The Forgotten Performer In Your Circus

It's the one who will be most resistant to your new idea.

Have you made plans to address their concerns about the new direction? Thinking about the ones who will support you may make you feel warm and fuzzy, but it's the person who will not be in favor of the idea you need to plan for.

Do The Three Step With Your Elephants

The next time you are feeling overwhelmed, stop and do three things:

• Identify your elephants. Be as specific as possible. Don't just list "work." Be specific about work. List the specific tasks that are most overbearing to you.
• Determine what you have control of related to the task. Too often we see ourselves as being a victim when in reality we can take some steps to manage the elephant.
• Take action on the steps you just mentioned. As Plato said, "The beginning is the most important part of any work." Making progress, albeit small, gives you the motivation to keep going.

DSPS and Work/Life Balance

Recently there was an article in the Harvard Business Review about DSPS or Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. Simply put, it's a condition where the person doesn't have the same circadian rhythms as the majority of the population. They may find that working from 6 PM to 2 AM is more effective for them than the normal 9 to 5 schedule. The article also looked at the challenges faced by such individuals on their personal commitments.

While these individuals have speical cases, all of us have a certain rhythm to our day-a time it works best for us to be in various "rings" of our circus. Finding that rhythm is important so we can determine how best to create our lineup on a daily basis. If we are most creative in the night hours, we should seek ways to spend more time with our families or in our self ring in the morning hours. If you like to get up early and get things done, reserving time for family and yourself in the early evening hours is most critical.

The key as always, is to be the ringmaster of your circus and take more conscious control of how you use your limited time and energy.

I Have A Question

You can learn so much by just asking questions:

• If you are stuck for conversation with someone you just met, start asking them questions.
• If you are stuck for conversation with someone you know (especially a teenager), start asking them questions.
• If you are interested in becoming an expert at something, find an expert and start asking questions.  Be sincere.  Pay attention.  Take notes.  Find another expert and repeat.  Continue to repeat.  Look for patterns in their responses and then apply what you have learned.
• If you really want to get to know someone, make a formal list of questions and talk about your answers together.  Answer your own questions as part of the conversation.  Discuss, debate, agree and/or agree to disagree.  (When my wife and I were first married, we would do this when we would go on road trips together.)
• If you don’t know something, don’t be afraid to admit it and ask for help.  Seek to understand.  It is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength.

What questions should you be asking?

I Double Dog Dare You

I often ask the question to groups that I speak to, “How many of you set New Year’s Resolutions or Goals?”  I am always amazed at how few people raise their hands.  I then follow up with the question, “Why?”  I almost always have someone reply with something like, “If you make a goal or resolution and don’t achieve it, you feel like a failure.” 

There are a couple of paths that you can take as you fail to achieve a goal.  You can make a resolution and then not do anything about it.  No execution.  Yes, that can be disheartening especially as you make the same resolution year after year (that goal of losing that extra 20 pounds comes to mind). 

You can also make a resolution, work hard at it and still not achieve it.  The first scenario is unfortunate but the second scenario has benefits to it.  You tried, you stretched, you worked, and you did so much better than you would have done had you not set the goal. I don’t even know if I would call this a failure. 

I love the quote by the famous philosopher “Anonymous”; “He who dares nothing need hope for nothing.”

Dare to do mighty things!  Set goals.  Work at them.  Don’t be afraid of failure.  Failure is the stuff that success is made out of.