GarthBox

Here’s a fun activity: list out the things you’ve invested in in the last couple of years.

Next to that, take an educated guess at how many times you mentioned each in that same time.

Did those running shoes you purchased come up in conversation a dozen+ times as you told people about how you got them to train for a half-marathon?

Did that espresso machine get mentioned as part of how you’re promoting the expansion of your business?

How many times does that sales program you invested in get mentioned at your company?

You can measure mentions, not just on a social network. But the indicator of the number of mentions is the same. More = value output.

Stay Positive & What Will You Do About Those With Few Mentions?

MotoGP racing is remarkable. No one is going to watch a motorcycle drive 5mp through the Isle of Man regardless of how beautiful the track is.

Your boss won’t watch or notice you work if your colleague is faster to executing ideas than you. Harsh truth is that’s the case even if your idea is better.

Insights from the Silicon Valley mindset, Jonathan Taplin hit the nail on the head when he titled his book “Move fast and break things”

We can argue all day about the actual effectiveness of it, but we can’t argue about the reality that speed is a spectator sport. People watch people who move fast and break things. Actually, they do more than watch. They cheer. They promote. They advocate for.

If we want to move forward, to be chosen, to do something remarkable, it has to be seen.

Stay Positive & Speed Gets Seen

There’s really no more powerful way to lead than by example.

Smarts, experience, years, knowledge, and awards only gets you so far with your sphere of influence.

But if you want someone completely on board with your leadership, you have to lead by example.

It doesn’t mean you have to sign up to always do the work, but at least once and visibly.

The bar owners needs to be seen mopping the floors.

The sales leader needs to close a deal.

The event organizer needs to host one for her own team.

Could you imagine signing up to listen to someone talk about writing a book from someone who hasn’t?

Why would we accept anything less in any other area of work?

Stay Positive & Do You Have Your Example?

Ya can’t be mad if you didn’t do the reading.

Can’t be mad if it didn’t go as planned (it never does).

Ya can’t be mad if the deadline isn’t met.

Can’t be mad someone else didn’t do it the way you would.

This list can go on forever for two reasons.

1. even when something is bad, you have the choice to find something positive in it. Ya can’t be mad about something that makes you better.
2. you may not have complete control of an outcome, but you can always influence it. That’s on you.

That’s not to say be endlessly hunky dory. It’s more of a scenario of either being happy or focused on forward movement rather than happy or mad.

Stay Positive & What’ll It Be Today?

Though what you look at is important, it’s not nearly as important as what you see.

What do you see what you look at a problem or challenge?

What do you see when you look in the mirror?

What do you see when you look at someone struggling?

What do you see when you look back at life? Forward? The present?

We may not always get to decide what we look at. But what we see? That’s entirely up to us.

Stay Positive & It Pays To Look, But It Pays More To See

It pays to consider what you could have done to get to the point of becoming excited sooner.

Consider the last time your boss (or a colleague if you are the boss), came up with a new tactic to hit the business goals. You’re jazzed. It sounds smart and you’re excited to tackle it.

The common manager proceeds forward, but the aspiring leader? Don’t you think they should have been the one to come up with the tactic?

I won’t say becoming a remarkable leader is easy but one practice to getting there is to think about what will get you (and others) excited.

If you’re just checking your task list off, focusing on the mundane, the safe, the stuff that doesn’t excite, you’re hiding.

(To clarify: not that a leader quits that stuff just to do what is exciting but they carve time to ideate what will excite)

Stay Positive & Time Isn’t Given, It’s Made

People aren’t that complex.

If you’re holding a work meeting, I’d put money on you being able to make a decent guess at what people who show up are really showing up for.

If you’re bartending, you can take a guess at what guests are really coming in for the moment you see them walk through the door.

If you’re laying awake next to your significant other, you can feel what they are really in the relationship for.

The only action that separates you from helping others out is taking the moment to consider what they are really there for.

Stay Positive & Not Rocket Science (But Making Time And Being Intentional To Evaluate May Be)