Life Lesson

Sometimes I can see my daughter is about to get a little hurt; she’s about to make a mistake.

And I let it happen.

There’s nothing that will lock in a lesson better than her making the mistake. I could tell her what will happen in a variety of tones and ways. I can show her videos of it happening to others. She can even watch her sister make the same mistake. But nothing sticks as well as her doing it.

Which it’s not far off to think we benefit just the same.

The other reality: many of the times I think it’s going to be a mistake for her…. it’s not.

Which it’s not far off to think we mistake ourselves just the same.

Perhaps the next time you feel fear/hesitation creep in, it’s worth treating yourself similarly. Give the grace to make the mistake. If it ends up being one, you learn more from it. And if it ends up not being one, well, kudos.

Stay Positive & Kind Of A Win Win, Isn’t It?

That’s where the gold is. That’s where the work is. That’s where the education is.

It’s in that space between the question and the answer.

You’ll find diffusion between question and answer. You’ll find passion, too.

Asking someone a question that gets them to think is the best kind of question.

And the thinking that happens is far better than any kind of answer that can be given.

Stay Positive & What Kind Of Questions Are You Asking (Yourself?)

You can wait until inspiration hits… or you can get to work, strategize, take action and allocate time for spontaneity.

Process is when you start to take action, spontaneity takes care of itself.

The world reacts to what we do. Turns out it responds better when we take the first step than waiting for it to take its.

Stay Positive & Fun Happens When You Do

There’s actually more than one silver lining of change, but here’s one that I appreciate more times than not: change brings out the child inside us.

We’re excited, but nervous. Anxious is a great word. As soon as we find the ledge to hold onto, we’re fine putting our feet out in the water to get a sense of the unknown. We get to look at change with uncertainty, of course, but also with awe.

It’s a lot like bringing a kid to a new city or space. They’re optimistically skeptical. They’re composed. They’re curious.

That’s not a bad feeling; it’s a transitional one.

Stay Positive & Lean Into The Transition

It’s great to be a knight in shining armor. It’s fulfilling to solve a problem fast.

That’s one kind of human personality.

The other that this one interacts with is often an active resistor.

When someone is being faced with a large change, they hate it right away. They want to resist it. They’re vocal about their emotions about the change.

Match this person with that knight in shining armor and you have a recipe for disaster.

Reason being? Active resisting is often short-term. They don’t want a problem solved. They want to be listened to.

There was a management change for a friend of mine recently. He was irate about it. Vocal. Pissed off. It took all my energy to NOT convince him of the benefits…to shut up and listen. After listening a bit, I told him to take the night and sleep on it and that we could talk about it more the next day. The next day came and he’d come to terms with the change and started to see the positive. No shining armor was ever needed.

Again, it’s so easy to try to swoop in and rescue others. Far better, though, for both parties energies to listen and let it sit at least for a night before a bag of solutions is opened.

Stay Positive & Active Resistor, Meet Active Listener

There’s a lot of reasons to overdo something.

You’re bound to create a remarkable experience for a guest if you overdo it with the service.

You’re bound to be treated with more respect and love from your significant other if you overdo the ways you care about them.

You’re bound to benefit in some way down the road when you overdo it on that project at work.

Overdone actions get noticed and appreciated (though maybe don’t apply this concept to cooking steak).

The most important reason to overdo it IMO: because it’s fun.

It’s fun to treat others. Fun to surpass a goal. Fun to give more than expected.

Stay Positive & There’s Little Fun In A Perfect Amount

Can you cut 10k words from your novel?

Can you answer a question about the future of your business in no more than two sentences?

Can you write that email in one paragraph?

Short, of course, is not the goal. Getting it short enough that you feel that if you made it any shorter, the recipient would have less value out of it is the goal.

Find that feeling and you’ve found the shortest, most impactful path from a to b.

Stay Positive & Shorter Is Harder, Harder Is Better