GarthBox

Bonuses. Trust. Responsibility. Care.

They’re all things people want and appreciate.

But the thing they need?

For us to remember that we’re all human.

When we zero in on our humanity, the rest of what we deserve tends to follow.

Stay Positive & Human

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Any good group starts off with good people. The kind of people that if they were in any other group, they would be doing the bulk of the work. But this isn’t any other group.

Then the group gets the most out of itself by asking questions, in both directions. Questions of generous skepticism of others’ ideas as well as questions of areas that one needs help in.

Lastly the group understands the change they are wanting to collectively make. No change, then there’s no point in getting together.

It’s quite a simple recipe, except what I failed to mention is that it also requires two parts guts, three parts curiosity, four cups of care and enough vulnerability to taste.

Stay Positive & Best Recipe Around

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If you don’t plan on contributing or using anything from it, then the answer is simply: don’t go.

But it warrants a push of “can you contribute anything to the meeting?” and “can I learn anything from this meeting that might be able to help me on my course?”

If the answer is yes to either, then show up and make it happen.

There’s more to contribute and more to learn than what first meets the eye.

And, of course, this goes for more than meetings: get togethers, events, seminars, happy hours, email threads, instead message channels, and so on.

Stay Positive & Use Your Attitude To Your (And Others’!) Advantage

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Measuring input can be fairly simple.

You’ve got to put X amount of time in to do thing A and Y amount of time to do thing B. Naturally we gravitate to whatever is the shortest input. And this might work for putting a dent in to-do lists, but not always when you want to make a dent in change or impact or reward.

Measuring output can be much more difficult, but worth it.

A handwritten card (input) might take longer, but it has a far greater impact on the person (output) than if you were to send a mass email that you put two minutes into drafting.

One measurement isn’t always better to choose, but it’s worth knowing which measurement you’re really making decisions based on.

Stay Positive & This For That

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Big ideas draw a lot to their light.

You’ll draw the skeptics out from hiding. The naysayers and gremlins, too.

You’ll draw the worry from family and friends.

You’ll draw the curiosity of acquaintances and community members and neighbors.

You’ll draw the requests of charities and nonprofits.

And most fortuitously, you’ll draw the generous, too.

These aren’t signs to turn off the light; they’re signs to shine it brighter.

Stay Positive & Shine On

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There’s no such thing as a bad list. Just good ones, great ones and really great ones.

One of the really great ones is the loved it, loathed it list.

Throughout your week, each day you keep track of the work tasks you loved and the tasks you loathed.

After one week, you begin doing what you need to do to make the love list longer and loath list shorter.

Not only will you feel better with the transition, all those you work with will, too.

Another really great list is the one you get others to make, too.

p.s. the goal isn’t to reduce the loathed list to none. 51 percent loved is a great space to aim for.

Stay Positive & Time To Get To Work

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We have more in our control than we might feel.

When we’re on a losing streak, when things aren’t going our way, when the pressures of the outside world get heavy inside our world, there’s a lot we can do.

We can mix things up, we can pivot. We can learn something new and invite a friend along. We can move. We can practice meditation/dancing with our emotions. We can ask for help and share our story with others.

We can also sit and wait for maybe the world to cut us a break or to finally pick us. We could. But it’s not as fun, it’s not guaranteed it will, and it might be a really really long time – unless we do something about it.

There’s always something we can do about it.

And it starts with choosing.

Stay Positive & Choose To Win

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