Tag: hiding

Categories
Blog Post

Hiding – Getting Away From Comfort – October 2016

I love/hate looking at the Yahoo front page

I don’t even like reading the articles. Most of them are awful. Even worse, some are just plain lies.

Reading the stories isn’t informative. I read them because they are constant. I know there is something new coming shortly.

It is a part of my “internet loop,” a series of websites that I use to escape. The sites, like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo, give me an out.

They are a way for me to hide.

Hiding is a reaction to fear.

When I think about why I cruise those sites, it always comes when I hit a roadblock. When the work is too challenging, I hide.

I don’t just see this when I am alone.

It happens in social situations, with family, and in meetings.

Hiding leads me into comfort. Unpacking this concept won’t just help me, it hopefully will create a guide, for you, the reader to check yourself, figure out when you are hiding, and decide if you are falling into the same traps. This month I will share with you how to respond, not react, and how hiding in comfort holds you back.

Comfort is poison for a leader.

That is why hiding is the theme for October.

This month’s theme ties into abstinence

At the end of last year, I wrote a post that resulted in my picking four themes for 2016. They are the guiding light (strategic)  for my ideas. Each month on this blog, I break things down into the practical (tactical). This year I want to tie them together, so each month, I have to write the reason they connect.

Reread candidate

Letters from a Stoic by Seneca – Hiding is easy. Responsibility is hard. Seneca knew a lot about both and sent a protegé letters on how to face them. This book is medicine.

Categories
Blog Post

You Don’t Know and I Don’t Know

It’s fine, but don’t hide.

It’s easy to run with a new project when you’ve gone through something like it before.

Working through the unknown is much harder.

We use strategies:

  • Asking for more “research.”
  • Trying to “figure it out.”
  • Faint, open-ended requests designed to either give us the answer/shift blame.

All of these are strategies to hide from the work.

This post isn’t telling you not to do those things. Those bullet points are due diligence, and each one is necessary.

But, if you keep coming back to those points, ask yourself, “Am I hiding because I fear the unknown?”

If yes, start.

 

Categories
Blog Post

Small Risk,Please

If you do work without a bit of edge, it’s a form of hiding.

It doesn’t need to overshare (also hiding), but in the same vein, doing anything that doesn’t take a little chance, a little risk or a little piece of yourself is hollow.

How do you know if there is risk involved?

When you press publish, schedule, or upload, is there a little apprehension*? We’re not talking about a life-changing amount of fear, just enough for you to feel something.

If so, ship it.

*I feel it with this post – I’m little scared it’s too small, too ephemeral, too commanding, and I am going to let it go.

 

 

Categories
Blog Post

Hiding Is Easy

Hiding is easy

Doesn’t take much effort.

Just run.

Don’t think.

Don’t apologize

Don’t empathize, just run.

Find a place where you get small, take off anything shiny, and don’t say anything. By the time the smoke clears, you have hidden, and the big mean problem goes away. No more questions, the world levels off and you are soon able to go back to your disposition. If that means a sunny world and no problems, well – that is what you get, a sunny world with no problems.

But, if you want to stand for something, this isn’t an option.

There is an alternative

The alternative is to sit there and take it. Don’t run, don’t hide. You have to sit there and think about what you did, how you want to apologize, and empathize with the disruption you caused. You have to put yourself squarely in the crosshairs and take responsibility. The smoke is hazy, and sometimes, the issue won’t just go away.

You might get scarred, and it’s going to hurt.

Why would you do that?

Getting scarred sounds painful, and there are no brownie points. But it is worth it.because if you are in a place that favors how things look instead of how things are, you might suffer even more*.

The reason, though, if you want to stand for something, is that you are able to stand up and be counted. Leaders, true leaders, see where people claim responsibility.  You stand out, because the world is short on people who are willing to try, and even shorter on people who after they try, are willing to stand and say, “This didn’t work and here is why.”

The most successful people I know understand this and do this well. There is no reason why you aren’t one of them.

Note: Don’t confuse this with martyrdom, which often serves nothing but the ego. We are talking about real responsibility.  

* Runnnnnnnnnn

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started