Tag: start

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The Four S’s – Get Er Done

Start, Shred, Ship, Share

Want to know a framework to get your work off the ground?

Give the four S’s a shot

  • Start – Give yourself at least two minutes on the idea and get started with the work of turning it into a reality.
    • The first draft is important, and nothing else. Get to a fully formed “thing.”
    • Important – do not judge what you create at this point, judgment can kill it.
  • Shred – Once you got it to a draft, now allow your critics to show up.
    • First, deal with the most significant critic – yourself. Clean up what looks messy to you.
    • Talking to your self is easy, listening to yourself is hard.
    • After, send to your friends, ask for thoughts. Take whatever feedback comes seriously.
    • “If someone says something is wrong, they are right; if someone says what is wrong, they are probably wrong.” Don’t know who said this but it stuck.
    • Important – set reminders for yourself to do this, because, trust me, even though you love to critique yourself in your head, doing it in the real world is a whole other beast.
  • Ship – The moment of truth.
    • Get it out the door.
    • Don’t let the critic around too long that is a perfectionist trap.
    • Hit publish, send, upload w/e. It will never be perfect.
    • Important – Throw this on the calendar. Plan on shipping on the 15th? Put the ship date for the first. Share it wide. DO. NOT. MISS. IT.
  • Share – If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
    • No. It doesn’t. Not to our brains.
    • The work never  “speaks for itself” that is ego talking. Trust me; ego is loud.
    • Share it widely.
    • If it spreads, great, if it doesn’t, well “this might not work.“
    • Important – Either way, it’s time for you to start again.

I am using my process to share my latest medium post. It’s on Marketing and Trust.

Take a look. Feel free to share with your friends if it makes sense.

Thank you.

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Start With the End In Mind

An inversion is a powerful tool

Even if I asked you what do you want, it’s hard to understand how to get there.

That is a part of it too. It doesn’t matter if you know where you want to go if you don’t know how to take the next step.

You don’t even need to know the entire way. That next step, though, is crucial.

I can say I want to get to Denver, Colorado from New York. If I don’t know how to buy a plane ticket (or taking it to its final extreme, walk), then it doesn’t matter.

One of the ways to find out what your next step is in solving a problem, and make no mistake, “What do you want” is a problem, you’ll need to tool of inversion.

What does it mean to invert?

The definition of it is as follows:

put upside down or in the opposite position, order, or arrangement.

I remember it with the saying “Start with the end in mind.”

This saying, or tool, means when you know what you want, starting at the end. And then from there, start working your way “backward.”

Back to the previous example.

I want to get to Denver to New York. What is the result? Me in a hotel room jumping on the bed. How do I get to that?

  • Get to the hotel room – this means booking a hotel room, finding a date to go, taking time off work, etc.
  • Get a taxi – get from the airport meaning, I need to fly, which means I need to buy a ticket

So, what is the first action above? Taking time, because only then do I when I can fly and when I can book the hotel.

Funny, as I was writing this, I didn’t even realize that the first action would be. This practice made me think about the implicit and make it explicit. That is why it is a powerful tool. It helps you understand what your next move is.

The next time you have an issue, try starting with the end in mind and see where it gets you.

My bet is, it will be the next step.

 

 

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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.

 

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The Two Minute Rule

We all have two minutes.

When we think about what our next step, we often think “big.”

How are we going to get this project off the ground? How will my parents think about this next step? How do I get this in front of Ben Horowitz?

That leaves us paralyzed and overwhelmed.

A way to combat that paralysis is to use the two-minute rule.

The rule? Do the “next step” in whatever your task is for the next two minutes.

How does it work in practice?

Yesterday, I made my blog post in two minutes.

It isn’t perfect, won’t win any awards, or get the President’s attention.

It does, however, give us something to build on. It stands as an example of this idea, one that we can use to illustrate the point.

We all can find two minutes of dedicated practice in the day.

 

 

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Questions In Conversations

Have you ever started with a question?

I rarely ever do this, and it causes me trouble. On customer service calls, I just start talking, saying what I need and my problems. I think I am making progress until I realize she can’t do anything until she has my name and some sort of number that she needs to even start the ticket.  For all the progress I thought I made, I haven’t made any. I am back at the start of the conversation waiting for her to enter my name, and I’ve wasted time on something that was easily avoidable.

I hardly learn my lesson, because on the next call, I am starting to rush through the call again, wasting both my and the operator’s time.

The wasted time is my fault

I didn’t consider the other person’s issues, problems, or concerns, I started with just my own. I wasn’t listening, I was directing. Instead of getting my thought across, I obstructed myself, all in the name of progress that cannot happen. If I start with a question, I would see what is necessary first, and then go from there. It gives me some ground to work. I am able to see without too much pressure. There is also pressure lifted off the person on the other end because they can’t direct, they have to listen first, and it leads me to talking, and this useless dance continues. If I asked a question upfront, it breaks this cycle because I learn what’s necessary first then I can talk.

Questions open discussion

This doesn’t just apply for trouble with my cell phone data, this applies to everything. When was the last time you opened conversation with questions, and what did you get out of it? How about continuing conversation with questions?  Most conversations start on uneven footing, and continue to go in different directions because people assume they are making progress and they aren’t. 

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So, Let’s Get Started – I’m Giving You Permission

Permission

Go out and do it, I’m Giving You Permission

I am giving you permission. That thing that you are pushing off? That person you want to contact? Waiting for the right time?  I give you permission to do it.

We hold ourselves back

As I think about the things I did this year, one of the meta things that got my life moving this year was taking off expecting to do things myself, and  not having to wait until the perfect time to do something.

That was the change that got me out of the world of amateurs and beginning a journey as a pro.

 

Inspiration is for amateurs

I finally got to my video blog when I decided enough was enough. I did my podcast (coming soon) by just recording. I write these blogs now on a set schedule.

So, if you go down this path, it’s going to challenge you. It’s easy to sit back and wait to get told what to do, in fact, most of the people around us wait. I challenge you though, to get up and just start.

That podcast – There is your phone, start recording

That web series – same thing, that phone.

That script – Celtx is calling.

That book – you got a text file

I still deal with it

Its funny, even for things that are mine, I still struggle with the idea of permission. I made some formatting changes to this blog, added picture, and restarted a few things. I had to tell myself that it was ok, even though I am the boss.

This isn’t easy, but most creative projects are there for the taking.Get going, and get going immediately

Leave the complexity for later. Just start.

Note: You don’t have to put it out to the world, but put is somewhere where you see it, and you remind yourself that it grows with you.

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