Author: Garth Beyer

There are plenty of times that having the permission to suck leads to breakthroughs and progress.

There’s no better time, however, to give yourself permission to suck when you are lethargic, unmotivated and feel like you’ve got writers/designers/coders/etc block.

Permission to suck means you can create without concern or criticism, you can create without self-evaluation and critique, you can simply create.

Stay Positive & You’re Bound To End With Something Useful (But You Have To Create To Get There)

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The key to engaging an audience with a story is by starting with a backstory and the change that happened to turn it into a story.

It’s the kid who is living with his grandparents and then gets bit by a spider.

It’s the dude that didn’t like college, so he dropped out and started selling t-shirts out of the back of his car.

It’s the woman who always wanted kids but couldn’t have them, so she flew to Seoul with her husband to adopt.

It doesn’t take much to lean into a great story. All it takes is a little background and little disruption (positive or negative).

If you start a story after the change, it might still be a story, but it’s unlikely you will have the audience hooked.

Stay Positive & Start At The Beginning

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Hustle and bustle. Go time. Check items off the list. Do do do.

Action is a magical default setting, but if we’re going to put our energy toward work that’s meaningful, we have to have observation time.

Unfortunately, observation time feels like a waste, especially for those that think they could be doing things instead of, well, not.

Observation time is vital, though. It helps us help others help themselves. It helps us determine what people really care about (not just what we assume they care about). It helps us do more of the right things and less of the wrong.

If you haven’t stopped, sat and watched the environment around your work in awhile, now’s a great time.

Stay Positive & See, And Listen

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To surprise and delight, to earn loyalty, to elevate an experience – it only takes a little extra.

A little extra listening or attention. A little extra discount or story. A little extra personal service or product.

It repays in dividends – and beyond monetary ones, too.

Stay Positive & What Can You Extra, Even Just A Little?

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Pulling teeth might actually be easier than the two things that are most difficult for us.

The first most difficult thing is getting rid of what’s dragging us down or wasting our time. It’s the mobile game or the morning news; the bad influence friend or the extra curricular we’re in for the wrong reason. Dropping the drag makes the pull much easier.

The second most difficult thing is completing the most daunting to-do on our list first. The action that will have the most positive impact but that we’re the most afraid of because everything else is easy in comparison. Though there will always be a “biggest” task, they get easier (perception-wise and in reality) the more we do early and often.

Stay Positive & Pull

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It’s easy to hide behind our own beliefs. Easy to hide behind a holiday or a narrative or a status quo or a tradition.

Much more difficult to put ourselves out there (our true selves )and to build on our beliefs, craft a new narrative, overcome status quo and break the mold of tradition that isn’t making our tribe better any more.

Stay Positive & More Difficult, More Worth It

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Note that it’s who we root for, not what we root for.

We’re not just rooting for a flag or a sports team, a business idea or a dream, we’re rooting for a person or group of people.

If you really want to be the biggest fan, find out who you can cheer for.

You can cheer for organizations fighting to cure MS or you can cheer on Bryan Bickell.

Clap for an agency or learn the name of the 30 employees that make up the team.

It’s people who are making the difference. Not flags, symbols, or entities with an emblem.

Stay Positive & Focus On The People

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