GarthBox

Reality is that those who maintain the basics are the ones to excel further than those who try to stray away.

The basics of putting things back where you found them, the basics of common sense etiquette, the basics of leaving a place/conversation/work better than how you found it, the basics of listening more than talking.

You can go above and beyond, but what people remember and care most about is that you’ve got the basics down, consistently and with care.

Stay Positive & Take Time For The 101

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You can do two, three, four things at once.

You can be in a meeting and do unrelated work at the same time.

You can drive an Uber and take a call with a friend.

You can draft a blog post, listen to your kid and eat at the same time.

We can but it doesn’t mean we should. Efficiencies drop. Focus ebbs and flows. And, more often than not, we leave someone else short – and that’s not cool.

Respond “not attending” to the meeting. Set aside time for your call. Listen first, blog and eat later.

Stay Positive & Prioritize

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Listening closely enough, asking questions with the delightful weight of you caring to know the answer and then truly seeing a person. That’s the hard work.

Committing yourself to see a project through the end and applying polish to every piece of it and keeping it consistent with the target (who it’s for). That’s the hard work.

Creating an experience, connecting people around it and then giving them enough reasons to tell others about it. That’s the hard work.

It’ll never get easier. But it will always be worth it.

Stay Positive & Enjoy The Climb

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Our feet do a lot for us. They carry our weight day in and day out. They give us balance and help us move forward.

There are people who do the same, too.

And there’s some work or hobby or passion that does it as well.

Which begs the question if we’re as grateful for all that supports us as we should be.

Stay Positive & There’s Always Time To Break For Gratitude

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There are a lot of weaknesses we have. And they’re often obvious.

Maybe we took a personality test to learn them or we read about our weaknesses in a performance review. Alas, there are weaknesses.

But none are as deceptive and often overlooked as the weaknesses that are made from our strengths.

That’s when the real dance and challenge begins. Not to repress our strengths, but to use different ones for different situations.

Stay Positive & Will You Accept The Challenge?

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Some people notice when everything is organized.

Others notice when it’s clean.

Others notice that you say goodbye as they’re leaving.

Some people notice the bags you place their goods in.

Others notice that there’s no echo-chamber in your space.

Not everyone will notice the details you care about, but some will; and some is all you need to succeed.

Stay Positive & Keep Caring

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Every opportunity that presents itself doesn’t need to be captured.

Rather, it’s better to go for the ones we really want and not let the presence of one dictate whether we leap or not.

Stay Positive & Be Choosy

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