July 31st, 2014 — 5:30am
This week, for the first time, I did a session with a personal trainer. I learned things about my posture and how I tense up that seem obvious in hindsight. The thing is, I’ve been hanging out with my body for 35 years and I never noticed those things. In five minutes my trainer did.
Our brains are made to notice change and contrast, not things that have always been that way. And things look different from the other side of your eyeballs.
Recognize your blindness to yourself and ask trustworthy people to be mirrors for you.
July 24th, 2014 — 5:30am
If you set your mental GPS to head straight for “make money” and pursue it with passion, you won’t get good guidance, and you probably won’t reach that destination.
If you set it for “solve this customer problem” or “make the world a better place” and pursue it with passion, you’ll probably succeed and open doors to making a lot of money.
Nobody is interested in paying you so you can make your dream of making money come true. Lots of people are interested in paying you for solutions to their problems. Create and sustain success with focus on those you serve.
July 17th, 2014 — 5:30am
Your energy level is a valuable signal. Who energizes you? What quickly wears you out? What recharges you?
An energy drain can be a signal about an unresolved conflict that you might want to stop coping with and let go or make change. It might mean you are doing too much output, or not arranging for the inputs and the rest you need.
An energy boost can be a signal you are fulfilling your passion, doing your best work, or connecting with someone who is good for you.
Instead of riding the waves of your energy unaware, pay attention to when they happen and why. Use this insight to illuminate and inform your choices.
July 10th, 2014 — 5:30am
Technology and transportation have brought global competition to every skill, process, and product. It’s hard to be more precise than a robot, or more efficient than a computer. It’s hard to compete with cheap-labor countries, even for skilled work. Being good at something a million other people (or machines) do more cheaply, is not a recipe for a good time.
Smarter, faster, cheaper is hard (but not impossible) to win.
There’s another way to stand out from the crowd. When you create something new, lead something that might fail, go public with your message, interact with vulnerability — when you do scary things you give yourself an enormous advantage
There are many fantastic opportunities whose price of entry is the unusual willingness to be afraid and go forward anyway.
P.S. I aim to practice what I preach. My latest scary thing is workshop speaking at conferences. I’m kicking that off with three sessions at the National Worship Leader Conference next week.
July 3rd, 2014 — 4:30am
When what you’re getting is not what you want, you feel friction. You might spend a lot of energy coping with that. Maybe you know how to calm yourself down, manage your frustration, and keep the apple cart from upsetting.
What if you stop coping and do these three things?
1) Get to clarity on what you want. Talk to someone. Write it out. No matter how big, scary, or unlikely it is.
2) If what you want violates the laws of physics, the laws of the land, or requires change in a person who does not want to change: Let go of wanting the impossible. Accept that you cannot make it happen. This is really sad, and it leads to moving on.
3) For anything else you want, take the energy you spent coping and put it into actions to make change.
All of these are scarier and more difficult than coping. The thing is, if you just cope today you’ll have to keep coping with your conflict for indefinite tomorrows. If you let go and/or make change today, your conflict will be resolved.
