life you work to create, just as I am. And it’s not in the future. It’s right now. But I had to get started. I had to jump. And that’s what this book will do for you. You don’t have to know what to do or how to do it. There’s no straight path, just action. Jump on it. Jump on the first thing you think of and then reroute, climb over, kick down, or go around. Whatever it takes.

My purpose is to increase the good of life around me. From the miniscule to the world-changing, when you take what is good and increase it, you, by default, leave less room for what is not. I have long since accepted and embraced that one of my gifts is getting people unstuck and roaring in the direction of their best self. By doing so, they increase what is good and begin to suffocate what is not. By doing so, they enable me to live my purpose and they go forth in theirs.

Wherever you’re stuck, the answers are in here. The red flag to look for, to know when you are stuck, is the whole range from mild boredom or lack of motivation to pain and suffering, and everything in between. In other words, if you are anything besides on fire and excited about your life, you are stuck. Any sort of pain and suffering is certainly a sign you are stuck. But so is just being uninspired or simply not knowing what to do. You might need to be giving more. You might need to be receiving more. You might need to get loud. Whatever it is, I promise it’s in here. Get ready to jump. Because that’s what it takes.

And thank you for the part you play in increasing the good of life by picking up this book.

Acknowledgements

This book is dedicated to you who pushed and prodded me to take on an active coaching practice. Those who asked for thirty minutes to pick my brain. Those who signed up for anything I offered. Thank you. I would never have chosen to write a book without your eagerness and your willingness to demand more from life.

I acknowledge my parents, Ray and Linda Barton, for hitching their wagon to whatever crazy star I was chasing at the time. My mentor and dear friend, Gary Walton. My work-spouses and dear friends, Criss Wilson and Don McGehee. Lou Samara, my cherished friend and mentor. My first big, scary hire, Vic Nance. Kim Keeling and the entire team at Barton Logistics.

For the work that they do or did, and the life-altering behaviors in me that they influenced: Gap International. The Rich Dad Company. Mary Kay Ash. Napoleon Hill. Jordan Adler. Harvey Mackay.

Author’s Note

Making the Most of This Book

This book sometimes makes references to God, the Universe, and Natural Law. It is not, however, a religious book. Pick the term you are personally the most comfortable with and don’t get hung up.

This is not a read it and put it away kind of book. It’s designed to be a manual and a blueprint. It’s a book you read, and then do. Then read again, and do again. The chapters are designed to stand alone, as well as work together. Results take work, which is why at the end of every chapter, you’ll find Jump Steps to take. Do them and you will get much more out of these lessons than you will by just reading.

Listen to the audiobook, in addition to reading, and you will reinforce what you are learning. This goes for any book, not just this one. The more senses you activate, the more you learn.

Organization toward any life of results is the key, so please create the lists I ask you to create, reflect when I ask you to reflect, develop the dream goals and write them all down. You can use your own notebook or use the Step One: Jump Notebook I refer to throughout this book. It’s a system specifically designed for this program. You can order it online at www.mandybarton.com. More information is at the back of this book. Regardless of which you choose, your active involvement with this book is you being actively involved in creating your life. I want you to go for it. This is going to be fun.

Chapter 1: Keep It On the Front Burner

chapter 1

Keep It On the Front Burner

I go to crazy lengths to keep the things that I know are important to my future on the front burner. What do I mean by that? Well, like cooking on a stove, the stuff you want to let simmer you put on the back burner. The food you want to cook at high heat, the stuff you need to pay attention to, you put it on the front burner. That pretty much accurately describes how I operate my life.

Many years ago when I read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, it completely transformed my life. I had already started Barton Logistics and I was working tirelessly booking loads, finding carriers, and making sure that the freight in my care made it from point A to point B on time. That was our job. That was my job.

At least, I thought that was my job. After reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I realized, actually those tasks were not my job. They were my employees’ job. I realized that even though I owned the business, I was really acting like an employee in my own company. Wasn’t I supposed to be out in front, leading it? Who was going to lead if I didn’t? This was an awakening for me, but easily forgotten in the throes of a hectic day. Shippers would call, freight needed to move, and I’d look around. Everyone else was busy, so I’d handle it. An hour or so later, I’d remember, Yeah, I’m not supposed to be doing that. I’m supposed to be providing all of the resources to make sure that gets done. I am supposed to be leading.

Discovering what inspires you and keeping it on the front burner are the first steps to jumping.

That was the moment when I decided a truth as important as Don’t be an employee in your own company should never be on the back burner, not even for a moment. It should always be on the front burner, so that in the heat of the moment, when I needed that lesson the most, there it would be, front and center.

Before I tell you my trick for keeping things on the front burner, and top of mind, allow me to say, if you are not planning on keeping the things you learn from this book on the front burner, then you may as well close it now and do something else. Because we retain only about 10 percent of what we learn by reading, if you don’t make this commitment, you will not likely be able to ever apply what you have read. You’ll find it very difficult to improve your life and achieve your dreams. Dreaming is still very much alive, especially among very successful people. But many of us don’t remember how to dream, we’re afraid to dream, or we were never taught. Some just dream with no commitment (this is also known as hallucinating, by the way) and it can be a very frustrating way to live or, at best, unfulfilling. This book will change that. Discovering what inspires you and keeping it on the front burner are the first steps to jumping.

I put my mind to something and work it until I get the results I want.

When it came to Rich Dad, Poor Dad, that book was so important to me that I read it and reread it every month for a year. Every month! Then I reread it once a year for six or seven years. I’ve recommended this book to countless people, and, after they read it they remark and praise its transforming power. Then they go about their normal existence and do nothing with it. The problem was, they didn’t reread it. We have to repeat our lessons to learn them. And that is my first trick for keeping those things that are important to you on the front burner: revisit and repeat the lessons until they are a part of who you are.

In practice, I’m no smarter than anyone else, but my life is a life of results. I put my mind to something and work it until I get the results I want. That’s why people listen to me, why they come to me for advice and coaching. It’s why they want to know how I did it. While other people are going on vacations, I take trips and attend seminars. Those rooms are often full of people doing the exact same thing. The difference between many of those others sitting in the chairs and me is that I keep the material that is important to me from classes I’ve taken and the books I’ve read in my face, on the front burner. It took some real creativity to do that. Life is cluttered. I’m human. I’m lazy, I avoid, I procrastinate, I’m fearful just like everyone else. So that leads me to the next trick for keeping those things that are important on the front burner.

What’s your process when you know you have to do the hard thing?

The second trick is just that: know your tricks. What’s your process when you know you have to do the hard thing? Do you jump right in? Or do you procrastinate, avoid it entirely, or make excuses? Hmmm, before I jump into that, maybe I should just clean up my desk. Does the oil need to be changed in my car? Is the kitchen swept? Let me get a cup of coffee. I’ll just answer this one email. Does this sound like you talking to you? What does your self-limiting trickster sound like? Pretty soon the morning is gone and you have effectively avoided doing the hard thing. This is me. This is most of us.

My way of solving this inevitable problem leads me to the third trick, which is creating ways to circumvent my well-honed skill of avoidance. Let me put it this way, it’s very easy for me to put off the work I need to do toward a goal when that goal isn’t top of mind. Sometimes I fall into this pattern not because I decided to avoid the task, but rather because I’m just doing other more immediate, usually less important, things that happen to be in front of me. They are on the front burner.

Most of my workday I spend sitting at a desk. One day, the idea hit me! I realized how I can keep important things in my face at all times. I went to the store and bought a digital picture frame. Most people put pictures of their vacations, friends, and family in those frames. They are good for that, too. But what they are really good for is keeping important goals, important messages, important concepts front and center.

My picture frame contains, for example, the saying, The only thing missing is what I have yet to give. I learned that in one of the seminars I attended, and, for as meaningful as it can be to me, I would not have remembered it, it would not be a guiding light in my life if it weren’t for the picture frame. And now that saying will not leave the picture frame until it is part of the fiber of my being. It has to be permanent, and I mean permanent, before it leaves the frame.

I wanted a second child and, until I achieved that goal, baby number two stayed in the frame. I’m just now learning that once I accomplish a goal, to leave that goal in the picture frame for a while to celebrate. That’s hard for me, but more on that later. I’m getting better at celebrating and I push