Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
There’s no good time to share an idea with someone.
It’s fun to convince ourselves that there is. You know. When it’s polished or when it’s with a friend who will like it by default. Those are safe bets but they’re not good bets.
There is a bad time to share an idea with someone, though.
Can you guess when the bad time is?
Stay Positive & The Answer: Tomorrow
If you want to get your craft to be more impactful (this applies to any craft/job/etc.,) then spend 2x the amount of time with the people for whom your craft is for.
Stay Positive & 2x The Time, But 10x The Results
It’s hard to notice if someone is driving better than you.
Hard to notice if someone is getting more out of a book than you are.
It’s hard to notice if the meaningful work you’re doing is actually making a difference.
Hard to notice if that “I appreciate you” you said to your colleague resonated with them.
You can start to imagine how easy it would be to note all the easy things there are to notice.
Which begs the question: which are you observing more of?
Stay Positive & What Gets Focused On Gets Formed
The thing that’s for everyone… can you believe that it started off as a thing for some? A few? A couple?
It’s clear where to start; rather, with who to start for.
Stay Positive & Focus On The Few
I worry about neighborhoods that stop developing and growing because of the togetherness it forges with people. Consider the togetherness experienced by students moving in the dorm together or a round of families moving into a new neighborhood at the same time because it was just built.
Or consider the power of workshops Seth Godin puts on or bootcamps by your local fitness facility.
The power of getting a group to be in something together is undeniable.
Which begs the question if you’re creating those moments or not?
It’s quite easy to be passive, a cog, and do the work to spec and hand it off to the next person.
The reward is minimal, though, too.
Stay Positive & Handshakes, Hugs, And Habits Go Along Way When Done With Others
It feels good to have answers, even if they are half-baked or entirely rotten.
Far more productive, however, to respond to a question with a follow up question.
Two results occur.
The first is that you learn something that can help make your answer better before giving it.
The second is that you learn to respond rather than react.
(If someone truly wanted reactions, they’d stick to asking social media.)
Stay Positive & What’s Your Default Response When Asked A Question?
Yup, the golden rule is to treat others the way you would want to be treated.
But the concept is so 1-1, direct, and immediate.
It does a very poor job of motivating people to have foresight; how to respond in a single moment, but for a future impact.
Consider a situation that you’re moving and then a new couple is moving into your house. Applying the golden rule may make you think simply of being nice and supportive of them when you meet them at your closing. You’re gonna treat them how you’d want to be treated when you interact.
But what about how you leave the house? Did you touch-up paint for them? Did you mow the lawn for them? These are actions that 1. they benefit from later and 2. you will never know if they appreciated your efforts. But it’s safe to say that you would have liked people to have treated you that way if you were moving into the house, no?
The golden rule is a great mentality, but like anything meaningful, it’s the nuances of it that actually make it shine.
Stay Positive & Future-State Is Just As Important As The Present Situation
