Life Lesson

Isn’t the broadside of a barn an easier target than a 4×4 box with a 1-inch circle in the middle?

Our default setting is to seek the easy. Of the nearly 2,500 posts I’ve written, I’d say a solid 25% start like this: “It’s easy to ______ but _____.”

Ultimately “easy” leads to overall discontent, meaninglessness and the loss of mattering.

When it comes to expanding your target … don’t.

Get up close and personal with a core group. Decide (and that’s the most important part) who matters most. Be okay not appealing to everyone (because you won’t be able to, anyway).

Also note that you’re not excluding others, rather, you’re prioritizing who will benefit most from the most meaningful version of your product or service.

It’s raising the bar on all parties with the risk of upsetting a few. But that risk is what makes it difficult, and what makes it difficult is what makes it important work.

Invest energy into the outer layers of your target later (or you might find you’ll never have to).

 

Stay Positive & Shorten Your Radius

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It’s not necessarily that we need more great ideas to get unstuck.

We simply need more ideas.

Lists of them with the mindset of “this might not work, but let’s write it down anyway.”

Lists of ideas that might not feel on target, but are still ideas.

We need ideas from every person’s perspective.

Ideas that seem preposterous, ideas that seem categorized, ideas that seem too little and others too large.

There’s not a single problem or setback that an idea can’t get you out of.

Alas, you must find it.

 

Stay Positive & We’re ALL In The Idea Business

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This is post # 2,401.

It’s not that I have great ideas and then I write.

I write and then I have great ideas.

 

Stay Positive & Same Can Be Said For Any Work

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The reason there’s conflict with feedback is that each of us has a default setting for how we give it.

We’re set to give radical candor the way we would want to receive it.

The same goes for how we love, how we run a business, how we organize our work stations, how we give charitably, and how we handle our morning routine.

Once we can see an interaction for what it really is–an opportunity to listen and to give what the other(s) actually want to receive–we begin shaping a better world for them and for ourselves.

 

Stay Positive & It’s About Them Then You

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The moment there’s a disagreement, ego chimes in.

Someone needs to be the smartest in the room, right?

Someone needs to step up and make a decision, right?

Better to always be asking, “Who is it for?”

What does the target care about? Will they understand it when they see it? Does it make their life easier, better, fuller? Will they thank you?

In the end, it doesn’t matter what you think the order of a set of icons should be. What matters is how the visitor wants the order to be.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if the creative makes you chuckle. What matters is if it makes the target chuckle.

Put on the ABA hat. Always be asking.

Who is it for? Who is it for? Who is it for?

 

Stay Positive & At Least We Know One Thing, It’s Not For You

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The cost of action is almost always less now than it is later.

The seldom penalty of taking actoin early often outweighs the consequence of waiting too long.

Thrashing (not the good early kind, but the belated kind) is expensive.

The difference between action now and action later is one is an investment, one is a cost.

 

Stay Positive & Better To Get Paid, Than To Do The Paying

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Those who mentor are those who are directing you down a path they’re certain (to a degree) will lead to success. Mentors are there to answer your questions and to ask even more thoughtful ones.

Coaches, however, are more direct. Do this. Do that. Push yourself down a path and see if it’s the right one. It’s likely it’s not, but you’ll learn for it and I’ll be here to cheer you on either way.

Motivators are merely there to inspire. Not to dangle a carrot at the end of a stick, but to highlight what success is, to showcase stories of both failure and success in the world you want to live in.

Sponsors pull you up. They’re not just a leader, they’re someone who carves out opportunities just for you. When you succeed, they succeed. They have skin in the game.

It’s worth knowing which role you’re playing and even more worth knowing which role your friend, colleague, boss, significant other or sibling needs you to play.

 

Stay Positive & Be What They Need, Not What You Enjoy Being More

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