Life Lesson

Deadlines don’t need to only be for projects in progress.

They can be for meetings or emails, too.

They can be for connecting with others and having greater empathy today than you did yesterday.

Deadlines don’t just drive progress in work, they can drive progress in life, too–so long as we set them.

Stay Positive & Ready SET Go

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Our default setting is to seek reassurance and it’s strongest when we’re uncertain about something or when there’s a feeling of risk.

We needn’t ask around for others to offer us any certainty, though.

Clarity can be found in recalling who it’s for, who is the target, who is being impacted by the change you seek to make.

When you can make it about them (because that’s how it all started, anyway), you won’t need all that reassurance.

If it’s right for them, then it’s right.

Stay Positive & Back To Work

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You know what it’s like to know that there’s a trip you’ll be taking in the near future. Maybe it’s spring break or maybe it’s a summer holiday.

You know what it’s like to have plans to look forward to on the weekend. Maybe it’s seeing friends you haven’t in awhile or trying out a new restaurant.

But do you know what it’s like to have something to look forward to later today?

We know it makes getting up easier, rolling with the punches easier and, generally speaking, it makes us happier throughout the day.

So why don’t we have anything?

Stay Positive & Blackhawks Play Tonight, Maybe That’s Your Jam?

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People often ask how I stay so busy (in the positive sense). And my answer is always this:

I start with one thing. I accept one invitation or offer to help someone or project I’ve been daydreaming about. I leap over the fear just once.

Because that one thing inevitably leads me to connect with others and those connections inspire other meaningful work.

A quick example.

Had I never volunteered to work on a local guidebook, I wouldn’t have been introduced to a remarkable author who I’ve since done work for. Had I not done that, I wouldn’t have learned about a specific group of people who have helped me in my marketing career with a new client, which wouldn’t had inspired a fresh idea for a book I’m writing.

If you’re stuck in a rut, simply start with one thing. That’s it. One.

Stay Positive & Because It Leads To Another, Leads To Another, Leads To Another

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Edison had it right. Opportunity looks like work and that’s why it’s missed by most.

It doesn’t show up in a red dress.

It doesn’t show up with a “best if used by” date.

And it rarely shows up having already been worked on.

Opportunities are fresh, but hard, disguised as work, but frequent, missed by most, but not you.

Right?

Stay Positive & Time To Button Up The Overalls

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It’s incredible that we can trick ourselves into thinking it was at some time easy to do the thing that’s scary.

To start a business.

To propose to someone.

To leave a job.

The way people have gone through it all is by leaning into the scary. Doing so may make it easier, but never truly easy.

Ironically, once we aknowledge that it will never get easier, it somehow does.

Perhaps the mental battle (not the actual action) we have about meaningful work and decisions and shifts in our life is the hardest part.

Stay Positive & Time To Lean In

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When I ran a grant program within a state agency, my world view was a lot different than my coworker who ran a loan program.

Every day I was able to give money away for kids to go to college.

Every day my coworker had to tell people no and call to say it was time to pay the loans back.

You can imagine who was the happier of the two.

Those who read Success magazine adopt vastly different mindsets than those who read Us Weekly.

Doctors who are only seeing patients with problems might forget the billions who never have any.

The world may not be as bad as you think if you truly think about it. It’s worth remembering what world view you have.

Stay Positive & Believe What Helps (Not What Hurts)

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