There’s a defect in the implementation of good habits. Two, actually.
The first is that we think that a good habit is good, so we do more of it. And if we know anything, it’s that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Yet without acknowledging where the optimal rhythm is with a habit, we default to too much.
The second is that we think that a good habit is always good, so we never stop it. It’s a misstep in our thinking, a hiccup in our rationale. Running 8 miles a day might be a wonderful habit, but 8 miles might not be the right distance three years from now. Writing a book a year might be a wonderful habit, but it might do more harm than good once you’ve also started a family.
This doesn’t mean to quit the healthy habit; it merely means that we need to refine them.
Stay Positive & How Are Your Habits Really Treating You?
The more in maximum isn’t actually more; it’s moderation, optimization, the peak of an upside-down-U-curve – not the tail of it.
With anything, more quickly stops scaling. More can actually start to harm the idea, the business, the culture, etc.
I’d also argue that the optimal can often feel really small…even though it isn’t.
A turnout of thirty at trivia has a slew of strong benefits even if it doesn’t feel like a lot filled the space. A teacher working with six students can have an immense impact on their lives – far more than if she were to be teaching twelve and definitely more than if she were teaching twenty.
But we either get held up on it feeling like too few (the space could hold more, the time could be divided out more, our resources can be allocated further, and so on) or we get excited by how well things are going (this is working so well that we should do more!).
It’s those attitudes that burn us and why it’s better to focus on the minimum viable product, which contrary to the name doesn’t mean the least of what we can do, the smallest or the fewest.
It means the strongest impact we can make on someone – which just happens to coincide with what we feel is a small amount
The ripple effect of a meaningful impact on a few far outweighs that of a tiny impact across the masses.
More isn’t better. Better is better.
Stay Positive & Rather Than Go For More, Create Another MVP
There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense in the writing you read. A lot that doesn’t make sense in the shops you frequent. A lot that doesn’t make sense in the ideas that are pitched in the room.
But somehow they make sense. Not because it’s logical. Not because it’s guaranteed to work.
It makes sense because it took guts to do.
And leaping always, always makes sense.
Read a Tom Robbins book. Participate in an agency’s concepting phase. Visit Dick’s Last Resort for a meal.
Sweeping mistakes under the rug might hide them, but doing so ensures someone will trip or slip on them later.
Far better to address and learn from them; see them as a positive rather than a negative.
“Mistakes are misunderstood. Sure, they can be evidence of carelessness, but they can also mean that we danced close enough to the edge to find a new move.” – Beth Andrix Monaghan
Stay Positive & Place Them In The Trophy Case Instead
The most effective team leaders do two things for those on their team.
And here it is:
During weekly 1-1s, they 1. make sure the team member knows what’s expected of them and 2. they ensure that the team member has the opportunity to use their specific strength every day.
If we’ve learned anything from Batman it’s that his signal, that bat shaped light in the sky, is as important – if not more – than batman himself.
The light sends a message to everyone who sees it, whether they are a fan of batman or not. In fact, I guarantee that the light prevents more crimes from happening than batman has ever stopped from happening.
In real life of course, our batman’s may not always succeed and over time because something didn’t work the way we wanted to, we choose not to shine the light; to not send the signal.
And that fuels the downward spiral of more trouble, more work, more stress.
In business, we don’t have a single bat signal, we have many. Everything we choose to do, to host, to create sends a signal – regardless of whether it works, satisfies and people talk about the outcome of it.
Speaking from experience, a lot of events I’ve hosted could be considered failures. Few people showed, but that doesn’t mean people didn’t talk about it.
And that right there is the absolute magic of word of mouth: you don’t need to attend/experience/buy something to talk about it.
It helps when you do, of course, but it’s not necessary. “Oh, did you see that Maurice’s bookstore held a wine night last month? How cool is that?” And so word – the signal – spreads.
Take this as a plea to not be disheartened when an outcome doesn’t go the way you had hoped. By all means, try something different next time, but don’t stop trying things.
People need to see your signal again and again and again – and just when you’re finally fed up with trying, they show up to be part of the outcome. And then more show up and more show up and more show up.
Just as it can be a downward spiral if we stop sending the bat signal, it can be an upward spiral if we keep sending lots of them.
