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Keep going

October 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Are you facing a challenge that’s bigger than any you’ve ever experienced?

Keep going.

Has a creative project become a mystery, your inspiration and output completely blocked?

Keep going.

Or, is the great outcome of a project something you envision and expect…except that you have no idea how you’ll “pull it off,” in the end?

Keep going.

To do so, try this:

1. Recall a time when you overcame resistance, a creative block, or discouragement. Remember how you handled it.

2. Consider a challenge you’re facing now.

3. Let the “keep going” thought wash over you. Sit with it for a bit.

4. Pause to let your next most obvious step become apparent.

5. Take that step. Do it as well as you can.

6. Repeat the process until solid momentum returns, or you achieve success…whichever comes first.

Keep going.

Refuse to be turned away, defeated, or denied access to success that can be yours, with enough focus and effort.

Keep going.

Realize that if your goal is truly inspiring, there will be times when you want to give up, or turn back.

Keep going.

Dreams aren’t easy things to reach, hold, or have.

Keep going.

Success may be just around the bend.

Filed Under: Business Results, Full presence, People at Work

The way you practice can be a predictor of success

August 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

How you practice has everything to do with how you play.

That thought is not new, of course. It’s pretty interesting, though, when you check your own experience and notice how true it can be.

Think of two past projects, one that worked well and one that didn’t.

What were the differences between these two experiences in:

1. How specific your goal was?

2. How you prepared or practiced for the experience?

3. What you paid attention to as you did the work: progress or problems, anticipating success or predicting failure?

4. The encouragement and support you had from others?

5. The encouragement and support you showed yourself?

6. The energy and enthusiasm you put into the work, and how you did so?

7. The way you monitored and corrected your progress, if need be?

8. How you celebrated reaching various milestones, if you did?

I’ll share one detail from my own experience.

Sometimes when I’m working on something new, I imagine successfully completing each step, and successfully arriving at the finish line. It sounds simple, but it’s valuable. That’s because, by the time I actually do the work, even if it’s new to me, it almost feels familiar already. I spend less time in doubt or anticipation of problems because I’ve already “pre-experienced” successful completion of each step.

What differences do you notice when you compare the successful and less successful projects you completed?

What practices do you notice are most likely to lead you to success consistently?

Filed Under: Business Results, Enthusiasm, Full presence, Knowledge Management, People at Work, Process Management, Your own excellence

Avoiding something? 15 ways to get started so you can get it done

February 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Is there a goal, task, or action you’d do anything to avoid if you could?

Stop resisting, procrastinating, and trying to wish the task away.

Here are a few ways to get started so you can get that work done:

1. Get excited about it.
There’s probably something good about the experience (even if it’s just that you get to scratch it off the to-do list when you’re done).

2. See yourself doing it, and completing it.
Envision the work underway, going well, and see yourself finishing easily. Imagine, also, that if things do crop up that you didn’t expect, you’ll handle them calmly and effectively.

3. Set a goal or milestone. Set a series of them.
Focus on the next milestone and getting that done. Then work on the next one.

4. Plan a reward. Plan a series of them.
Work your way through the task you’d like to toss by pacing yourself with appropriate rewards. Move well – and steadily – through the tasks between here and successfully crossing the finish line.

5. Start focusing on the next thing on the to-do list.
Notice what else needs to be done. Focus a little less on this task and notice what work it’s blocking that may be even more important.

6.  Pay more attention to it.
Look more closely at the task. You may notice things you hadn’t noticed before that appeal to you.

7. Pay less attention to it.
Maybe you’re paying too much attention to some details and immobilizing yourself. Focus a little less, if this is the case. Keep the big picture and long-term perspective in mind.

8. Sneak up on yourself.
Sometimes we intimidate ourselves. Get out of your own way. Let the work through. Almost before you realize it, the work will be underway. Suddenly, seemingly, it will be done.

9.  Cut the drama. Just do it.
Sometimes being a little stern with yourself will do the trick. At other times (and most times, as a matter of fact) encourage yourself as you work and learn. You’re likely to get the most and best work out of yourself this way.

10. “Work. Relax. Don’t think.”
That’s writer Ray Bradbury’s advice. Just start working. Relax as you do. Let instinct, and prior experience with this task, if you have it help you get moving well beyond it.

11. Use this as a chance to learn something new.
Make this a learning laboratory for new skills, in some way, if you can.

12. Add something to make it more enjoyable.
Maybe you can change the location of the work, or the order in which the work is done. Maybe you can add a new person to the team, if a group of people is doing the work.

13. Take something away to make it simpler.
Make the work flow simpler if you can, or use a smaller team of people to get the work done if the team and task are getting too complicated.

14. Focus on the things that could go right.
It’s easy to plan in such a detailed fashion that you see all the problems that might occur. Focus on the things that might go very well, and how you’ll be prepared if they don’t.

15. Focus on how you’ll feel when you get the task done.
Keep that good feeling in mind as you work your way through the task. And then enjoy that finished feeling, fully, when you get to that point.

Filed Under: Business Results, Knowledge Management, People at Work, Process Management

The way there doesn’t always follow a straight line

February 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Mini Forest
Originally uploaded by Matt-Richards

Each path to a destination gets you there, sometimes in its own way and time.

And most journeys provide a few twists and turns along the way, of some kind.

As you think back over your life, which journeys have been your most interesting ones: the straight paths or the slightly less predictable kind?

And which journeys have been most valuable in your life: the straight-ahead-paths or the slightly meandering kind?

Filed Under: Business Results, Images, Musings, People watching, Serendipity

Take the first step to change – accept what is

February 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The first step in changing something – anything, really – is accepting what the current situation is.

It’s not always easy. But it is one of the most powerful steps to actual, sustainable change if that’s what you really want.

Here are a few steps to take to accept where you really are, and the situation you’re really in, whatever it is. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What seems to be true, even though I may not want it to be so?

2. How do I know? What are the facts? (The facts may not be fun at this point, but you never know. Find out).

3. Does the situation still look the same, now that I have the facts?

4. What do I want, instead?

5. What’s the gap between what is, and what I wish were true?

And then, get ready to move beyond acceptance. Ask yourself these things:

6. Can I close that gap? If so, what will it take from me?

7. How can I make the change in the best possible way?

Understand.

Accept.

Be with what is.

Let it be to let it go.

You have the power to move beyond, to make “what is,” “what was.”

But first you have to accept.

Filed Under: Business Results, Knowledge Management, Leadership, People at Work, Process Management

Three big risks on your way to big goals

January 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The challenges of a big challenge are many.

Here are just three of the errors that it’s easy to make if you don’t plan and manage your work effectively:

1. Getting into action without a plan

You’re likely in this case to find out that you’re quickly far afield of where you intended to be.

2. Creating a plan but never getting action underway

You’re likely to be filled with fear about something you think you can’t achieve or a problem you can’t conquer. You never get around to turning your great ideas into results that count for anything.

3. Losing track of your target along the way

Here you start implementing your plan, but you don’t follow up well and consistently. You lose your sense of the destination as well as the path there.

Here’s what others advise about these risks, and what happens if you don’t meet them effectively:

Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what? Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.
Mark Victor Hansen

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.
Unknown

Any goal without a plan is just a wish.
Larry Elder

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.
Frank A. Clark

The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.
Earl Nightingale

If you don’t know where you are going, how can you expect to get there?
Basil S. Walsh

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.
Confucius

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.
Jim Rohn

“It is not the mountain that we conquer but ourselves.”
Edmund Hillary

Filed Under: Business Results, Leadership, People at Work, Process Management, Quotes, Strategic Planning

How to make the milestone of the New Year work for you

December 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

At the end of the year, it’s common to feel many things.

These may be just some of the things that you notice when you pause and reflect:

- A sense of accomplishment at the things you’ve achieved

- A bit of regret at goals not met yet

- Excitement about the fresh year just ahead

I was thinking the other day about the finish line of a year, and how to make the most of the end point it represents.

Suddenly, I realized with a smile that the reason I love New Year’s is the starting line it creates, instead.

What does the New Year’s milestone represent to you?

1. A finish line

If New Year’s represents primarily endings to you, consider these things as you look back:

- How are you different now from what you were like a year ago?

- What are you happiest about with the way the year worked out for you?

- What do you wish you could change, or had done differently?

- Are there things you learned to accept, forgive or forget this year?

2. A starting line

If your focus at New Year’s is on new beginnings, and the fresh possibilities of a brand new year, consider these things as you look ahead:

- What’s one change you’d like to make in 2011?

- What would you like to learn this year? How can you do that most easily?

- In what ways would you like to challenge or test yourself in positive ways this year?

3. Both endings and beginnings

If you see both sides of the milestone – the finish line for one year, the starting line for a new one – consider these things as you prepare to move forward well:

- Are there expectations it would be helpful for you to let go of?

- Are there habits you would like to eliminate? How about habits you’d like to create?

- Are there dreams you’d like to give a test drive this year with even a single, simple first step?

However you see the milestone of the New Year, consider how you want to feel about yourself, your work and life at the end of 2011.

Let that felt sense of “you in a year” guide decisions about how you spend time, money, energy and attention throughout 2011.

And let this one be your best year yet.

Filed Under: Business Results, Musings, People watching, Strategic Planning

How to outsource the cleaning of your room

December 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Outsourcing can help you get more done than you can do alone.

To outsource well requires many things, including:

- A specific objective and success criteria

- Clarity about each others’ roles

- Simple, effective communication processes

- Clear decision-making processes

- Ways to measure if progress is happening and goals are being achieved

- Having a good process for working through misunderstandings, if they occur.

Outsourcing can also be used to get your room cleaned after you leave home.

I know. It’s been going on for a few weeks here.

My husband is on the phone now with our daughter who lives in Eugene, OR.

Having graduated from college a few years ago and changed locations a few times since then, she’s pretty well decided what things would move with her into the life she has now.

The rest of the stuff she’s left at home.

It’s been a room in limbo…no longer what it was, but not yet what it can become.

We all agree that it’s high time to turn the room into an office/study and guest room which will be her room the few nights a year when she’s home.

Gary created a room-clearing process that has worked beautifully over the miles. Here are the basic steps.

1. He knew what his goal was.

2. He knew the job was not getting done in the expected way, and had to figure out a way to do it in spite of the distance between where we live and where she does.

3. He envisioned a process that might work and wanted to try it out.

4. He proposed it to Anne in a way that it wouldn’t feel insurmountable, as clearing the room had felt up to now. She agreed to try the process.

5. He sorted through the many things that had gathered here, grouping like objects, making judgments about what he thought should be kept and what could be tossed.

6. He scheduled ten-minute calls with Anne each weekend for about a month, going over just the things they could review and she could decide on in that time.

7. In the call each week, he described each item that was up for a stay/go decision as well as he could.

8. She made a decision about each one, or asked me to supplement her instincts about it with what I knew about the item and its probable place in her life, before making the final call.

9. I’m the final arbiter on this end of the outsourcing process because I know, and will adhere to her decision criteria more consistently than he will.

Her decision criteria are:

- Do I love it?

- Will I use it again?

- Did it come from a person I love?

Gary’s decision criterion is simple:

- Is there any way I can get rid of this?

10. We’re making regular stops at Goodwill and the Salvation Army and someone who loves each item now will take it home. There may even be some people who will get a Christmas present of an item that Anne was long ready to let go, but just didn’t know it yet. For them, it’s a new item to love.

And to share just a small sample of this process (which has worked beautifully, by the way), here’s just part of my husband’s side of today’s call:

“It’s a red heart pillow, kind of like a Valentine. It has a big stain on it.”

I laughed to myself when I heard his description.

It was clear to me he thought the heart-shaped pillow should move out. He was focusing on the stain, not the heart, describing it in a way that would lead to the decision for which he’d hoped.

In this case, he got what he wanted. The stained heart-shaped pillow is moving on.

Are there lessons for you in this outsourced process?

1. Is there a large task you’ve been avoiding but need to do? How can you create break that big task into a smaller series of decisions and actions that allow you to make progress on getting that intimidating task done?

2. Is there a process you’ve outsourced that isn’t working well? Of the key steps in good outsourcing, is there a step you skipped or need to improve? Clarifying goals, roles and communication processes and mechanisms can do a lot to improve teamwork and effectiveness in any process or group.

Filed Under: Business Results, Measurement, People at Work, Process Management, Serendipity

Imagine a good outcome for two

August 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Farmers Market Negotiations
Originally uploaded by jcgr

Man can only receive what he sees himself receiving.
Florence Scovel Shinn

The buyer in this farmer’s market scene clearly sees herself going home with a bundle of beautiful, fresh peppers.

The seller sees himself making a beautiful, healthy profit.

Whether she goes home pepper-fulfilled and he goes home profit-fulfilled depends on whether they can find a meeting point between their individual visions visions of success.

The same thing happens in any negotiation, and many different types of interactions.

Think back on a time when you found a good solution between what may have been two very different original visions of success.

Let that experience guide you to fresh success with a negotiating challenge ahead.

Filed Under: Business Results, Customer Focus, Images, People at Work, Quotes

What’s your ideal life and to-do list?

August 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

“What’s my ideal to-do list? Is she KIDDING?!” you may be thinking to yourself as you read those words.

No, really…what is it?

Perhaps you dream of a life in which:

– You spend the day – every day – on the beach with nothing to worry about, other than making sure that the beverage of your choice is delivered whenever you want it, and that you have a comfortable spot in the sand so that you can read great book after great book – at least until you fall asleep in the warm sunshine.

– You do something risky, adventurous, like rock climbing as much as you want.

– You spend your life shopping until you’re all shopped out…while your bank account, somehow, remains endless.

– You enjoy a steady stream of great restaurants and great delicacies without damage to your cholesterol or waistline.

Whatever it is, a no-stress, no-consequences life is perhaps what you are imagining, in some way.

Wait a minute, though.

Is that really the to-do list, and life, of your dreams?

Imagine the reality of that:

Neverending fun, however you define it, could become boring…very, very quickly.

Seriously.

Your talents would go to waste for want of a big goal, a positive target, a place where you can learn and test and express your best as you grow and change.

And every day in this blandly ideal life might be largely the same as every other day.

Now, let’s shift direction for a moment.

What’s your dream of what you want to become? (Yes, consider that even in a challenging economy – no matter what commitments you’ve already made to a direction that’s different from the one you dream of).

How different do you need to be for that dream to become a reality, at least to some degree, even if you don’t completely fulfill it?

How different do your activities, habits, and choices need to be for that dream can be created in real life in some way?

In light of the growth and achievement you want to experience in life, consider what your ideal to-do list looks like now:

1. What do you want to learn?

2. How do you want to grow?

3. How do you want to change?

4. What achievements do you want to create and experience?

5. How can you add some of that new experience – even a bit, for that’s often how good things begin – to your life, and your daily, weekly, or monthly to-do list?

6. What you want to quit, let go of, or give away to make the time and space for what you want, even more?

Give your dream a chance to take shape.

Give yourself a new and better to-do list, adding actions that lead to your dreams, even in the smallest way.

Filed Under: Business Results, Musings, People at Work
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