What Is Your Locomotive?
What is the mission or set of objectives that compels you, that keeps you awake at night out of excitement rather than anxiety.
In a literal sense, a locomotive is a vehicle at the start of a train that pulls dozens or hundreds of train cars behind it to its final destination.
As it relates to building your business and your life, your “locomotive” is the thing (or multiple things) that drives you. It’s the mission or set of objectives that compels you, that keeps you awake at night out of excitement rather than anxiety.
Another way of defining “locomotive” is by breaking the word into 2 parts. First, “loco” can mean both “crazy” or “amazing” in Spanish. Depending on how it’s used, it can mean something is insane or unbelievably great. Then, “motive” means the cause or reasoning for something. You can think of your locomotive as the reason why you make insane business or personal development moves to achieve amazing results.
Defining Your Locomotive
Theoretically, it could be anything. It could be birthed out of a desire to be a better spouse. Perhaps the desire to be a better parent and enjoy more loving, engaged relationships with your children. It could be motivated by a grandiose professional pursuit, the completion of a wildly important project, or a commitment to live a more spiritually balanced life.
A locomotive is BIG. So BIG that your family, friends, neighbors, or those who are close to you, look at you in sincere disbelief, but stick around anyway to watch the spectacle of your pursuit of it, while simultaneously not wanting to miss it if you achieve it.
The Importance of a Good Locomotive
A good locomotive grows you because it requires you to build muscles that you haven’t used before. Yet, it is a challenge that you have chosen and you have the agency to successfully complete.
This experience of self-driven personal development to accomplish a self-defined, self-selected goal is highly empowering. It has the power to produce extreme levels of self-efficacy, which is the belief in your own abilities to reach your desired objectives.
Pursuing Your Locomotive
Taking the first steps to actualize your locomotive can feel like beginning a new workout regimen. You may experience soreness from the micro-tearing of muscles, then recovery so they can build back a little stronger, then relentless tearing again, followed by more recovery. Then, one day you begin to notice small changes in your physique when you look in the mirror. The next month, those around you begin to notice that you look different as well. Eventually, you transform into a completely new person after the days, weeks, and months of commitment to your workout routine.
You’ve become a new you! And soon you are more excited about the journey of becoming rather than the actual result itself. The same is true when you commit to actualizing your locomotive.
Saying “No” to Say “Yes”
When you have a locomotive, there are some things that you won’t allow yourself to do anymore. The reason is because these things, people, or activities do not help you reach your locomotive.
You’ll become more cognizant of how and who you spend your time with, what you put in your body, what ideas you hold in your mind, and what you allow yourself to think about. The type of conversations, social media, podcasts, videos, and books you consume will likely change.
A really good locomotive will invariably require you to make different, better decisions than how you are operating now. Saying “No” to things that don’t serve you, will allow your locomotive to leave the station.
Putting Things In Motion
Open your calendar right now and block off 60 minutes this week to do the following:
Brainstorm Your Locomotive - In a journal or voice memo, write or speak the things in your life that you think are part of your locomotive. When you’re done, listen or read it back and identify a short list of the top 1-5 things that you feel are the most core to your locomotive.
Make a Locomotive Achievement Plan - Think about, “What will it take each week to achieve my locomotive?” Once you have identified a list of items that are required, make a plan that outlines which items you must do each week for the next 4 weeks to begin pursuing your locomotive.
Commit to Taking the First Steps - In the step above, you likely identified a few things you must do this week. Do your future self a favor by opening your calendar right now and blocking off the time you need this week to complete those first steps.
Are You Looking for Support?
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Take the first step towards elevating your performance by scheduling your consultation. Click this link and schedule a day and time that works best for you.
The world around us wasn’t built by the exceptional. It was built by everyday people who were willing to do exceptional things. Go build something.
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