Creating with intention
Different experiences are necessary for growth. Without adventure, how can you see the world in a new way?
You’re not expected to like everything. The important thing is that you do, acquire more information, and grow.
Have you placed yourself in a new situation recently?
Whether a small business or large corporation, the head must act in a forthright, admirable way for the chain of command to follow suit. Same applies to smaller groups of people: the leader sets the tone for what is acceptable and what is not, setting the pace for others to follow.
By pushing yourself to be the very best you can be, you inspire those around you, build trust within your team, and encourage others to lead principled lives.
Great leadership shouldn’t be difficult to come by. Neither should integrity.
Our steps are easily trackable, our buying decisions traceable with the click of a mouse. We document our lives on film for our friends and the world to see. We post our professional accomplishments on open social networks. We look for validation and response from what we show the world, from names printed in magazines to recognition in the neighborhood coffee stop.
We have unlimited options to conceal our true identity, forsaking vulnerability and connection for a clean, manufactured image. With so many distractions for us to choose from, we can hide from ourselves, busying our focus from concentrating on things that matter and topics we know to be pertinent.
It’s easier to distract ourselves than sit down and get to the real, gritty work.
It’s easy to check email and Facebook regularly.
It’s hard to focus on making big things happen.
It’s easy to sprinkle business cards around a room.
It’s hard to develop meaningful rapport.
It’s easy to leave a meeting without speaking up.
It’s difficult to put your ideas on the line.
It’s easy to attend a party not having learned anyone’s name.
It’s difficult to make intentional introductions.
It’s easy to speak on a panel.
It’s hard to create an experience that changes the way someone feels.
It’s easy to manufacture the same item over and over again.
It’s difficult to create a once-in-a-lifetime work of art.
Seth Godin recently reminded me of questions I can’t afford not to answer:
Each day we have a series of choices that, when combined, contribute to the story we tell ourselves and the world.
One word separates problems from solutions.
It is possible to witness a situation and do nothing.
Or you can let it move you, think of a way to change it, make it better, and improve it from the way you found it.
1. You really, really want something.
Big Goal: I want to … travel around the world, be the company’s top earner, find a fulfilling relationship, double my savings account, change careers.
2. You want to change your behavior.
Big Goal: I am going to … lose weight, eat mindfully, stop smoking, be independent, make confident decisions, become more organized.
Big Goals sound daunting because they’re not easy (if it sounds easy, it probably isn’t a Big Goal). These kinds of goals often entail major life changes — career, relationship, health — and require concentrated focus and energy.
Lately, many of my meetings have involved some sort of goal setting tirade: how to set goals, frustration with achieving them, fear of failing, uncertainty. Since my days working as a probation officer, I’ve encouraged people to set Big Goals, ones that are both lofty and achievable. The trick to success?
This may sound counterintuitive, but it works.
After you’ve identified and set your Big Goal(s), you must plan smaller, manageable subgoals that point you in the direction of your identified finish line.
Big Goal: I am going to get fit.
subgoal: I am going to start a food diary.
subgoal: I will pack lunch twice this week.
subgoal: I am going to explore different forms of exercise and find what I enjoy.
subgoal: I am going to schedule workouts into my calendar.
etc.
It’s not enough to write your dream on a board and walk away. Your chances of accomplishing Big Goals proportionally increase with the planning and thought you put into your game plan. Subgoals are essential if you’re looking to knock it out of the park.
Set periodic check-in reminders to help you assess whether you are on track. Think of it as a training plan: no marathoner wills himself past the finish line. Successful race days are the result of many mini-runs, planned efforts set with an end result in mind. There’s a reason step-by-step guides work. They take complex processes and break them down into approachable actions.
Big Goal: I am going to get fit.
today: I am going to start a food diary.
this week: I will pack a lunch twice this week.
by next week: I am going to explore different forms of exercise and find one that I enjoy.
this month: I am going to schedule workouts.
etc.
Set Big Goals. Don’t cut yourself slack.
Just increase your betting odds by making a plan to get there.
A friend once posed this simple question. It’s since become etched in my mind:
“If you could do anything, anywhere, what would it be?”
Most of us don’t allow ourselves to answer this, much less answer in a brutally honest way. We’re too busy, too invested in our careers, too preoccupied with our families, too set in our ways to give ourselves the space and time to consider.
It’s scary to go there. There’s fear of failing, of being the fool, of risking and losing, of making the wrong choice. And then! What would it look like to actually succeed?
We make decisions after rigorous cost-benefit analyses. We talk to our friends, we pay for therapists, we torture ourselves with choices. We wonder which path is the “right one,” the one that will bring us happiness and success and pay for all of our bills and more.
But really, it comes down to this:
1. Does it excite you?
2. Do you believe in the cause?
3. Can you make an impact?
Find people who inspire you to jump, dig deep, and stretch towards the life you’ve always wanted. Create time in your life to view your life from new perspectives. Give yourself permission to dream.
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
-George Bernard Shaw