Life Lesson

You might care more than the person who did X before you.

You might have more passion, researched more and got more eyeballs on you, but it’s unlikely the market, the audience, the spectators will care.

What they’re looking for is someone who cares so much that they’re willing to put themselves out on the edge to do something different.

The same magic trick gets old, no matter how passionately you do it.

 

Stay Positive & What’s Your Twist?

Photo credit

I think of a crisis as something that happens that puts the eyes of a massive audience all on you.

Typically, it occurs when something doesn’t go right.

I’d argue that a plan needs to be crafted for when things go beyond right.

How do you and your organization respond/react when things go far better than projected, when a proposal happens in your venue, when a famous person stops in, when a staff member saves a customer’s life?

 

Stay Positive & Plan For The The Good, To

Photo credit

I used to have a digital list of all those who rejected an idea I had worked on for two years.

Also on the list were those who I would never trust with my business again (some HR people, manufacturers, etc,.).

I’ve gotta tell you – walking around with all of that was exhausting.

Keeping tabs of all those who have rejected or actively put your ideas down actually helps them ensure your idea never sees the light of day.

After noticing the weight I bared, I tossed the list and started a new one.

All those who have supported my ideas. The ones who have gone an extra mile for me. The ones who have approved and then elevated my work.

Things have been far better since.

 

Stay Positive & See You On Cloud 9

Photo credit

It’s beneficial to be a follower.

You can learn a lot from traveling down a well-lit path.

But you can’t be a follower and a maker at the same time.

A maker finds their magic in the unknown, the untraveled path, in the act of trailblazing.

Once a maker, it’s hard to want to become a follower again.

But once a follower, it’s easy to get stuck on a comfortable path someone laid out and never become a maker.

 

Stay Positive & Go Where The Magic Is

Photo credit

It’s so incredibly easy to focus on the easy parts first. But consider your chances…

Chances are that you have a whole new suite of easy parts to handle after you do the hard part.

Chances are that the hard part will take even longer to do because you focused on the easy parts first.

Chances are you’ll have to return to the easy parts you did first and fine tune them based on what you learned from doing the hard part.

Chances are people will ask you about the hard part before they ask you how you’re doing with the easy parts.

 

Stay Positive & Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

Photo credit

With enough insight and forward thinking, we arrive at an answer to many a problem.

We have the answer to increasing sales or the answer to flipping a house.

We find the answer to a frustrating coding problem and the answer to becoming an IG influencer.

Yet, an answer – for some reason – is only as strong as how you share it.

The tendency for most is to blurt it out. After all, usually a lot of time has been spent on figuring something out, so out of excitement and relief we yell it out.

But yelling out the answer doesn’t get others to move with you. It doesn’t make them part of the solution. It doesn’t get them excited.

(Remember in elementary school when someone would forget to raise their hand, blurt out the answer and the rest of the class would look at that person with serious disapproval? The working environment is much the same.)

Best to consider how you answer, how you share the solution, and, more importantly, how you shape the story of it.

Nothing is quite so motivating as an elegantly shared answer. An answer swaddled with story is something we can all get behind.

 

Stay Positive & Gives New Meaning To Show & Tell, Doesn’t It?

Photo credit

The chances of you forgetting all the words to your speech is pretty slim.

The potential that the meeting you scheduled will go horribly wrong isn’t much of a potential.

The likelihood of your project completely failing isn’t all that great.

When the lizard brain speaks up and fills your head with all the things that could go wrong, plot them.

Create your likeliness scale and position each of your concerns on there.

You’ll quickly find they’re not as real-life possibilities as your brain is telling you they are.

 

Stay Positive & One In A Million

Photo credit