GarthBox

Misery loves company. Misery loves to sulk. Misery also loves to fuel you for the better if you choose it to.

Seth Godin once wrote about an agonist, which is a person that provokes your best work, often by forcing the not-best work to happen. They bring about the agony of rejection or candor to you. Of course, they don’t do it to berate you into nonexistence; they do it to push you to the next level.

The nice thing about an agonist is that anyone can be one without updating their LinkedIn profile to it.

Every rejection letter you get, the author could be the agonist. Every editor of your work. Any Google review can be.

An Agonist is a title you give to someone.

Stay Positive & Find Your Fuel

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Share an idea that you’re jazzed about with a friend and there’s no doubt they’ll be excited, too.

Share an idea with a person for whom that idea was made for and there’s no doubt going to be raw reactions you can use.

Maybe they say the idea isn’t great. Maybe they say how it could be better. Maybe they say it’s a good idea but not for them.

Their response is infinitely more helpful than the responses from your friends.

If you need the ego-stroke to become motivated enough to share with your real target market, then by all means share with your friends. Don’t, however, let their excitement be the idea’s end-all-be-all.

Stay Positive & Targeted Feedback Is Important

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Those are your options when it comes to team members. You have to communicate that they are responsible for one or the other.

Are they there to fight the status quo or maintain it? Are they there to elevate standards you already have or to add new ones?

It’s important to be crystal clear about what role you want someone to have.

Even more important is to be crystal clear about what role you want your brand to have.

Stay Positive & Pick Then Communicate It

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The adage goes that if you’re going to hire, hire for attitude and train for skill.

But I’d argue attitude is as much a skill as the job you’re hiring for.

And even when you hire someone with a great attitude, it’s on you to nurture it the same as you grow the actual skills required for the tasks they’re doing.

Great leaders train their team members on both accounts.

Stay Positive & Grow The ‘Tude

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How can you make it easier to read or consume?

How can you make it easier to share?

How can you make it easier for someone else to do next time?

How can you make it easier for your editor to review?

How can you make it easier for your boss to pitch it?

How can you make it easier for next time?

Things don’t become easy because we do them well; they become easy when we design them to become that way.

Stay Positive & Intention First

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The deadline will arrive sooner than you think.

That event you’re excited for will be here sooner than you think.

You’ll lose something you worked hard for sooner than you think.

That new purchase will get a scratch sooner than you think.

A friend will reach out to say how they appreciate you sooner than you think.

Things don’t just happen fast on the internet. They fly by IRL, too.

All the more reason to:

• set earlier deadlines for yourself
• don’t get too attached
• emotionally prepare for the unexpected
• do good things for others sooner than they think

Stay Positive & Sooner Is Better

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When you wake up at your alarm, you decided to wake up at that time the night before when you set it. In that moment, however, you face a new decision: how you’re going to wake up.

Will you do it with gusto and excitement for the day?

When you accept a job interview, you’ve decided to meet a company and be peppered with questions. In the moment of being peppered with questions, however, you have the privilege of making a new decision: how you’re going to answer them.

Do you answer with confidence and contagious joy?

There’s a lot we decide to do… and a lot more that we forget that we also get to decide how we do it.

Stay Positive & With A Smile?

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