Life seems to be marked by big-decisions that take us down specific paths in which we want to go. But if you stop and think about it, “big decisions are hard to make and hard to change,” say the authors of Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.
Fried and Hansson go on to say, “Once ego and pride are on the line, you can’t change your mind without looking bad. […] And then there’s inertia too: the more steam you put into going in one direction, the harder it is to change course.”
Instead of making big decisions, the authors’ advice is to make tiny ones, so that we can’t make big mistakes. When we make choices that are small enough, as it turns out, they’re effectively temporary and we can change them or fix them if something goes wrong. “There’s no big penalty if you mess up. You just fix it.”
Yet, with the joy of having made a big decision that turned out right, comes the desire of making more big decisions and achieving more. So, how do we reconcile this?
“Making tiny decisions doesn’t mean you can’t make big plans or think big ideas. It just means you believe the best way to achieve those big things is one tiny decision at a time.”
And this makes perfect sense because every large project, plan, idea or goal is comprised of a series of small actions, that when linked together give us that big result. In reality, big decisions come as a collection of tiny ones that resulted in you now having the ability to make that big decision. And once you make it, you can start moving forward via tiny decisions that will ultimately bring you the desired results. Breaking it down into tiny decisions or tiny components is the key.
The authors cite explorer Ben Saunders who achieved a daunting North Pole expedition: 31 marathons back-to-back, 72 days alone. “His ‘huge decision’ was often so horrifically overwhelming to contemplate that his day-to-day decision making rarely extended beyond ‘getting to that bit of ice a few yards in front of me.’ ”
Just remember that attainable goals are always those that you can break down into little steps by making tiny decisions.
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent Van Gogh
ACTION
TODAY: What is a big decision or big goal that you have in front of you? Think of tiny decisions that you can make that will move you closer in that direction.
FUTURE: As you contemplate making big decisions, contemplate as well the series of small ones that you will take—at least initially—to get going. This way you will be able to accomplish them and build on: you finish one, and move on to the next. Give yourself permission to make mistakes, they’ll be tiny, after all, and you will learn from them, be able to course-correct, and move on until you reach your goal.
Know someone who would benefit from making tiny decisions? Please decide to share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
In Born For This, Chris Guillebeau shares a very interesting exercise to make sure that we can choose and follow our desired path with confidence. Here it is, verbatim:
When you’re stuck in a rut or simply not sure if your current job is the best choice, here’s an idea: once a year, on the date of your choosing, decide for yourself that it’s time to quit. You can do this literally or theoretically. Every year, commit to yourself that you’ll choose to break out of prison and do something different unless staying the course is truly the best way forward.
You can also do this is you’re going to school. Every year, decide to drop out unless continuing the program is the best option. As much as possible, ignore sunk costs. If you’ve been doing a six-year Ph.D. program and have two years invested before you realize it’s making you miserable, does it matter? Not really. Consider the next four years of your life, not the previous investment that brought you this far.
Whether quitting your job, your school program, or something else, here’s a draft statement you can use to make your commitment:
Every year on [date], I will resign from my job. I’ll evaluate if it’s the best possible option for me to continue with another year. If it is, I can proceed with confidence and give it my all. If not, I’ll immediately start looking for something better.
If you end up sticking with your current job because you love it, great! If not, it’s time to get out of Alcatraz. Either way, now you’ve made a conscious decision and can proceed with confidence.
What I love about this approach is that it reminds us that there are always options. Further, it enables us to determine whether the path we are on is indeed the one we want to continue on. If it is, then that’s fantastic, and by virtue of deciding that we want to continue with what we are doing, we have renewed energy, enthusiasm and commitment.
If we determine that it is not the path in which we want to continue, that is equally valuable, because that will help us look for alternatives.
And the idea doesn’t just apply to business or school, I’d take it one step further and apply it to all our activities: Do we still want to continue involved in that non-profit or is it time for a change? Do we still want to continue taking yoga and pilates or is it time to change to swimming, crossfit or ballet? Is it time to take photography classess instead of oil painting?
By analyzing our involvement in our activities we will be able to figure out what is best for us now, apply selective quitting, and thus move forward confidently having made a conscious decision.
ACTION
TODAY: Determine the date when you are going to figuratively “quit.” Then make some time in your calendar to think about the pros and cons. Make a conscious choice about moving forward in your current path or in a different one and determine next steps.
FUTURE: Make time in your calendar to analyze whether you want to continue with the activities in which you are currently involved. Make a list of pros and cons and make a decision. Once that decision is made you’ll be able to move forward with ease.
Know someone who needs to resign his/her job or activities once a year? Please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thanks!
One of the most wonderful compliments we can all receive is that of equating us with progress: “He/she stands for progress. He/she is the right person for the job.” I still haven’t met anybody who does not like to be seen as a forward-looking, progress-seeking leader.
Looking forward, thinking progress, believing in progress and pushing for progress are leadership qualities that we can all develop. David J. Schwartz in The Magic of Thinking Big says, “Leaders, real leaders, are in short supply. Status-quo-ers (the everything’s-all-right-let’s-don’t-upset-the-apple-cart folks) far outnumber the progressives (the there’s-lots-of-room-for-improvement-let’s-get-to-work-and-do-it-better people). Join the leadership elite. Develop a forward look.”
But how?
There are two things you can do to develop your progressive outlook: 1. Think improvement in everything you do. 2. Think high standards in everything you do.
Students, employees and people in general pattern their thoughts and actions after those of their leaders. That is why a new teacher, a new boss, a new president, or any kind of new leader can make such an enormous difference, for good or bad. Schwartz says, “Remember this: when you take over the leadership of a group, the persons in that group immediately begin to adjust themselves to the standards you set. […] Once they know, they act accordingly.”
Schwartz goes on to say something very profound and powerful: “Over a period of time, [people] tend to become carbon copies of their chief. The simplest way to get high-level performance is to make sure the master copy is worth duplicating.” (!)
So, how can we make make sure that, as master copies, we are worth duplicating??
Fortunately, Schwartz includes a checklist to make sure that we are thinking progressively in four areas: work, family, ourselves, and our community. Keep it handy!
Do I think progressively toward my work?
Do I appraise my work with the “how can we do it better?” attitude?
Do I praise my company, the people in it, and the products it sells at every possible opportunity?
Are my personal standards with reference to the quantity and quality of my output higher now than three or six months ago?
Am I setting an excellent example for my subordinates, associates and others I work with?
Do I think progressively toward my family?
Is my family happier today than it was three or six months ago?
Am I following a plan to improve my family’s standard of living?
Does my family have an ample variety of stimulating activities outside the home?
Do I set an example of “a progressive,” a supporter of progress, for my children?
Do I think progressively toward myself?
Can I honestly say that I am a more valuable person today than three or six months ago?
Am I following an organized self-improvement program to increase my value to others?
Do I have forward-looking goals for at least five years in the future?
Am I a booster in every organization or group to which I belong?
Do I think progressively toward my community?
Have I done anything in the past six months that I honestly feel has improved my community (neighborhood, churches, schools, etc.)?
Do I boost worthwhile community projects rather than object, criticize or complain?
Have I ever taken the lead in bringing about some worthwhile improvement in my community?
Do I speak well of my neighbors and fellow citizens?
Lastly, I’ll leave you with a quote from Benjamin Franklin that I love:
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”
ACTION
TODAY: Take one of the areas described above (work, family, yourself or your community) and answer the questions on the checklist. Determine where you are and what you need to do to make progress in that area.
FUTURE: Take some time to answer all the questions in the checklist and determine where you stand in each area. If you are reading this it’s clear that you are indeed a forward-looking, progressive person. Decide in which area you’d like to make (more) progress first and move into that direction. Then tackle another area and so on. In following along the lines of yesterday’s post, take these questions as decision criteria to measure progress as a state of being.
Think progressively toward your circles and please share this post with them via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry is a great book about prepping yourself to do your best creative work and generate good ideas consistently and purposefully. By creative work Henry doesn’t mean just those professions in a typically creative field, such as the arts or advertising. He says, “You may even cringe when you hear the word [creative] applied to you. […] You may prefer the term ‘strategist’ or ‘manager’ or something else that feels more concrete. Call yourself anything you want, but if you’re responsible for solving problems, developing strategies, or otherwise straining your brain for new ideas, I’m going to call you a creative—even if you ended up being one accidentally.”
Henry shares his methods and insights for all of us, creatives or “accidental creatives,” to create faster, better and more effectively to fulfill the demands of our lives.
One of the strategies that he suggests as a way to enrich relationships and enrich our mental ability to create is called head-to-heads. “We rise to the level of our competition,” says Henry, “we need others in our life to help us stretch and grow.”
He draws a parallel with sports, where you compete with others head-to-head, such as in running, and this helps you keep the pace. The same principle is applied to your creative life as Henry suggests establishing the practice of head-to-heads.
“In a head-to-head meeting, to people get together, and each party is responsible for sharing new insights and new resources they’ve encountered since the last meeting.” Here are four principles to set up effective head-to-heads:
1. Set a time and be consistent. “Agree to a date, time, meeting place and frequency for the meetings with the other person. Choose someplace quiet and comfortable and make it a priority on your calendar. Once a month is a good frequency because it leaves enough time between meetings for each of you to have experienced something new to share and to have generated a few fresh insights that would make for interesting conversation.”
2. Vary your subject matter. “Don’t harp on the same topic month after month. The idea is to challenge each other with new insights and to spark conversation about things that may otherwise never show up on the other person’s radar.”
3. Choose someone you respect and admire. “Preferably someone within your area of expertise. This will enhance the conversation when you get together, leading to ideas and insights more appropriate to each person’s context. Ask yourself, ‘If I could see inside of anyone’s notebook right now, just to see what they’re currently thinking, who would it be?”
4. Prepare about 15 minutes of content. “Don’t just show up with a sandwich. Spend time putting together materials to discuss. Build them around a topic or insight that you are presently working on or just fascinated by. Again, choose a topic of potential interest to both of you.”
The topics you select are up to you and your creative goals. Henry suggests asking the following questions: “What are you currently interested in or curious about? What have you read or experienced recently that you think the other person knows very little about? What new insights or thoughts have you had that are ripe for application?”
These head-to-heads are a fantastic opportunity to build strong relationships as they challenge and stimulate both of you with the new insights. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
ACTION
TODAY: Think of someone with whom you would like to set up a head-to-head set of meetings and touch base with that person to see if he/she is interested. Set up a time to meet. You don’t have to make a lifelong commitment to do it, simply set up an initial amount of meetings, say 3 or 4, and then review how each of you is doing and whether you want to continue.
FUTURE: Following the principle of building a FAB PAB, where you set up your own advisory board for a particular project, think also about setting a head-to-head for a particular season or a particular project. This way it may be less daunting, more focused and then you can decide—when it naturally comes to an end—whether you want to continue.
Have someone in mind for a head-to-head? Send him or her this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
What would you do with a gift of 90+ hours/year to spend however you see fit?
To explain this, let me share this scenario, and you tell me if it sounds familiar:
“You come into your office, and there on your desk sit three folders and two letters that you must respond to. You look at the first letter and read a few sentences. Dealing with it is clearly going to take more time than you have right now. You put it aside. In one of your folders is another task. You handle that task and your phone rings. You answer the phone and get pulled in a new direction for 10 to 15 minutes. Then you go back to the folder, but, just as you do, an email comes in. You stop to read the email, which contains a task that must be dealt with but requires more time than you have right now.”
Can you identify with this? If you spend “just 15 minutes every day to revisit, readdress, or reread documents or emails, you will waste 91 hours per year where no action is taken.” (!)
Chet Holmes, business guru and author of The Ultimate Sales Machine, had a simple, yet practical and very effective way of handling paperwork and email: deal with each thing just once.
“If you touch it, take action. […] Don’t open that email or letter until you are ready to deal with it.”
And dealing with it may take many forms, but at the very least, it means adding the action to your to-do list and saving the email to a particular folder. Holmes says, “the more files you have for work in progress and the more organized you can be in that process, the more productive you will be. So, for example, suppose I open my email from my PR firm that requires me to approve a press release. I have a PR folder. On my to-do list I write, ‘Approve press release. See PR folder.’ That’s how organized you need to be today.”
Short and simple, yet profound in changing the way we work and handle the demands for our time. Plus, the amount of time we’ll save from not having to revisit is astonishing! (For other time saving tips, read this post from Time Traps.)
ACTION
TODAY: Try this touch-it-once approach today and see how much time you save and how much more organized you get.
FUTURE: Make this touch-it-once philosophy a part of your productivity habits. As with every new habit, it will take time and tweaking to adapt to your specific needs, yet I strongly suggest giving it a shot since it will save you much time!
Know someone who’s wasting much time on revisiting things? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
The stories that illustrate the points in the book are incredible lessons of courage, hope, and determination in the face of the worst possible adversity and difficulty—both physical and emotional—that anyone can muster. Whether you serve in uniform or not, the lessons apply to all of us, regardless of our path in life.
The first lesson is wonderful. It’s simply this: make your bed every morning. It’s the importance of starting the day with a task completed. Instead of telling you the story, I will let McRaven’s words tell it to you directly, as I’m quoting his speech verbatim.
Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed. If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack — that’s Navy talk for bed.
It was a simple task — mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs, but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.
If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.
And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.
If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
Here’s the video of the commencement speech. The bed-making story starts at the 4:37 minute mark, but it’s well worth watching the whole 20 min if you have the time. If you prefer to read the speech you can do so here.
ACTION
TODAY: Make your bed. Years ago I heard someone say, “How you do one thing is how you do everything,” and that has stayed with me throughout the years. It echoes what McRaven says: If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.
FUTURE: The habit and discipline of making your bed is illustrative of building a solid foundation. Only by starting with small things you get to the big things. Zig Ziglar said it well: “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” So start today by making your bed, and keep making it every day. And along that path, build the habits that will take you towards the greatness that you seek and the change you want to make in the world.
Know someone who needs to make their bed? Please share this post with that person: you can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
TODAY’S IDEA: Make tiny decisions
