Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
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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There’s really not a variety of options when you consider how long you need to do something.
Once you’re confident it’s time to either delegate it on or elevate it to the point of not being confident again.
It’s how progress is made, but it’s also how we get stuck.
Confidence is safe, it feels good, why stretch when we’re good at what’s in front of us?
Maybe it’s a better motto to keep doing things until you’re not confident again.
Stay Positive & Unstuck
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You put a coat of primer on a wall before you paint it for a few reasons.
Namely, it makes the work of putting your true paint color on easier. There’s already a smooth surface, the wall doesn’t absorb as much which would otherwise force you to have to put on multiple coats of your true color.
Most primers even come with a tint of the color that you plan on actually making the wall, so it doesn’t quite matter if you want it to be an exotic orange or electric green. You won’t break your back by using a primer.
Same premise of primers can be applied to your work, too.
The more proactive you communicate and let people know the direction you’re taking things, the easier those things will actually set in.
If you go at it without a primer, you’ll likely end up having to put more work in than planned or have to change the color entirely because they don’t fancy it.
Stay Positive & Why Risk It?
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That’s how most remarkable work is made.
A deadline arrives, we hustle, we focus, we lose any baggage and get to work.
Then we deliver and have a moment to revel in the work we did. But wait, it looks like there’s something there that could be better! And so we fine-tune it.
Sorta makes the case for self-imposed deadlines, doesn’t it?
Stay Positive & If It Works, It Works
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In the email you wrote, how much value did you add?
Of all the emails you wrote, how many added value?
Of each person you drove by or called today, how many did you add value with?
The value add isn’t just for the sake of making something better.
Knowing you’ve added value makes you feel fulfilled.
And that’s a good feeling.
Stay Positive & Can You Add More Tomorrow Than Today?
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