Narrow Samples, Wide Decisions

We get a bad piece of fish at a store.  

We can decide – 

We can’t buy fish on Tuesday.

We can’t buy fish at that store.

Fish is bad, I’ll never eat it again.

That store is bad, I’ll never go there again.

The world sucks.

Why me?

But what does it really mean?  You got a bad piece of fish is all we know. We do want to learn from our experiences, but that’s a small sample to be making wide decisions on.

You swing the bat and miss. You made the call but nobody answered.  You took the test and failed.

What does it mean? You get to say.

Choose carefully. 

"Personal Velocity"

Personal Velocity – the intensity of drive with which you naturally operate.

How fast and deliberately do you move toward your small and large goals?

Victor or Victim?

A Victim blames, makes excuses and denies.

A Victor takes ownership, is accountable and responsible.

When something happens, it’s your choice.

Your Vision for Your Life

Where do you see yourself in 10 years? 20 years?

Will the trajectory you are on get you there?

Deadlines vs. Timelines

Some people work on deadlines – cramming to get their work done before it’s due.  At the final hour, quality will take a back seat to getting something done.

High performers however will work on timelines.  They plan their work.  In order to meet the deadline, they break up the work into chunks on their calendar, with room to spare.  In this way, they can get a better result as they have time for quality and innovation.

Deadlines are when the work is due.  Timelines are when it gets done.

What’s your big project right now?  What is the next step or chunk you need to get done?  When?

Feeling good about you

If we don’t feel good about ourselves, we probably don’t feel good about anyone else either.  If I am proud of myself, I am much happier talking to others.

Make you proud of you.  What’s it going to take?

"Default" behavior

When we go out into the world today, we will likely act, react, talk and think the way we did yesterday.  Why? Because that’s what we always do.

What if we tried something different?  

Feelings by Association

If I know someone from Finland, and I really like that person, what do I think about Finland?  I like the place and I think all the Finnish people are great, and I’d like to go there someday.  Then the person turns on me.  They become a jerk.  All of a sudden, I hate Finland.  People from Finland are jerks and I never want to go there.

Sounds crazy but this is what we do – we make up our minds on how we feel about people, places and things based on association and narrow samples of information.

This person reminds me of someone else who I like (or don’t like).  This event is no good because I heard one time that…  My kids like it, so I do too.  My friend hates it so I do too.

Are our associations always valid?  Do you have associations that limit you?

Confidence comes from competence

We all want to feel confident.  But when we have never done something, or not enough, we are not confident.

Try – develop competence – become confident.

Go ahead – take a chance

Risk looking like a fool.  Risk failure.  Risk wasting time.  Risk getting out of your own comfort zone.

You can’t discover something new for yourself unless you have the courage to try.