“The great successful men of the world have used their imaginations… they think ahead and create their mental picture, and they go to work materializing that picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building — steadily building.” – Robert Collier
“While [most people] think of imagination as child’s play, the world class relies on it as a mental preview of things to come,” says Steven Siebold, mental toughness guru, in his book 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class. This is true. In the world of sports, athletes are coached to visualize their efforts, from beginning to end of the competition, and in every possible scenario. (Here’s a 3-min video of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps where he talks about visualization at the 1:05 min mark.)
Yet imagination and visualization don’t just apply to athletes, it can apply to all of us, and we should use it as the champions in any industry do. Siebold continues, “Before champions make a move, they have lived out the scenario through imagination. The great ones know imagination is the first step in the design of the perfect house or the perfect life.”
Imagination is a natural, never-ending gift from which we can draw anytime. Siebold mentions that “champions often go on sabbaticals or places of great natural beauty for the sole purpose of heightening their sense of imagination when pursuing the solution to a problem.” That’s why Einstein rightly said that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
The author points out that champions combine imagination with their penchant for action, and the results are remarkable and awe-inspiring. “While [most people] scold their children for daydreaming and letting their imaginations run, the great ones are impacting the world with the manifestation of their visions.”
Happy imagining!
ACTION
TODAY: Siebold suggests writing a one-page essay where you answer this question: “If you could be, have and do anything you wanted, what would that look like?” Forget about limits and write as if anything were possible.
FUTURE: Siebold encourages us to take this a step further: “Commit to investing three minutes each day reviewing the essay you wrote. Allow your imagination to run wild with ideas of your perfect life…Forget about the how-to part of the equation during this exercise, and suspend any disbelief you may have. This three-minute, daily habit has the power to transform your life forever.”
Know someone who would love this idea? Please share this post with that person: Email, Facebook, Twitter. Thank you!
In the last few posts, we’ve been learning how to change the habits that hold us back. Today we’ll read about another tool to help us in this area. “Feedforward is so simple I almost blush to dignify it with a name,” says executive coach and business guru Marshall Goldsmith in his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. “Yet some of the simplest ideas are also the most effective. Since they are so easy to do, you have no excuse not to try them.”
Goldsmith points out that “Feedforward is a dramatic improvement on what we traditionally think of as feedback.” And while feedback has its merits, because “it’s a great tool for determining what happened in the past and what’s going on in an organization,” it’s no different than reading history. “It provides us with facts about the past but not necessarily ideas for the future.”
“Feedforward, on the other hand, is feedback going in the opposite direction… [it] comes in the form of ideas that you can put into practice in the future.”
Here are Goldsmith’s four simple steps to obtain feedforward:
1. Select what you want to change. “Pick the one behavior that you would like to change which would make a significant, positive difference in your life. For example, I want to be a better listener.
2. Describe and dialogue. “Describe this objective in a one-on-one dialogue with anyone you know. It could be your wife, kids, boss, best friend, or coworker. It could even be a stranger. The person you choose is irrelevant. He or she doesn’t have to be an expert on the subject… Some of the truest advice can come from strangers… And when a useful idea comes along, we don’t care who the source is.”
3. Ask. “Ask that person for two suggestions for the future that might help you achieve a positive change in your selected behavior—in this case becoming a better listener. If you’re talking to someone who knows you or who has worked with you in the past, the only ground rule is that there can be no mention of the past. Everything is about the future.”
For instance, the dialogue could go like this: “I want to be a better listener. Would you suggest two ideas that I can implement in the future that will help me become a better listener?” The other person could then suggest, “First, focus all your attention on the other person. Get in a physical position, the “listening position,” such as sitting on the edge of your seat or leaning forward toward the individual. Second, don’t interrupt, no matter how much you disagree with what you’re hearing.”
These two ideas are feedforward.
4. Listen and thank. “Listen attentively to the suggestions. Take notes if you like. Your only ground rule: You are not allowed to judge, rate, or critique the suggestions in any way. You can’t even say something positive, such as, ‘That’s a good idea.’ The only response you’re permitted is, Thank you.”
And this is it. Simple indeed. Do steps one through four. Rinse and repeat with someone else. “In seeking feedforward ideas, you’re not limited to one person… You can do feedforward with as many people as you like,” says the author.
Goldsmith swears by the effectiveness of feedforward because, he says, “Feedforward eliminates many of the obstacles that traditional feedback has created.”
So, what are those obstacles and why/how does feedforward work? Goldsmith explains that it works because while we may not like hearing criticism (negative or constructive feedback) we love getting ideas for the future. Also, it works because:
“We can change the future but not the past.”
“Helping people be ‘right’ is more productive than proving them ‘wrong.’ Feedback focuses on solutions, not problems.”
“People do not take feedforward as personally as feedback. Feedforward is not seen as an insult or a putdown.”
“[When] all we have to do is function as a listener, we can focus on [truly] hearing without having to worry about responding.”
Lastly, the author says, “I’m sure that all of us are surrounded by smart, well-meaning friends who ‘understand’ us better than we ‘understand’ ourselves. I suspect they would love to help us; most people like to help others. But they hold back because they think it’s rude or intrusive to try to help someone who has not asked for our assistance. Asking solves this.”
ACTION
TODAY: Try out asking a few people to give you feedforward. See what happens, I’m sure you’ll get some great ideas!
FUTURE: Keep this technique in mind so that when you feel stuck and want to change something you can ask for feedforward.
Know someone who would like this idea? Please share this post! Email, Facebook, Twitter. Thank you!
Hardy emphasizes that he is not suggesting you cut out every “bad” thing in your life. Almost everything is good in moderation, yet sometimes habits take the reigns of our existence.
To avoid that, precisely, is that Hardy suggests running a vice check to ensure you are in control at all times. The author explains:
I believe in testing my vices. Every so often, I go on a “vice fast.” I pick one vice, and check in to make sure I’m still the alpha dog in our relationship. My vices are coffee, ice cream, wine, and movies. I already told you about my ice cream obsession. When it comes to wine, I want to be sure I’m enjoying a glass and celebrating the day, not drowning a bad mood.
About every three months, I pick one vice and abstain for thirty days… I love proving to myself that I am still in charge. Try this yourself. Pick a vice—something you do in moderation, but you know doesn’t contribute to your highest good—and take yourself on a thirty-day wagon run. If you find it seriously difficult to abstain for those thirty days, you may have found a habit worth cutting out of your life.
There you have it. I suggest that next to the list of bad habits you started yesterday, you include a list of vices to check. And then start checking them every so often to ensure you are always in control.
ACTION
TODAY: Add a list of vices to check next to your list of habits to change. Pick a date to get started and note it on your calendar.
FUTURE: Set a 30-day period on your calendar to do your first vice check. Test it out once and see if you’d like to do it again, just as Hardy does, about four times a year.
Know someone who would like this idea? Please share this post! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
“We all have that one friend who says, ‘I had the idea for eBay. If only I had acted on it I’d be a billionaire!’ That logic is pathetic and delusional,” say Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson in their book Rework. “Having the idea for eBay has nothing to do with actually creating eBay. What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan.”
I guess at this point I shouldn’t confess that I had the idea for Uber, but I really did. (Try to flag down a cab in New York, and you’ll see it’s not hard to have such an idea.) Needless to say, I did not act on it…
The point that Fried and Hansson are trying to make is that ideas are nothing without execution. They go on to say, “Think your idea’s that valuable? Then go try to sell it and see what you get for it. Not much is probably the answer. Until you actually start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea. And everyone’s got one of those.”
“Ideas are cheap and plentiful. The original pitch idea is such a small part of a business that it’s almost negligible. The real question is how well you execute.” –Fried and Hansson
And that is the reason why Derek Sivers, entrepreneur and author of Anything You Want, says that he doesn’t want to hear people’s ideas, because he’s not interested until he sees the execution. That is why most investors won’t sign a non-disclosure agreement just to hear an idea from someone that is pitching them for money. They want to see a minimum of execution and thus, traction, before they invest their money.
Sivers created the table below to show how even the most brilliant idea is worth nothing without execution. “[Ideas] are just a multiplier,” says Sivers. “Execution is worth millions.”
IDEA
AWFUL IDEA = -1
WEAK IDEA = 1
SO-SO IDEA = 5
GOOD IDEA = 10
GREAT IDEA = 15
BRILLIANT IDEA = 20
EXECUTION
NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
SO-SO EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000
And how does this work?
Sivers explains, “To make a business, you need to multiply the two components. The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes [brilliant] execution to be $200,000,000.”
Had I sold my Uber idea, a very generous soul would have paid me $20, and I actually think that’s a stretch. However, the Uber team took that idea and has managed to turn it into a global brand worth billions. That’s extra-brilliant execution!
Ideas are not unique, so act on yours today!
ACTION
TODAY: Have you been playing with an idea in your head that won’t leave you alone? Take some time to figure out what it would take to put it in motion. If it’s worth the try, determine to do a quick, lean test in a near future.
While those guidelines were great to keep in mind, the question that came up revolved around specific actions that we could take to improve our teachability. Fortunately, Maxwell foresaw this question and, in today’s post—from the same book, Success 101—he offers the following three actions to ensure we’re always growing and always cultivating and maintaining an attitude of teachability.
1. Observe how you react to mistakes. “Do you admit your mistakes? Do you apologize when appropriate? Or are you defensive? Observe yourself. And ask a trusted friend’s opinion. If you react badly—or you make no mistakes at all—you need to work on your teachability.”
2. Try something new. “Go out of your way today to do something different that will stretch you mentally, emotionally, or physically. Challenges change us for the better. If you really want to start growing, make new challenges part of your daily activities.”
3. Learn in your area of strength. “Read six to twelve books a year on leadership or your field of specialization,” says Maxwell. “Continuing to learn in an area where you are already an expert prevents you from becoming jaded and unteachable.” Besides those books in your area of specialty, I know of a blog that can help you keep learning and growing daily… 😉
Finally, I’ll leave you with a story and a thought that Maxwell tells about Tuff Hedeman, a professional bull riding cowboy at rodeos. “After winning his third world championship, [he] didn’t have a big celebration. He moved on to Denver to start the new season—and the whole process over again. His comment: ‘The bull won’t care what I did last week.’ Whether you are an untested rookie or a successful veteran, if you want to be a champion tomorrow, be teachable today.”
“The most important thing about education is appetite.” — Winston Churchill
ACTION
TODAY: I challenge you to try something new as explained above. Today go out of your way to do something that will stretch you.
FUTURE: Create the habit of challenging yourself daily. Whether it’s 5 more minutes on the treadmill at a slightly faster pace, or recalling the names of 10 of the Saturn moons, or giving a genuine and caring compliment to a colleague whom you don’t like that much (Eek… I tried this one and it’s so hard!), do whatever stretches you where you need it most on that day or that period of time.
Know someone who is always growing? Please share this post with that person: email, Facebook or Twitter. Thanks!
In yesterday’s post, we read about Dave Kerpen’s incredible story of determination. I received many great emails about this, and while most of you were in awe and somewhat encouraged by the story, there was still a little shadow of a doubt lingering as to whether such persistence would be perceived as rude.
I don’t think so. As long as you do it in a charming and polite way, always emphasizing that you are looking to add value to the person and his/her business, I think you will be fine. Just as Kerpen was.
Want further proof? Let’s take a look at what one of my favorite entrepreneurs says about persistence.
Derek Sivers is an entrepreneurial guru that I greatly admire and respect. You can read the ideas that I’ve highlighted from his book, Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur, in these posts: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (don’t miss post #5 for a good laugh from a very creative approach to customer service).
Since Sivers is a genius who has the gift of brevity and conciseness, here’s his entire piece, verbatim, on why persistence is polite:
As teenagers, we learned the hard way that if you contact someone and they don’t reply, they’re just not into you. If you keep trying, you must be a total loser.
But in the business world, it’s the opposite. If you don’t keep trying, you’re a loser!
If someone doesn’t get back to you, it probably wasn’t intentional. Everyone is busy, and their situation has nothing to do with you.
Imagine two different scenarios:
1. Someone doesn’t reply, so you get upset and decide they’re evil and clearly meant to insult you. You resent them for life, and speak poorly of them forever.
2. Someone doesn’t reply, so you assume they must be swamped in work. You wait a week, and contact them again. If still no reply, you feel sympathy that they must be really overwhelmed. You wait a week, and try again. If still no reply, you try to reach them a different way.
Now, which one was rude, and which one was polite?
There you have it. It’s simply a mind shift.
Need more? Here’s Sivers in a quick video interview (3:36 min) talking about a story of persistence and politeness. (Note: at the 1:58 min mark approx. there is one phrase—lasting 2 seconds—with strong language.)
Give yourself the gift of being persistent beyond what you ever imagine you could be. You never know what wonderful opportunities will present themselves based on your polite and charming persistence. Try out polite persistence as an experiment. Think of something that you really want but has been very hard to achieve. Once you know what this is, then determine the frequency of your persistence. Will it be daily, weekly, monthly? A combination?
If you’re still not comfortable with this, take a look at this example from Ari Meisel, in his book Less Doing More Living. He tells the following story of how he automated persistence and finally got the info he wanted. See if there’s something that you can do along these lines.
In a building where I teach, Verizon FiOS [Internet] service was supposed to be available. For three years, the Verizon website said it was available, but it wasn’t. There’s an email address that you can write to check on when FiOS will be available at a location, so I wrote to them and set up a [daily, automatic email] until they replied. Finally, after sixty-four days, someone wrote back. “Please stop your annoying reminder service. We don’t know when service will be available in your building.” I responded, “Why didn’t you tell me that sixty-three days ago?”
As you can see, all sorts of experiments can be set up to start training your persistence “muscle” if you think it needs strengthening. I’ll close this post with a great quote and with an invitation to continue to send me emails to let me know your thoughts about this or any other post.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge
Have a story of persistence you’d like to share? Send it my way and I’ll make a compilation and publish them in a future post!
ACTION
TODAY: Figure out what your experiment in persistence will be about. Then think about what you have that no one else does. What is your equivalent of Dave Kerpen’s Radio Disney that you can leverage to your advantage over everybody else? Use this when being persistent as it will differentiate you and open many doors.
FUTURE: Try out your experiment. Set your schedule for persistence and stick to it. Remember that this is something that you really want, no matter how small or insignificant (like Meisel, he really wanted to know about the internet service in his building). Then get to work. Only by trying out persistence in little steps will you strengthen and grow it to where you will feel more comfortable shooting for bigger goals each time.
Know someone who could benefit from seeing persistence from a different angle, such as the polite one? Please share this post with them! Email, Facebook or Twitter.
TODAY’S IDEA: Are you a product of your imagination? (Hint: You should be!)
