Step into 2020 with a renewed sense of your purpose.
Step knowing that the right expectation is the one you hold for yourself.
All in Self-Effectiveness
The Art of Decisions
The Decision Series has come to an end, for now ;-)
If you found these insights useful to you, please share this blog with others. We need to build a tribe of people who are self-motivated to improve their lives, to create better art, and never to allow "good enough" to be okay.
The Dangers of Hindsight
Realize, in life, the odds are not in your favor. You will lose so much more than you'll win. Like gambling, the house will always win - the house is "life."
Start with Failure.
If you have doubts, leverage them - consider what would happen if your efforts failed.
Contracts with Yourself.
Make a Ulysses Pact with yourself to help with decisions. Sometimes deciding in advance makes all the difference.
See Balance.
Seeing only the long game doesn't help, but seeing only the short can be ruinous.
How powerful is regret to you? Is it so powerful that you'd instead consider that feeling before you've done something that might make that feeling real for you?
Reflect on the past and project your learnings into the future. You'll see the path ahead of you now - in the present, with more detail and clarity.
Meet "Future You."
Break the rules of time travel. Project yourself into the future to meet your "future self." If possible, try to channel "Bob" and see all of your future versions. Then, come back to the present and make a bet.
There is a special place for the Bobs, the Truths, and the Bulls in this world. We offer a useful counterbalance. For those like us, consider these tactics to help you come across better to those you seek to serve.
The skeptics, truth-seekers, in your life want to see you do the right thing for yourself. A skeptic desires you to consider all the facts, operate with integrity, be real enough to admit your faults, and earnest enough to do better next time.
We can meet in the middle when we start telling ourselves the story others are trying to share with us.
I'm not spinning when I say you were 30% right. I'm showing you a way to think about being 70% more right the next time around.
If every outcome has a probability of being a "win" or a "loss" for you, I'll let you define what that means, then isn't the process of how you came to win or lose more critical in determining future outcomes?
When you shoot the messenger because you don't like the messenger, you end up killing their message with it - don't! The insights brought to bear may save a project, save time, heck - even save money!
If you want to be a better decision-maker, share all of the data with your tribe. Let them press for more, and be willing to put all your cards on the table. Only then, after sharing it all, will you start to see growth within yourself.
I believe that one of the biggest threats to our world, especially the corporate world, is the lack of dissent, skepticism, or a willingness to challenge belief.
Learning is better together.
Be a Sponge.
Learning stops because I've started seeing someone's work not for what it is, but for what I think it should be. Instead of being the proverbial sponge, I am "judge and jury."
Acknowledge and leverage your primal desire to win and discover how to become the best learner possible. Focus on expanding your mind so that every experience - win or lose - is a learning occasion.