Author: Garth Beyer

The questions worth asking are often the ones worth asking again and again and again.

• How could we make this better?
• Are we talking to ourselves?
• Do the actions we’re planning to take today align with our end goal?
• What did we learn?
• Why?
• Why not?
• Will they give a shit?

If you don’t ask the questions or if you ask the questions and the answers change, it’s a red flag. Indicative you may be off the right path or you have stopped moving forward.

If you ask the questions and the answers don’t change, it’s a red flag. Indicative you’ve given up trying new things, pushing boundaries, and finding new edges to dance on.

When we go fishing for answers, it’s the fishing that matters.

No, there’s no right answer. That’s not the point of asking the questions.

 

Stay Positive & Curious With Questions

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It doesn’t really matter what you make with lemons, what matters is you use everything you can from them, squeeze them, get the most out of them.

The way lemons (opportunities) work in life is they’re repeatable. Once you squeeze something out of a lemon, you get to do it again. And again. And again.

We live in a world of endless lemons.

As a little ol’ intern in a PR agency, I would squeeze all I could from those bigger and better than me. I would ask to sit in on meetings where things would fly over my head and I would have to connect the dots and pick up on the lingo and ask questions that made me feel stupid for not knowing the answer to. I squeezed the lemons.

Then I got hired full-time at that agency. Do you think I stopped squeezing the lemons?

I wanted to. After all, I got what I was hoping for. It was hard to keep squeezing lemons, but it goes back to my post on taking initiative; it doesn’t get easier, especially as you reach the larger goals you set for yourself.

In fact, it gets easier to settle, to stop, to let the lemons sit there and rot.

 

Stay Positive & It Doesn’t Get Easier, But It Will Always Be Worth It

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Unlike many other concepts in the world, I’m not completely sure taking initiative gets easier the more you do it.

I’ve trail-blazed for four years now and I still get uncomfortable when I start to take initiative. I still feel the urge to get approval, to have some reassurance, some support to lead.

There are two activities you can do to help move forward.

The first is to remind yourself the fear you feel when you begin to take initiative is not an indicator that you shouldn’t take it. Responsibility is uncomfortable. As Brene Brown says, you can’t be courageous and comfortable at the same time.

Secondly, I remind myself of how what I’m doing will benefit others. I fight my lizard brain with a cost-benefit analysis. While it only looks at the harm to myself, I look at the benefit my initiative will offer to others.

Hope this helps.

 

Stay Positive & Go Take Initiative

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The concept of a leader is that those who you lead are followers.

What if you pushed back on that? What would change in your attitude if you lead leaders, not just followers. What if you put enough trust in those you lead to keep moving forward if you removed yourself from the equation?

I’m not sure you’re a true leader if your followers would disband after your departure.

 

Stay Positive & Are You Leading Right?

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I was advised early on to focus on the what and less on the how. I was told the how would work itself out if I focused on the what enough.

The thinking goes if you want a motorcycle, focus on the motorcycle, the type, the engine size, the color. Think about how it will feel to ride it, to have it, to clean it.

Do so, and the how of how you will obtain it will work itself out.

I had a tough time agreeing with the concept of focusing more on the what and less on the how until I realized…

The how isn’t about not making a plan and standing still, it’s about not making a plan and forging forward in different ways. The how isn’t something you can plan to the T. The how is something you test. The how requires you to wiggle, to stumble, to push, shove and kick.

Think about how much time is spent planning for things when the only guarantee about a plan is that it’ll change, maybe in a big way and maybe only slightly, but it will change.

Those who get what they want are the ones who try a hundred different methods to get it, not the ones who spend a hundred hours planning a single path to attainment.

 

Stay Positive & Slam The Gas Pedal

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There’s a reason why Starbucks cup sizes are referred to what they are.

There’s a reason valet drivers are dressed one way at one hotel and another way at a casino.

There’s a reason no McDonalds attendant has ever said, “don’t worry about it, this one’s on me.”

Every detail of the buyer’s journey (and yours as the owner, marketer, curator, employer) has to be consist with the brand story, from the color of the walls to your email signoff.

 

Stay Positive & Consistency Leads To Efficiency And Efficiency Leads To Profit

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