Life Lesson

In the day-to-day, routine may have you sending work to others who will then ship it.

The expectation is that they’ll review it before sending it into the world. They’ll catch your spelling error or missing page or they’ll spot and fix the formatting.

While there are some remarkables in the world who make time to review, most don’t.

The onus is on you to respect their trust and to deliver the greatest work you can create.

It means you invest the time in reading it over again. It means you place yourself in the shoes of the future recipient and critically evaluate the work on their behalf. It means you would be proud of your work if it got shipped as is…because much of the time, it does.

 

Stay Positive & Ready To Ship?

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The cop-out assumption about professional development is that you need time.

Better, though, to use the constraint of time to work smarter, differently, expertly on a specific problem.

The issue usually isn’t time; it’s the number of problems your working to solve because you wanted to fill all of your time.

Focus. Minimize. Focus again.

 

Stay Positive & Let The Small (Focused) Things Add Up

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Certainly there are times when good enough is just that–good enough.

But other times, specifically when you have time, it could always be better.

The amateur ships anyway. The artist spends the extra tad of time to make it better.

 

Stay Positive & Which Are You Again?

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You can put yourself out there more often. After all, obscurity is your worst enemy.

You can invest time in learning more often. After all, doing the reading is what it takes to be seen as an expert.

You can connect to more people more often. After all, it’s the connections that make both the good and bad times better.

You can travel more often. After all, there’s so much to learn from other cultures to reuse in your own.

First step, of course, is to do it. The second, is to do it more often.

 

Stay Positive & Did You Really Think It Would Be A One And Done?

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You’re pissed off. Frustrated. You’re upset with how things turned out.

It’s likely you’re reacting to a situation.

Responding is a far smarter choice.

Take a moment to consider what someone more experienced than you would do in your position.

Stop to think through what you have control over and a next step to make the situation better.

Count to ten or go out for fresh air if you need to, but whatever it is you do, be sure you’re responding, not reacting.

 

Stay Positive & There’s Always Someone Watching By The Way

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As the work gets more difficult, so does the act of holding yourself accountable.

I like to think that each day we have a meter filled with willpower and throughout the day it drains. Once the work gets larger, the willpower depletes more quickly, and the first sign of a near-empty meter is a lack of self-accountability.

A quick safe-guard you can put in place is to have someone else hold you accountable… but without them knowing it. Set up a meeting to have someone smart review the work that you’ve put off. Sometimes you need that added layer of disappointing a friend to get you working.

 

Stay Positive & Keeping Trust Keeps Us All Moving Forward

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Sometimes it’s not the service, it’s you.

The barbershop on the west side of town is there for a specific kind of customer. They’re not going to remember your name next time you stop in. They won’t remember you get a 2 on the sides. They won’t remember your fiance’s name. They are there to fulfill a specific need of a specific customer.

It can be easy to think they should be taking notes of when your birthday is, what cut you got, and where you’re traveling over the weekend, but that’s not them. The moment they begin to do that, they fall out of line with their positioning.

It’s not always about being the best in the world, it’s about being the best to a target.

And for that barbershop, their target is men who need a last second hair-cut that they can relax while getting. The haircut is their place to escape, not to be absorbed by.

 

Stay Positive & For Some It’s Not About Making A Shop Better, It’s About Finding A New Shop (And That’s Okay)

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