Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
Let’s make one idea clear first: There’s one type of failure you never want to embrace, and it’s the failure of not trying.
The failures that are important are the ones that move you forward, that you learn from, that you get better because.
If you’re not convinced failure is a good thing, then take a look at it compared to success.
A friend wrote this to urge the universe, and I couldn’t be more thankful for it. Enjoy.
Stay Positive & Fail Some More
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Before you know it, your day is shot.
Work is backed up. People are waiting on you. You’re feeling overwhelmed.
It’s moments when you feel this way that you have to ask yourself, “how did I get here?”
The answer is probably a complicated one. A lot of things happened that you didn’t expect. Or things took longer than you had planned. Or something popped up. All valid.
But more often than not, it’s because you pivoted and went down a slide.
Call it a tipping point or a bad decision; you did something to disrupt the flow of your day.
Since getting back on track after you have gone downhill is so exhausting, better to acknowledge and mark your pivot points and slides.
What time of day do you usually get thrown off track? How can you prevent a pivot point like receiving a phone call while you’re in the middle of a project?
Focusing on one thing becomes a lot easier when you remove the possibility of focusing on anything else.
Stay Positive & Make Your White Space
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It’s terribly difficult to measure how difficult a task will be in the future.
There’s too much uncertainty. Anything could happen. Negative Nancy has low expectations and loves to share them with you.
But the truth is, it’s easy to influence the level of difficulty something will be at kickoff, on the path to completion and even after the project is complete if you put enough effort into setting yourself (or your team) up for success.
Preparation definitely feels like a time suck, especially when a deadline is near; it feels like you ought to be spending that hour performing, not preparing.
I write to say, fight that urge. Your team will be thankful.
Stay Positive & Don’t Confuse Patience With Preparation
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“It makes sense, but I don’t think people will buy into it.”
When there’s resistance to an idea based on the premise of simply not being ready (the market, the people, the idea), then it’s not a matter of sharing more proof of why it will work.
More facts and data and validation points simply wade people down. At some point the proof stops convincing and starts affirming their perception of it being too much.
Rather than give more proof, consider what you can do to make them more ready.
Imagine convincing someone to cross a road. You can tell them the walk signal is on. The lines are freshly painted. There’s gold on the other side. People before them have had the time of their lives walking across. That’s all proof the cross walk works, but the person still isn’t crossing.
So what do you do?
Go to them.
Put them in new shoes. Make them feel like a superhero. Walk with them.
Stay Positive & More Care, Not More Facts
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From a consumer’s perspective, it’s convincing to hear what a brand’s big picture is. What do they stand for? Why do they exist? What’s my (the consumer’s) role? Why should I care?
That’s definitely one story that brands tend to tell, some of which tell well.
The story that’s shared less often is the big picture for employees. Why should they work for you instead of the gal down the street? What’s my (the employee’s) role? Why should I care?
There may be a thread or two woven between both stories, but the big picture is different. If the employees don’t see it, how can a brand plan to stick around and share the other big picture story with the consumer?
The cycle is clear.
Invest in employees. Employees invest in consumers. Consumers invest in business.
Stay Positive & Do You Have Your Two Stories?
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Experts in your industry or topic of study will certainly have some great ideas.
But after a while you learn them all, they seem less great, they all start blending together.
Then what?
The answer isn’t to find better experts in your field. It’s finding experts in other fields.
Most new great ideas come from different perspectives; not shared ones.
Stay Positive & Go Chat
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Whenever my significant other calls, a picture of her smiling in a sun dress with a field of sunflowers behind her pops up on my phone. Oh, she’s also flipping me the bird. It’s hilarious and gets me smiling every time she calls.
When you break down your day into moments, it’s incredible how much control you have over what’s happening and, more importantly, how you feel.
Your morning alarm? It can be anything you want… maybe it’s the sound of your significant other telling you that “you are correct” which we all know is a rare occasion. Maybe you have a positive mantra taped up in your bathroom so you have something to read while you brush your teeth. Perhaps you have a poster at your work with a famous Chuck Close quote.
Options for happiness are endless. All it takes is for you to choose to control it.
Stay Positive & How Do You Set Yourself To Be Happy?
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