Morning Motivator – If It Does Not Change Things…

"Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it."
-  Mahatma Gandhi

A personal frustration is the amount of time and energy people EXPEND on meaningless analysis or activities.  This is commonly found amongst small groups of people or couples where there is a need for DOMINANCE.  These are the conversations about an insignificant detail of a story, offering NO VALUE to the story, yet, it becomes a sticking point between parties.  UGH.  Shoot me.

I find it is not UNCOMMON for people to become frustrated with me because I tend to leave out small pieces of information in discussions.  Why do I?  Those tidbits DO NOT MATTER.  They do not AFFECT the outcome, the people involved, nor does it even create an inkling of importance in the relevance of the story itself.  They are meaningless, moot points.

Who cares if the people met at a pizza shop or coffee shop?  It does not matter why someone cannot attend something and will not tell you why, rather, it only matters that they cannot attend.  If the client says they need to push the meeting to next week for personal reasons, well, then just move the damn meeting…

2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
Business managers are very GOOD at worrying about the crap that does NOT matter.  In sales meetings, they are concerned with the 20 reasons WHY someone pushed a meeting, when the meeting is already rescheduled and confirmed.  WHO CARES?!  They have their reasons and we are still moving forward.  It is over… move on.

When you begin ANALYZING your actions, your follow up systems, and your relationship management, CONSIDER focusing solely on the actions of highest value.  If a client wants to change your regularly scheduled monthly meeting and requests a different day, then do it and move on.  If they ask to move it and do not reschedule… well, then you have problems.  KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!

You have a limited amount of energy and mental capacity in a day, week, month, year… do not waste it on garbage that does not matter or is purely emotional in nature offering little logical value.  Spend your time FOCUSED on the specific goals you have.  Rather than waste time and energy on UNDERSTANDING what you do not have enough information to even get close to understanding, REFOCUS your energy on alternate solutions. 

At the end of the day… know cares WHY you did or did not do something.  They just care that you did or did not do it!

Cheers,
Zach

*To enjoy past editions of the Morning Motivator go to – http://grow-learn-lead.blogspot.com

The Morning Motivator is a copyrighted publication. The use of this article is open for print or publication with proper citations.

Morning Motivator - Ten Principles To Live By In Fiercely Complex Times

Here is a GREAT one from FastCompany.com, much better than I could write today...  ENJOY!!

BY FC EXPERT BLOGGER TONY SCHWARTZ Wed Jul 13, 2011 This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone.

If you're like most people I work with in companies, the demands come at you from every angle, all day long, and you have to make difficult decisions without much time to think about them. What enduring principles can you rely on to make choices that reflect openness, integrity and authenticity?

Here are ten that work for me:

1. Always challenge certainty, especially your own. When you think you're undeniably right, ask yourself "What might I be missing here?" If we could truly figure it all out, what else would there be left to do?

2. Excellence is an unrelenting struggle, but it's also the surest route to enduring satisfaction. Amy Chua, the over-the-top "Tiger Mother," was right that there's no shortcut to excellence. Getting there requires practicing deliberately, delaying gratification, and forever challenging your current comfort zone.

3. Emotions are contagious, so it pays to know what you're feeling. Think of the best boss you ever had. How did he or she make you feel? That's the way you want to make others feel.

4. When in doubt, ask yourself, "How would I behave here at my best?" We know instinctively what it means to do the right thing, even when we're inclined to do the opposite. If you find it impossible, in a challenging moment, to envision how you'd behave at your best, try imagining how someone you admire would respond.

5. If you do what you love, the money may or may not follow, but you'll love what you do. It's magical thinking to assume you'll be rewarded with riches for following your heart. What it will give you is a richer life. If material riches don't follow, and you decide they're important, there's always time for Plan B.

6. You need less than you think you do. All your life, you've been led to believe that more is better, and that whatever you have isn't enough. It's a prescription for disappointment. Instead ask yourself this: How much of what you already have truly adds value in your life? What could you do without?

7. Accept yourself exactly as you are but never stop trying to learn and grow. One without the other just doesn't cut it. The first, by itself, leads to complacency, the second to self-flagellation. The paradoxical trick is to embrace these opposites, using self-acceptance as an antidote to fear and as a cushion in the face of setbacks.

8. Meaning isn't something you discover, it's something you create, one step at a time. Meaning is derived from finding a way to express your unique skills and passion in the service of something larger than yourself. Figuring out how best to contribute is a lifelong challenge, reborn every day.

9. You can't change what you don't notice and not noticing won't make it go away. Each of us has an infinite capacity for self-deception. To avoid pain, we rationalize, minimize, deny, and go numb. The antidote is the willingness to look at yourself with unsparing honesty, and to hold yourself accountable to the person you want to be.

10. When in doubt, take responsibility. It's called being a true adult.

Cheers,
Zach

I didn't write this one, so if you want to use it... show some love to Fast Company.

Morning Motivator – A Good Idea Must Be Shared

"I have a great idea, but am afraid to tell anyone as they may steal it."
- Anonymous

Let me let you in on a SECRET… no one is going to steal your idea no matter how genius it is.  Frankly, they do not care enough about what your idea is to be motivated for doing it.

Great ideas are lost every day by people that live in FEAR of others hijacking it and becoming millionaires, leaving you holding the bag of disappointment, saying, "Damn, I missed out."  Some, not all, of these ideas have real MERIT.  They have the ability to become something meaningful and successful.  Alas, they FAIL before starting because of the fear of one to share it with a few.

If you have a great idea, the best way to create an INCENTIVE to get executing is to share the idea and create accountability.  By sharing your idea, you give it a REALITY, an opportunity for implementation.  Additionally, consider what may occur if you share the idea…

2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
-  You may find that people you are share the idea with (commonly your best friends and trusted resources) are SUPPORTIVE of your vision and seek to assist.
-  The people you share the idea with have a similar idea and the RESOURCES to get it started WITH you.
-  One of your people may be the missing link to your success and provide the resources you need to make the dream a reality
-  The person you share the idea with is so INSPIRED that they decide to financially invest in your idea

Realize that your IDEA is a fantasy as long as you are the only one that knows anything about it.  You will always be allowed to "push it until later" as long as no one else knows that you want to start.  Accountability and motivation will always be at their LOWEST as long as you are the only one that has the passion to see it come to life.

If you have a great idea, SHARE IT!  Test its VALIDITY on those that know you best and are closest to you.  See if it makes sense, has intrinsic value or even sounds INTERESTING to the people around you. 

Simply put, if you cannot share the idea and create interest amongst those NEAREST to you… how do you ever expect to do anything BIG with the idea overall?  What is your GREAT idea?

Cheers,
Zach

*To enjoy past editions of the Morning Motivator go to – http://grow-learn-lead.blogspot.com

The Morning Motivator is a copyrighted publication. The use of this article is open for print or publication with proper citations.

morning motivator - trying new ways

"todays morning motivators written via voice dictation."
- zach

for those of you who hate the way I capitalize words, you will love today's morning motivator.

in an effort to practice what I preach, I am doing today is morning motivator in a new way to see if it works effectively.  edgewater done we find ourselves doing the same things, the same old ways, okay really because they give us the same old results.

I think the most of us just tied to try new things because if we fail we might look bad.  many of us have never failed, and for some reason now think we should protect our kids from failure.

Do we realize that the greatest discoveries in this world were  achieved from failures?  do we recognize that the only way to grow is through experimentation?

2 degrees success step:
Fear is nothing more than expectation of something bad in something that we don't understand.  Within any quality experiment an element of unknown must be required. 

should we really fear the unknown if we expected it to occur?  would we benefit more by embracing experimentation and trying new things to see what happens?

as a child you are fearless and it could be interpreted that's why we grow so rapidly.  as children we challenge ourselves physically mentally and emotionally, yet, as adults, we seek to eliminate risk and minimize challenges.

maybe it's time to say screw it try something you do everyday in a brand new way... like voice dictating your daily blog.

cheers,
zach

if you'd like to see more of the morning motivator, goto  http://grow-learn-lead. blogspot.com

if you'd like to rip of the morning motivator to use it for your own business or personal use, I am totally cool with it.  just give me a little credit where it is deserved

Morning Motivator – Those Whom Make “NO” a “YES”

"It seems like people tell you what they cannot do more often than what they can."
- Anonymous

I am going to make a guess about you.  You LOVE a good challenge!  Not like a riddle or a puzzle, but a "real" challenge that forces you into a corner and tests your resilience.  If I am wrong, you can skip today's Morning Motivator.

I find it interesting that our BEST, young leaders are people that RELISH the opportunity to take a NO and turn it into a glorious story about overcoming through perseverance and creativity.  They are the ones that care less about an award or recognition for their business achievement results and care more about the "way they got there."

How often do you find someone telling you the 1000 reasons "why" they CANNOT help you?  How often have you asked someone to ASSIST just to be told why it is impossible?  How often are you FRUSTRATED at the minimal effort people give in trying to FIND SOLUTIONS as opposed to excuses?

2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP:
One of the greatest DETERRENTS to great leadership is the ACCOUNTABILITY for creative problem solving.  In a society that has greater RESPECT for your ACT/SAT scores than your ability to navigate from one side of campus to the other, we find our brains have been conditioned for minimal effort response.

No longer are we CELEBRATED for our "street smarts" and ability to be "savvy" business people.  Rather, we have been told we must all have a Master degree in something or other to be successful.  We are conditioned to seek middle-management jobs that offer stability without any creativity.  We go into our annual meetings EXPECTING a raise because we did not screw up, even though we never really offered any great value.

Think about it… Whom would you rather have on your team?  The person that can consistently take "NO" and turn it in to a "YES," maybe not in its original form, but effective all the same…OR… the person that never makes a mistake, always shows up on time, always says the right things, but you cannot think of one thing they have tried to do other than "just their job?"  

Which are you...?

Cheers,
Zach

*To enjoy past editions of the Morning Motivator go to – http://grow-learn-lead.blogspot.com

The Morning Motivator is a copyrighted publication. The use of this article is open for print or publication with proper citations.