I have a gift for you. I would like you to have £100. I know, I’m just a generous kind of guy.

Five fresh and crisp £20 notes. Here you go …

• So, what will you do with it?
• Buy some champagne?
• Put it towards your electricity and gas bills?
• Have a massage?
• Take your family for a KFC family bucket?
• Buy additional copies of Jolt and give them away as Christmas presents?
• Put it into a savings account?
• Buy lottery tickets?
• Donate it to charity?
• Invest it in shares?
• Put it towards the weekly shop?
• Burn it?

Seriously, take a moment to think how you would get greatest value from it …

It’s funny the responses people have when this question is focused on money. People often take great care in considering their options, as £100 is quite a chunk of extra cash to be given. It is unlikely that you will have said that you would burn it. Right? The dilemma for many will be between dealing with the here and now (pay bills, buy food …), treating yourself (massage, champagne, KFC), putting it somewhere safe (under the mattress, in a savings account) or gambling it for a bigger pay off at some point (shares, lottery).

• Where did your response fit?

Of course this book isn’t offering you some extra cash. Unless you choose to auction your own copy for thousands … No, this book merely offers you choice and greater power; power to influence, negotiate, communicate, connect, have impact and ultimately be extraordinary.

The fascinating thing here though is that once the £100 has gone, you could still get another £100 from somewhere else: work overtime, an extra job, busking, selling things on ebay, theft, car boot your comic collection …

Spending your power also means you will be spending your energy, your time, your commitment and yourself. Once that is spent, you really won’t get it back. Once they have been used up, they’re gone!

Based on that, I want you now to really consider, with great care, how you will go about spending your own power.

You could spend your power on the here and now (fire fighting, going to more meetings, doing more of the same as yesterday!), treating yourself (building in some thinking time, self‐reflection), putting your power somewhere safe until you need it for a rainy day (trudge along, be ordinary, tick the basic boxes) or gambling it to get a bigger pay back at some point (daring to go to your edge, asking the tougher question, inviting the uncomfortable feedforward …)?

It is no use if I tell you what you should do with it – you must own your decision. It’s your power, not mine. Time for you to T‐D‐A!

Throughout Jolt, my role has been to prod you and shake up your thinking so that you begin to stretch more, risk more and dare more. Daring means walking closer to the edge. That of course comes with the increased risk of toppling off. However, what it also brings is excitement, learning and the possibility that you will embrace extraordinary.

Just a Jolt. Spend your power wisely. Spend it on the stuff that matters most.

The secret

I have learnt a great deal about the formula for extraordinary over the years. I have shared that with you throughout this book and I am confident that you now have more choices available to you than you did before starting to read. Some of you will be bold and take action right now and some won’t … yet.

I have a secret though, and I decided to save it until the end. I have done that for a good reason.

Throughout the book, I have encouraged you to get active and test out the ideas as we go along. It’s all too easy to wait until you reach the final chapter before considering your options. I wanted you to get playful from the outset. And that is why I kept the secret until the end. Perhaps if you heard it at the start, you would have engaged with each Jolt differently …

There are two things you need to know about your journey towards extraordinary:

1. Most of the qualities, attitudes, behaviours and processes that made you good in the first place will not be the same ones that you need in order to kiss extraordinary on the lips. Simply doing more of the same, because at some point in history it worked for you, does not provide your ticket to extraordinary. You will need to be brave enough to let much of it go so that you create the space for new habits to be installed.

   And …

2. Arriving at extraordinary doesn’t exist!

   Shock horror. There, now I’ve told you. Extraordinary is ever moving, which is what makes it extraordinary in the first place! Too many people fool themselves into thinking that they have, at last, arrived. This can be dangerous. You know better than I do that the fast paced environment your business operates within requires constant upgrading to stay ahead of the game. The problem with believing that you have reached extraordinary and your place of utopia is that it very quickly renders you just ordinary again or, at best, good. I have seen many leaders believe that they have ‘arrived’ – however, there are those out there who continue to track down extraordinary moments and they will be the ones that ultimately have the upper hand as they zoom past those that have become complacent.

Once you have adopted these Jolts as your new story and your new habits, there is little chance that you will become complacent. Each one in its own right challenges you to keep asking the questions that will enable you to notice your choice points, decide on your THINKING and take the ACTION that transforms you from ordinary to extraordinary.

The final push …

I started off this book by clearly setting out the need for you to take action. I know you will have had no problem grasping the concepts and getting your mind wrapped around what it is you need to do to soar from ordinary to extraordinary. In so many ways, that will have been the easy part.

Armed with your new thinking, new ideas and new insights from peeping through the Artful lens, I want you now to ACT. Over many years I have observed how people with ordinary skills and ordinary talents can achieve the most extraordinary things. They do so by shaping more enabling beliefs than disabling ones. They then point their mind in the direction of travel and follow through with the appropriate action: constantly nudging forwards, 1° at a time.

No TRYING just DOING. The word try implies impossibility. We all need to take heed of Yoda in Star Wars. He had it bang on when he said – ‘Do or do not. There is no try.’ Notice the language in your outcomes and if you spot a try neatly tucked in there, lose it. Your extraordinary moments will be grounded in commitment and doing.

I wanted this book to be a catalyst for conversation. I fancied the idea of a dialogue opening up – between you and me, you and yourself, you and your team and you with your wider organization. So, I have put my views out there and for it to be a two‐way thing, I need you to respond. I would love to hear how you grapple with this stuff; how you get up when you fall and how you celebrate when it all comes together. I may have opened a can of worms for you. That’s ok as long as you don’t eat them. Share your screw ups and your MOBs with me. Drop me a line anytime you like. I will always respond. If you fancy the idea of me coming in and chatting with your organization about how you can take on any of these Jolts and helping you get up close and personal with extraordinary, you can find me hanging out over here: [email protected].

Well, the moment has arrived for your performance to move on. So as you edge closer towards extraordinary:

• Dare more.
• Spend more time in the room!
• Upgrade. Consistently.
• Seek to understand more than you ever have before.
• Risk more.
• Get wonky … just a little bit.
• Stop sharing MOCs and hand out more MOBs …
• Adopt the posture of extraordinary.
• Be bold. Own yourself.
• Notice the spaces in between the notes you play.
• Dare to begin before you are ready.
• Stop DOING leadership. Start BEING a leader.
• Find your voice and let it erupt.
• Unleash your more Artful self.
• Be a contribution and add greater value … by just 1°.

Adopting these habits will be your springboard towards extraordinary. Sitting around and pondering them will not create changes. Shaking up your THINKING and taking ACTION, will!

And remember …

Stuff happens all the time. Things will fly your way and occasionally things will pull the rug from under your feet. It’s called life. It’s not about that though; it’s what you choose to do about it that really counts.

I want to leave you with the beautiful and inspiring words of David McNally from his book, Even Eagles Need a Push.

• The eagle gently coaxed her offspring toward the edge of the nest, her heart quivered with conflicting emotions as she felt their resistance to her persistent nudging.
• Why does the thrill of soaring have to begin with the fear of falling she thought? The ageless question was still unanswered for her. As in the tradition of the species her nest was located high upon the shelf of a sheer rock face. Below there was nothing but air to support the wings of each child.
• Is it possible that this time it will not work she thought …
• Despite her fears the eagle knew it was time her parental mission was all but complete and there remained one final task. THE PUSH.
• The eagle drew courage from an innate wisdom. Until her children discovered their wings, there was no purpose for their lives. Until they learned how to soar they would fail to understand the privilege it was to have been born an eagle. The push was the greatest gift she had to offer. It was her supreme act of love.
• And so, one by one she pushed them. And they FLEW

Now it’s time for you to soar too …