Hit Your Hot Spot

Have you ever shaken hands with someone and their handshake  resembled the very nature of a cold fish? Lifeless. Powerless. Unimpressive. Well the life at the end of that cold fish handshake is probably cold as well.

But I have great news for you. We weren’t born to be cold. We were born to be molten hot. The frozen food section of life is neither yours nor my destiny.

So let me heat you up, defrost you in fact and even bring you to not only the boiling point nor even the melting point – but in fact to your personal ignition point. Your personal flash  will begin by me first lighting the spark within you, and by then igniting your internal dynamite that is set to explode.

Here are 4 ignition points that can take you from a state of coldness, or even lukewarmness and turn you into a blazing fireball that will radiate beyond your immediate sphere to the point that you could find yourself influencing people’s lives to the very reaches of the planet.

Ignition Point 1: Identify Your Hot Button

The trouble with most of us is that we’re so busy living a lukewarm life that we never take time out to really identify what really get us fired up.

It requires concentrated effort to stop and identify what is your hot button. Yes, the thing that really fires you up. The passion. The dream. The talent. The joy. The spark. The blaze.

At one point in my life I set aside three days in the pursuit of that very thing. My life was rolling along – like the rest of my peers – but there was within me a dissatisfaction with the status quo and with the direction that my life was heading at that time – and I was actually experiencing quite a bit of success – but I knew that my current activities were not fully aligned with my deep passions. And unless I took time out from my busy schedule to clearly identify my hot button I was destined for one thing – and that was burnout.

Those three days – although I have traveled down many diverse paths since then – have been the defining days that have continued to draw me pack to my passion, my purpose, the reason I breathe, my destiny and of course my hot button.

Right now in my life I feel that I’m sizzling because I’m once again being true to myself and true to the original vision that I had birthed within my life during those three days.

Ignition Point 2: Identify Your Cold Button

I have tried many things throughout my life. And no – not every moment has been a moment of defining success. Many valleys have been passed through to reach the mountain tops. But those valleys have confirmed to me time and time again that my success is just as much about identifying my cold buttons as it is to pressing my hot buttons.

No human being can be good at everything. Yes I’m sad to inform you – but you and I have weaknesses. There are many things that we can’t do. In fact, there are probably more things that you can’t do than you can do. So why waste a moment pursuing the things you can’t do. Rather concentrate on doing the things that you can do well.

But first you have to identify them.

So how do you identify your cold buttons? By having a go and failing.

That’s why I have never been afraid to try new things. And I have never been afraid to encourage my children to attempt new ventures.

And if we fail – we respond with the one successful question. What did I learn from my failure experience? That way failure has just become part of your academic staff that has guided you towards success.

Ignition Point 3: Delegate Your Cold Button

So once you’ve identified your cold button, what do you do with it?

This is where you need to surround yourself with a team of people where your cold buttons are actually their hot button. They love doing that stuff that you are not good at – and they do it with a spirit of excellence.

So while you’re off pushing your hot button and reaping the rewards associated with being someone who keeps turning up the heat in that area – your team members are pushing your cold buttons – because they are still necessary for your overall success – but man they’re hot. They are strong in those areas. They are competent in those areas. And by pressing their hot button – that is in alignment with you and supportive of you – they actually make you look darn hot.

Ignition Point 4: Turn Up The Heat On Your Hot Button

The one thing about a hot button is this: If you don’t keep applying heat to your hot button it could end up being transformed into a frozen button.

So yes, it’s time to jump out of the frying pan and straight into the fire.

None of us have ever arrived – so we’re going to have to continue to put pressure on our hot button, maybe even go to hot button school for some more tuition, or even find mentors who are even hotter than us and add their heat to our heat so as to achieve even more increased heat along the way. For this is the vital importance of ongoing education and learning.

Until the day you and I leave this earth we should never stop being the student. We must humbly sit at the feet of the masters – both alive and dead – and learn, for there is always more to learn.

So have you discovered your hot button yet? If not, make this year your year of the hot button. Don’t accept mediocrity as your lot in life. You were born to burn. So draw aside and set yourself on fire – internally – by identifying and then turning up the heat on your hot button.