Author: Garth Beyer

One of the responses I frequently get when I riff about figuring out how to gift something in every connection you have with another is that there’s not always something to gift.

I still call b.s.

Another way to consider what to give is what to give back.

Ending a meeting early when it doesn’t need to go any longer is a gift.

So is giving the same level of energy and attention the leader of your project gave you when they kicked it off.

Refunds are considered credits for a reason.

Stay Positive & There’s Always Something You Can Give

Those are the two options when something you’re doing isn’t going the way you want.

One is obviously way easier, though it comes with a lot of emotional weight.

The other takes an open-mind, curiosity, collaboration, ideation, and a strong willpower.

Sort of obvious which is more fulfilling to take, isn’t it?

Stay Positive & The Best Part Of Pivoting? You Can Always Pivot Again

The concept of not liking a job really isn’t a thing for the curious.

The idea that you wouldn’t like a book genre doesn’t apply to the curious, either.

Nor does the type of people you’ll interact with throughout the day.

The curious seek out lessons and value in whatever is in front of them.

Stay Positive & Good Thing Curiosity Is A Choice, Huh?

If you wait until the end of the party to tell your kid it’s time to leave, you’re bound to get tears.

It might be better to tell them when you’re leaving as soon as you get there.

It might actually be better to tell them about it that morning.

If you wait until the end of year review to tell your new hire your expectations for the year, they’re bound to have fallen short of them.

It might be better to tell them after a few months; once they’ve onboarded enough and learned the ropes.

It might actually be better to tell them all the clear expectations during the interview.

Just about every relationship you could imagine does better (via less friction, that is) when you’re quick to communicating expectations.

Stay Positive & Early Is Better (Might As Well Throw “Often” Into That Too)

At the core of most situations that people remark about is difficulty; whether they acknowledge it was hard or not.

I just stepped out of a bar that had a retro theme this week. They had their cocktail menu designed as a CD booklet and placed in a CD disc case. It was beautiful. Nostalgic. Remarkable.

Right now we’re planning a tiki-themed week at Garth’s Brew Bar. I couldn’t help but empathize with the person (or more likely people) who had to design, source, fold, and stock that menu on top of sourcing actual retro CDs [and not just what they could find in their parents basements].

Just the same, I couldn’t help but think of all the ways they could have cut corners (make it a single page, use a friend’s printer, tape it in the disc, get whatever…and so on).

At the core of it: difficulty.

Without knowing exactly the steps they took or had to take …rather, chose to take; I knew it was difficult to execute. That’s what made it remarkable.

Makes you relook at things you call hard, doesn’t it? Because to someone else, it’s remarkable.

Stay Positive & Make More Magic

How would your work differ if you treated it like you were going on vacation tomorrow?

How would your family dinners change if you treated it like the power had gone out and your phone battery died?

How would your ideation change if you acted like you were an improv expert with your own Netflix special about it?

Cool part is that you don’t need permission to treat anything differently than you are.

Stay Positive & What If You Treated This Post Like A Sign?

Straight to it: no one has thrown a fit, reported another to HR, quit the project or held someone by knife point because they were given a reminder by someone who cares. (Read: the reminder being intentionally positive.)

And now thanks to chatgpt, you can ask it to come up with 100 more caring or fun ways to say “Friendly reminder, I need your feedback on this by Tuesday EOD.”

Or better yet, train it up on the type of personality of the person you’re needing to give a reminder to and then ask it.

What you’ll find is it might not be them that’s the problem and who need a reminder, but you on how you’ve communicated so far.

You win either way when you lean in.

Stay Positive & They Win, Too