GarthBox

If you think of the person who’s running the show and how they got there, you’ll realize that no one chose them. They chose themselves.

 

Stay Positive & Could Be You, If You Choose

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Most business measurements are plotted against time.

Revenue over time.

Customer acquisition over time.

Website visits over time.

They’re important metrics, but more important are the ones that influence the revenue, customer acquisition and website visits. When you do X does A follow? What if you can do Y and get both A and B to follow?

In business, what matters are keystone metrics; metrics that when increased, permeate, ignite and increase other important metrics.

Turns out when you focus the attention of an aluminum manufacturing company on safety, a lot of other metrics begin to increase, not just fewer accidents.

The trick, of course, is the keystone metric that matters isn’t the one most people want to measure.

 

Stay Positive & Do Away With The Vanity Metrics

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There’s no such thing as not having a choice.

There are situations, however, where a choice might cause short-term pain for a long-term benefit.

There are choices that will make us uncomfortable. Choices that feel risky. Choices that might hurt at first. And certainly there are choices that we think others are responsible for making, not us.

And yet, here you stand, able to choose.

 

Stay Positive & It’s In Your Hands (Always)

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A question that indicates a person is working to be empathetic is a question that the person doesn’t already have an answer to.

“How’s it going?” isn’t an empathetic question because the expectation of the answer “good.”

Same with “How do you feel,” “What’s new?,” “How was your weekend?,” “How’s work?”

It’s worth asking yourself if you’re asking a person a question because social pressure forces you to do so or if you actually care to hear the answer.

If it’s the latter, maybe you can come up with a more empathetic question to ask, they deserve it.

 

Stay Positive & Dig Deeper

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Single events are often remarkable, for better or for worse.

Seldom do single events create major change, though.

What makes meaningful impact is a regime, consistency, showing up day after day.

 

Stay Positive & Drip Drip Drip

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Which is more interesting to you? The oldest lighthouse in the world or the creation of a new, first-of-its-kind one?

Some people will choose the same as you. Others, differently.

Now consider carrying this analogy over into the world of your muse.

Just because you’re young and you shipped the first of your life’s work doesn’t mean it will go unnoticed. Some people are blown away by new. Some people seek it out.

In other words,
you don’t need to be 70 years old to be respected.
you don’t need to change your work to be appreciated by a new generation.
you don’t need to have shipped for years to become recognized.

 

Stay Positive & Stick To What’s True To You

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There’s a saying that has stuck with me for years.

Make time, save time, while time lasts, all time, is no time, if time is past.

Make time: It’s not that you don’t have time. It’s that you haven’t made it. Own that next time someone calls you out for not having completed a task. “I didn’t have time” is not an honest reason. “I haven’t made time” is.

Save time: Cut the clutter. Cut the TV. Cut the wifi when you sleep until after you’ve had breakfast and read part of a book you picked at random. Time is precious. Care for it.

Past: As in history. Forget it, but remember what it taught you.

 

Stay Positive & The Clock Is Calling

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