How To Get Lit Up

Your personality has a volume setting.

It’s constantly being adjusted by the people you interact with.

There are three types of people playing with your volume settings:

1. Reducers turn your volume down.

They say things like:

“That idea will never work.”
“You’re too much.”
“Chill out.”

They make you less of yourself.

2. Supporters maintain your volume.

They say things like:

“Great idea!”
“You’re awesome.”
“Keep going.”

They make you stay the same.

3. Amplifiers turn your volume up.

They say things like:

“Omg, let’s make a plan for you right now!”
“Yes, AND you could also…”
“Let me connect you to someone who can help.”

They make you more of yourself.

How lit up you feel is directly affected by the amount of time you spend with each kind of person.

I used to think it was enough to avoid Reducers, and simply surround myself with Supporters to cheer me on.

But recently I’ve discovered that to live my fullest, highest potential life, I need the presence of Amplifiers who actively push me to the next level – without me even having to ask.

“The best way to light yourself up is to be close to someone who is on fire.” – Felicity Huffman

I’m suggesting you also get close to someone with a can of gasoline.

And if you’re lucky, you’re both on fire, and you both have gasoline.

Now it’s a limitless explosion.

Some notes for the Amplifiers of this world:

1. Even though you’re naturally motivated, you can’t perpetually self-ignite. Eventually, you’ll run out of fuel and burn out. Don’t wait for that to happen. Seek other Amplifiers now.

2. Occasionally, you'll encounter someone who doesn’t ignite, no matter how much gasoline you pour over them. If they don’t have at least a little spark, gasoline does nothing but create a wet mess. (Or to use my earlier analogy, you can’t turn up the volume when there’s nothing playing). As hard as it is to watch a sparkless friend struggle, you can’t create that spark for them. You have to let them find it on their own. So be their Supporter for now. Cheer them on. Be there. But stop trying to help them make things happen. You can’t Amplify until they find that spark of motivation within themselves first.

Who are the Amplifiers in your life?

Make a list. Reach out. Do it today.

The Blog Is Back

Between 2019-2021, I wrote a blog every single day for two years.

730 posts. Never missed a day.

It was life changing in so many ways:

• I developed the discipline to show up for my goals, every single day, no matter what. Even when I was sick, tired, busy and resistant.

• I learned how to trade perfect (and even good) for done. Some of the posts I created are physically painful for me to re-read. But I was willing to be bad at writing to get good at showing up. I discovered that a large part of getting what you want in life is allowing yourself to be dissatisfied with the process.

• It inspired me to create a graphic (below) about showing up daily that got seen by 6 million people, liked by 120,000 on Twitter, and shared by 35,000, including by Ariana Huffington, and Steven Bartlett from Diary of a CEO/Dragons Den. I still get messages every week from therapists and schools telling me how they have it printed and hung up in their offices and classrooms.

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A post shared by Sarah Arnold-Hall | High Performance Coach (@saraharnoldhall)

My decision to show up daily came from words by the writer Sean Wes (who is now on a hiatus from the internet).

It’s that last sentence that got me.

I realised I’d been looking for the microwaveable version of success. The ready-meal option. The quick fix.

But there is no shortcut. There’s only doing the work.

And just like Sean said, showing up daily did make me money.
It did build me an audience.
It did solve most of my (business) problems.

The blog itself wasn’t what created success (I’m pretty sure for the first whole year I had about five readers), but the act of learning to show up daily meant that I actually started doing the necessary work to build a sustainable business. I finally learned to stick with things long enough to see them work.

(The truth is, ALL the marketing gurus are right. Every technique, every strategy they say is the secret to success, it all works. But only if YOU work. You can’t try it and stop after a bit because you’re not seeing results. You have to pick a strategy and go all in, and NOT STOP UNTIL IT WORKS.)

So, I blogged for my two year commitment, and then finished so I could focus on creating my podcast, How to Take Action.

Now – two years and 110 episodes in – I’ve been starting to feel that something is missing from my online presence.

I haven’t been feeling on fire with my influence like I used to.

For years I’ve had a theory that to be truly influential, you need to be both inspirational and aspirational.

Inspirational
Noun
Causing people to want to do or create something

Aspirational
Noun
Role modelling the process of doing and creating something

Inspiration alone is useful.
Aspiration alone is cool.

But together, they can light a fire of ambition so hot you can’t put it out.

Think, Kim Kardashian becoming a human rights lawyer. She added inspiration to her aspirational lifestyle. Or climate activist, Greta Thunberg’s double crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to attend a conference. She added aspiration to her inspiring message.

Don’t just share how to do something. Role model doing it.
Don’t just role model doing something. Share how to do it.

If you think of the most influential person in your life, it’s likely that they had those qualities:

1. They taught you how to think differently (inspiration).

2. They role modelled the way (aspiration).

And that’s why I’m bringing back my blog.

I’m creating what I wish existed for me to consume: the juicy, behind-the-scenes of someone’s goals, mixed with the nitty-gritty how-to instructions.

While I won’t be posting daily (my “showing up daily” focus is now directed towards the back-end marketing of my business), I will be updating frequently with my goals, processes, and insights.

I hope it inspires and aspires you to do something impossibly ambitious.