Archive for the Initiative Category

Excuses.  I had so many of them.

A few years ago, I told myself that I was going to start a blog.  So, I bought a theme, got everything setup, and then proceeded to let it sit on the shelf collecting dust.  Why?  Because I didn’t have a logo.  Something that seems so insignificant now (does anyone really care about a blogger’s logo?) became a major impediment.  Between work and family life, I didn’t have time to put it together, or so I said.  Or, when I finally did have time, I didn’t like what I put together.  Producing work for yourself is somewhat similar to dating.  You could never find the perfect mate for yourself yet had no problem advising or setting up your best friend.  In the end, the blog was never started.

One of my other dreams was to start a business.  A couple of buddies and I brainstormed some ideas at work, but again, there were always excuses.  Either we couldn’t think of any good ideas, couldn’t figure out a way to make money, or our days jobs got in the way of putting in the hours on a side project.  It was always some excuse.  In the end, the business was never started.

For many of us, we live in our comfort zone, doing the same thing every day yet expecting a different result.

For me, this year will be different.  No, this isn’t just another New Year’s resolution.  While I practice the skills of being a Linchpin at work, I don’t hold myself accountable to ship in my side projects.  I’m ready to start.  And repeat.  To move the needle from ‘wantrepreneur’ to ‘entrepreneur.’

Seth Godin, one of my favorite authors (including the aforementioned Linchpin) and blogger, recently published his most recent book, What To Do When It’s Your Turn (and it’s always your turn).  In his usual style, Godin challenges you to do work that matters, and race to the top instead of the bottom.  Godin’s Special Projects Lead, Winnie Kao, decided to use her failed daily blog post as a means to rally together and practice shipping together.  Daily.  The challenge involves blogging daily for 7 days in a row.

Why am I participating?  There is nothing more amazing than a community of like-minded people.  To meet, connect, and share.  To push each other to ship.  As Godin wrote, “people like us do stuff like this.”  Care to join us?

Happy New Year!  Streamers!  Parade!  Ball Dropping!  Expensive tickets to a party where the line to the bar is so deep you only get 1 drink and everyone leaves by 12:08!

…Wait, what’s that you say?  It’s NOT New Years?  It’s already past the middle of January?  OK – let’s check in on all those resolutions you said were so important just a couple of weeks ago.  How are you doing?

Approximately one-third of people will break their New Year’s resolutions within the first 30 days.

If you’re still going, keep up the great work!  It typically takes about 2 months for a new habit to form.  This study, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology in 2010, shows that people took anywhere from 18 to 254 days (average 66 days) for their new habit to become automatic, mostly depending on the person and habit.  No wonder it’s not easy!

If you’ve already broken your resolution, don’t despair.  Just get back on the horse.  Why not pretend that today is New Years Eve?  You don’t have to wait for an artificially made up day to begin forming a new habit.  So break out those streamers and celebrate!

3…  2…  1… start again!

Yesterday, I was on an email chain talking about a financial reporting tool and process that is quite evidently very broken.  The resources using the tool, now being called ‘Champions’ for our respective geographic regions, have varying levels of expertise and understanding ranging from novice to expert.  There is a lot of uncertainty over the billing triggers that happened downstream.  There are many manual steps with a high possibility of human error.  Finally, there are too many one-off situations requiring outside help to fix.

One person suggested to the rest of the email chain that we should embark on a Kaizen, a Japanese term for continual improvement.  The response?  He was told such changes were “above my pay grade.” “I don’t have authority,” and change only comes from the top.

I cringed.

Frankly, that kind of attitude is a cop-out.  Everyone has the ability to recommend change not just “from the top.”  In fact, as someone on the front line actually using the tool, you’re in a much better position to recommend changes than someone who is further away and only looking at final results, not how you got there.  You might not have the resources or money at your disposal to actually implement but nothing is stopping you from summarizing your findings and proposing the ideas to the leaders who do control those resources.

Who knows, the leader might agree with you and appoint you to lead the project.  A successful implementation and rollout of the change would solve a major problem – something you can add to your résumé.  Once you’ve been established as someone who can effect positive change, you’ll likely be asked to do it again, and again, which can ultimately lead to a promotion.  This is one of the best methods in picking yourself for career advancement as opposed to waiting for someone to pick you.

Even if your suggestions are shot down or don’t meet the leader’s vision today, you’ll be looked at differently, as a change agent, and someone who will be picked to help lead future projects.

Saying it’s above your pay grade is deflecting blame.  It puts the problem on someone else’s shoulders and gives you a pulpit to complain or say “see I told you it wouldn’t work.”  Failure is ok.  That’s how we learn.

Encouraging a culture of feedback and open two-way communication between associates and leaders is critical to the success of an organization.

For 3 weeks straight, I took an ice cold shower.  Not lukewarm.  Ice cold.  As cold as I could make the shower go.  No, not for 10 seconds like the people in the ALS ice bucket challenge.  I’m talking a real shower.

Huh?  I know you’re probably wondering what’s wrong with me.  Who in their right mind would take a freezing shower?  It’s one thing if you’re forced to because of circumstances (e.g., homeless shelter, prison, didn’t pay your heating bill) or therapy for an injury.  Otherwise, why on Earth would you want to voluntarily subject yourself to that kind of torture?

I LOVED IT.  Don’t get me wrong, there are very few things I enjoy more than a long hot shower in the morning.  But a cold shower helps you overcome your fears and push you out of your comfort zone – the same type of thinking you should apply to your every day life.  How?

There are things we all want to do in life but don’t.  Start a business.  Start exercising.  Create a blog.  Write a book.  Lead a transformational project at work.  Usually we tell ourselves we don’t have time, but deep down, we know that’s a lie.  We have time for things we care enough about.  We don’t because we’re scared.  What if we fail?  What if people laugh at us?  The voice in our head tells us to stay safe and do the things we’ve always done.  Are these legitimate reasons?  Or, more likely, just excuses?  We end up more scared of the anxiety, what we think is going to happen, than the experience itself.

In the book, The Flinch by Julien Smith, that’s called (as you would guess) a flinch, the instinct which tells you to run the other way, say no to new opportunities, and choose the safe option.  The flinch is why you don’t do the work that matters, and why you won’t make the hard decisions.

Smith exposes the flinch for what it truly is and how to get past it.  Below is an excerpt where he introduces the cold shower.  Try this exercise too.  Yes, it’s uncomfortable at first, but that’s the point.  You get past that feeling quickly and realize you can do it despite the anxiety.  Despite the cold.  There’s nothing quite like the powerful feeling when you’re finished.  To know you stood up to your fears and did it.  You can then apply that same thought process to every facet of your life.  You may also be surprised to find you enjoyed it (I did).

Read the rest of the book too.  It’s a short and very inspiring read.

Want a real, visceral example of what the flinch feels like? Try this.

When you’re at home and have five minutes, go to your bathroom, walk up to your shower, and turn on the cold water. Wait a second; then test it to make sure it’s as cold as possible.

Do you see what’s coming?

If you do, you should tense up immediately . You should feel it in your chest. You might start laughing to release the tension— and you haven’t even stepped inside. You’re predicting a flinch that hasn’t happened yet. You’re already anxious about it— about something that hasn’t happened and won’t kill you— anxious about something that barely hurts at all.

Ok, do it. Now is the time to step in the shower.

As the cold water hits you, you might shout or squirm. But the discomfort lasts only a second. You quickly get used to it. You get comfortable with cold, instead of trying to avoid it. You put yourself in the path of the shower to speed up the adjustment process.

Remember your reaction. You can use this method for everything.

A moment before, the flinch seems so uncomfortable that you might talk yourself out of this. You convince yourself that it’s pointless, but it isn’t; it’s training. You need to build a habit of seeing the flinch and going forward, not rationalizing your fear and stepping away.

Start doing the opposite of your habits. It builds up your tolerance to the flinch and its power.

Have you done the homework assignment? Good. Keep doing it, every morning, for the rest of the week.

Oh, and if you don’t act —no matter the reason —let’s be clear: you’re flinching. This exercise has no consequences, physical or social. If you refuse to do it, ask yourself why. Because the exercise is stupid, or pointless? How will you know unless you’ve tried?

Procrastination is easy to fix.  I’ll tell you how tomorrow…

*Rim Shot*

Ok, maybe not.  A quick search on procrastination at Amazon yields over 2,000 results.  You’d think with all these self-help books that it wouldn’t be such an epidemic.  But it is and for a number of good reasons (or at least that’s what you tell yourself).

Too tired, too sick, just plain don’t feel like it – will do it later (no you won’t), I don’t have time (except you do have time to watch another episode of Law & Order: SVU), too busy reading just one more Facebook/Twitter update, etc.

There’s no instant fix but I’ll tell you the best solution I’ve ever found.  Just do 5 minutes of whatever task you’re putting off.  The sheer act of starting and getting past the resistance is usually all you need.  Once you’re in motion, you magically keep going until it’s finished.  If not, just keep doing small bits every day.  They add up until one day you find yourself at the finish line.

Starting is the hard part but it’s amazing what can happen if you “just do it.”