Category: Blog Post

I keep forgetting that breaks are super restorative – Did a lot of travel this weekend and had a routine that was completely out of the ordinary. Breaks make your brain better.

You Practice How You Play – Every time you try something is building muscle memory for the next time. Human beings go downhill most of the time. The best take advantage of momentum by doing it right every time.

Absent-minded – I don’t mean to forget, but I forget. I love the big picture but there is a fifty percent change I forgot my socks when I pack for trips. Checklists help, but I apologize in advance.

Happy Memorial Day – I come from a family full of military folks, and I always appreciated today not as a memorial to war, but one of sacrifice for the troops themselves and families affected by their loss. My thoughts are to them today.

Holidays are a natural break. Breaks give you an option to pivot. Are you ready to pivot? Why not today? What are you planning to change?

Try it twice. That one thing that sucked that one time? Why not give it another shot? I tried to make avocados and failed miserably. Before the end of the summer I’ll give them another shot. Why? Because one experience shouldn’t define us, and for god sakes, they are just avocados!

“Ignorant Time” isn’t as bad as you think it is.

In fact, it is the key to your growth.

Whenever we try something new, for things to stick, we have to acknowledge our ignorance and feel “ok” with being dumb.

This is what I call “Ignorant Time.”

Knowing you aren’t supposed to know and have the free reign to ask questions, reread, and write notes unlocks so much more learning opportunity than when you “need to look smart.”

Can’t think and know at the same time.

So lets get ignorant.

Feel free to wait for tomorrow.

As long as it doesn’t turn into the next day and the next.

Enjoy the moment when you can.

If you haven’t assessed yourself and ask for help then odds are you are stagnant.

If I asked you to look at your performance in the last six months and you can’t start finding lessons and noticing things you’ve done better, you’ve failed.

So, where have you been better?

Language is complex and has more layers than all of your favorite Russian novels combined.

With that said, when we talk to someone else, we’re making an ask, and if we are doing it well, it leads to the outcomes we want.

That means understanding, and no matter how we get to that understanding, it’s important that we do.

So, if that means following up, or asking (subtlety of course) what do you think I mean by that, please do it.

We talk nonsense more than we know, and hearing it back may be sobering enough to help you improve your communication skills.

When was the last time you were “reviewed.”

I use quotes because I find most reviews aren’t really reviews, they are a place where:

• People on both sides vent
• The manager exerts power
• Nothing changes

It’s a shame because it can be a magical experience.

As a manager, you have the opportunity to shift someone and their thinking to the better, to prepare someone for the next leap in their career, and as an after effect, make you look better.

As a direct report, it’s an opportunity to see how the world sees you, check in on your strengths, and gauge if the person across from you is paying attention or playing a role.

Either way, it’s a great experience that should not be missed.

Find the truth when you can.

That’s it.

Sometimes, you have to find it.

Customers don’t care about how long you’ve taken to make the product unless you’ve done the work to make them care.

Take alcohol for example – everything, from the point of purchase to the brand* story they tell, time matters.

“That whiskey has aged for 20 years, and you should care about that”

If they didn’t, you would really care about the difference between a five year and a twenty year.

You wouldn’t care about the status it transfers to you.

Think about that when you do your work.

Are you positioning it for folks to care about how you worked on it?

Yes, this takes work and time.

But remember, unless you do the work to make people care about your work, they won’t. 

*The difference between brand marketing and direct marketing is in Seth Godin’s This Is Marketing – and you should buy it if only for that chapter.

Even when it’s slow.

If you are going the right direction – motion is motion.

The key here – the right direction.

Tortoise beats hare.