Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
If you were to leave the venue right now, what would you do instead?
If you were to leave your job right now, what would you do instead?
If you were to leave your relationship, what would you do instead?
Probably best to make time to do those things before you feel you have to leave to do those things.
Stay Positive & The Time Is Yours For The Using
Those two words aren’t often used as an expression of a single motion… but they ought to be.
Consider the growth potential of consistent leaping, trying something new, stretching too far…
And before you think of how painful it is, need I remind us both of how painful normal practice is.
Doing something to spec. Again. And again. And again.
I used to practice playing guitar. Practicing the chords again and again. My fingers hurt so bad after it.
I also practiced failing miserably at guitar. I tried shredding again and again. (I listened to a lot of Dragonforce when I was younger). The result? My fingers hurt so bad after it.
Same result. But both kinds of practice made me better than if I only chose one way to practice.
Stay Positive & One Two Punch
The way a person leaves your company might be a reflection of the culture you’ve built.
The way someone reacts vs. responds to your candor might be a reflection of the leadership mentality you’ve drafted.
It’s not always a reflection. People will be who they are. But it’s worth considering, if only for a few moments, that it is a reflection.
What would you do differently to change it? Make it more likely for the outcomes you want?
Stay Positive & No Culture Is Perfect Unless There’s A Blind Eye
Responsibility is a bit addictive.
It works best when we take it ourselves.
But giving it in small doses may be exactly what someone needs to get going down the right path (or to simply avoid the wrong one).
“I’d like you to X during the meeting” is a great assignment to give your report. “I could use some of your help at the front desk” is impactful to.
Neither are demanding, but both carry a bit of responsibility.
Stay Positive & Use The Hook
What do you want to leave people with.
A story?
A feeling?
Something to brag about?
Something to complain about?
Every interaction we have, we have influence over what we leave them with.
An idea?
A surge of motivation?
The choice is ours.
Stay Positive & What Did You Give?
You wouldn’t want to build out a shop without sketching it out.
So why would you write a novel without an outline?
Why would you enter a relationship without guardrails to your sense of self?
Why would you run a marketing campaign without considering what both success and failure look like?
You could guess how large of a deck you want built on your house, but the amount you discover when you actually draw it out is…well, incredibly defining, informative, challenging, inspiring…
Stay Positive & Winging It Is For Amateurs
You can keep telling yourself no one wants to hear your point of view, but that’s just you hiding.
Someone is out there and the worst part is they don’t know what they’re missing.
A CEO of a company I admire posted his thoughts on a conference he attended. It’s the first time he’s done it. They’re real thoughts. They’re his thoughts (and probably a culmination of others’ thoughts from conversations, too, naturally).
It was inspiring. A rally cry to his organization and its customers. It’s a post that people who have read it would say they would be less informed/inspired than if they hadn’t.
Truth is, some would say the same to the idea that you’ve kept in the four walls of your head.
The ability to share a message may be free these days. The real cost is in not taking advantage of it.
Stay Positive & Sharing Is Caring, And We Know We Can Use More People Who Care
