Pine needles still provoke calm and creativity. I spent hours laying on the floor of piney woods, clearly away the pine cones to make a soft spot where I could just lay on my back and gaze up into the trees. The trees were usually too thick to see the sky. I had another spot or two where the pine trees were enormous, but not nearly as close together. I’d go to those spots if I wanted to look at the clouds drift by.
As kids we were either working to build a fort, a cart to roll down the hill or some other medieval-inspired project or we were playing hard. It didn’t seem we spent much time doing anything else, but there was a third thing we often did. It was a vital part of doing those first two things. Thinking. Dreaming. Conjuring up ideas. Being creative.
Every fort I ever built, every cart I ever dared drive (after helping build it), every tree house…they all began in my head and in the heads of my friends.
Nobody talked to us about that stuff. Parents didn’t talk about it. Teachers sure didn’t. We didn’t read books.
Adults read books about creativity, passion and doing cool things. Kids just think them up, then do them. And if our ideas didn’t work, the fun was in figuring out how to make it work!
It’s sorta sad to think of how many books on creativity I’ve read since I’ve been grown. And you know what? I needed to read them, and that makes it even sadder. As adults we analyze things. As kids, we just do them.
Maybe it’s time for us to be more like kids. I’m going to take a drive to the east Texas piney woods and go lay down for awhile.
Increased sales won’t cure everything. It’s fool’s gold to think you can sell your way out of every problem.
My work focuses only on 3 things:
• helping my clients get new customers
• helping my clients serve customers better
• helping my clients not go crazy in the process
But…
Not every business problem can addressed by these 3 things. Business can be stressful.
Sometimes we encounter product or inventory problems. Sometimes we may encounter a legal problem, or an HR problem. We can have a major computer problem. Or an accounting problem. Businesses have lots of moving parts so there’s always something that can break.
When your computer system is down, increased sales won’t help. Well, it may help you throw more money at the problem to get it fixed, but you still have to get the computer system back up.
Many business stresses can be solved by correctly addressing the 3 things I focus on, but not all of them.
Why do most people think of beach life when the term “lifestyle” comes up?
Today’s episode was a video, but the transcoding (or some gremlin) messed it up. Thankfully, given the redundancy here in The Yellow Studio, I did capture the audio…so today’s episode is audio only.
Not long ago a friendly debate broke out about the terms, “lifestyle business” and “lifestyle design.” I took the position that every business, every career is a lifestyle business. My logic was – and still is – fairly obvious, or so I thought. Our careers or businesses determine our income. They also determine our schedule. As a result, our time and our income are determined by them. They set in motion the kind of neighborhood where we live, the kind of cars we drive, the stuff we purchase and to a certain degree, the way we spend our free time. Our lifestyle.
My opponent didn’t buy any of that. He maintained that lifestyle businesses are those that afford people the freedom and flexibility to do what they most want. Clearly, he’s not known very many extremely success people who earn crazy money doing what they love. Celebrities and rock stars who are quite often kept on tight schedules. Industry leaders who are shuttled from one meeting to another with little tolerance for deviations from the schedule. Surgeons who can often enjoy scenes like the one depicted in that photograph, but most often are on call, waking up in the wee hours of the morning to perform emergency surgery.
What if a person loves winter sports? What if a person can’t imagine living without snow? They’d be miserable looking at that ocean view every day.
Just because my opponent had a certain view of “lifestyle” he had a hard time considering that others might have a different perspective. And he certainly couldn’t understand how a person with a JOB could possibly be considered to have a “lifestyle business.” I was irritated that anybody with a JOB was viewed as being less ambitious or less serious about designing their life. Thankfully, the conversation remained civil. I could have whipped him with my arm tied behind my back. 😀
Well, what if you do want to consider doing something different? How can you go about thinking about what you might like to do – something that thrills you? That’s what today’s show is all about.
..but a fresh start may not always involve something new
I’m a sports fan. Maybe you’re not. But stay with me ’cause I guarantee you can relate.
Last week when the NFL regular season ended a number of coaches and general managers got a chance for a fresh start. They were fired on the Monday following the Sunday games. Seven head coaches. Five general managers.
The NFL is a small, somewhat closed community. A fraternity. Most, if not all of those fired, will be candidates for new jobs with different teams.
One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.
The Kansas City Chiefs have made fired Andy Reid (Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach for the past 14 seasons) among the highest-paid head coaches in the league. It’s good to be wanted. And for Andy, it’s got to be a nice feeling to know you’re going to get a fresh start. A chance to do things differently…hopefully, better.
Andy lost a son this past year. He’s a man who has known his share of trouble. Some troubles – like the death of a child – are unalterable, but even so, I strongly suspect Andy is thankful for an opportunity to put the past behind him so he can focus on the prospect of a brighter Midwestern future. He will certainly find the fans in KC more…shall we say, polite. I’ve not heard of KC fans throwing batteries at opposing players.
That’s how it is with fresh starts. They are enormous opportunities, chances to do things drastically different.
The fresh start represents major change. Not just some slight shift in direction or in how we do things, but that dramatic change we may (or may not) be looking for. For people who get fired, it’s a forced quest for a fresh start. But, how many times have we read or heard stories of people who were fired only to report how thankful they were for it to have happened?
The person stuck in cubicle nation, afraid to step out and step away — is called into the corner office and told their position is being eliminated. The job they’ve hated for years is suddenly among the most prized possessions they can think of. Slammed with the reality that they’re now “out of work” they’re quickly paralyzed with fear. Like the opossum who faints with fear, once revived, they quickly scamper into action. Eventually they find their way. Some soar to success they never dreamed possible. All because they were forced to make a quantum leap and create a fresh start.
It’s among the many reasons why most of us don’t make the improvements we know we should make. It’s just easier to stick with what we’ve always done. Continuing to get what we’ve always got. One foot in front of the other, hoping that tomorrow things may be better. Just because we’d like them to be. Hardly ever happens.
Will Andy Reid be successful in Kansas City? I don’t know. Will he hire a different staff than the one he had in Philly? I’d venture to guess you’ll see some familiar faces, but I’m also betting there’ll be quite a few news ones. Even a seasoned pro like Andy is going to want to do some things very differently than the way he did them back in Philly.
They why didn’t he make the changes in Philly? Because he’s just like you and me. He got comfortable. He didn’t plan on becoming lethargic or complacent. But he’s human. It happens. Today’s show is all about…
“Come on down!” Game show announcer Johnny Olson made that line famous on The Price Is Right. Audience members sat in anticipation that their name might be called to “come on down.”
Here we sit, anticipating a hopeful beginning of a new year. Like all the potential contestants in the studio of The Price Is Right. Hoping, wishing, fingers crossed — that some announcement will sound out our name. Give us permission, as Seth Godin would say.
In 2012 too many people didn’t hear their name called. They sat and waited. And waited. Now that 2012 is over, for them it’s another “glad to see ya go” experience. And just like a year ago today, they sit hoping this new year will be different. Better.
Hope Is Not A Strategy
Even so, many people do it. Yes, we all need hope. No, hope is not a bad thing. It’s vital to our lives. Hopeless is not a good way to live.
We should all hold onto the notion that success will come our way.
We just can’t rely only on hope! That’s where we get it wrong.
Hope should only be an ingredient – fuel – for the action you need to take. Success has a cost, a price. It’s up to you to make sure the price is right.
Get busy this year making your life what you want it to be. Embrace the adage, “If it is to be, it’s up to me!”
“Come on down! It’s time to play!”
Happy New Year! Be safe. Have fun. Be lovable. Make a difference.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” -Mark Twain
“Be tough,” says every dad to every toddling son when they fall down.
I used to be far more stoic than I am today. Reserved. Keeping my cards close to my vest. Protective.
Lots of people choose to live that way thinking they’re protecting themselves. Have that hard shell like a walnut and perhaps you can avoid pain.
It doesn’t work.
Life cracks us all. Sadly, during this holiday season too many people suffer despair and sadness. Too many of us have knees that are buckling under the strains of life, including this holiday. Not everybody celebrates the end of a year and the beginning of another because it’s just too painful.
I hope that’s not you, but if it is – listen. Let me be just one voice to encourage you that life is good. It can be. And you can affect a more positive outcome for yourself and those you love. You absolutely can.
Does this mean you can get rich? No.
Does it mean you can get the career of your dreams? Maybe not.
Does it mean your sickness – or the sickness of your loved ones – can be cured? No, maybe not.
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” – Mark Twain
Then, what does it mean?
It means you can endure. It means you can practice mental toughness that will help you increase your resilience to the failures that life slings at all of us. All of us!
1. Count your blessings. Really focus on the things for which you are truly thankful. Do it without comparing yourself to anybody else. It’s easier to see new opportunities when you concentrate on your blessings instead of your hurdles.
“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one” – Mark Twain
2. Understand that this is a moment and it will pass. Problems end. Struggles subside. In that moment of defeat it’s hard to realize, but just look back over the course of your life. It’s always happened. Time moves on and we move along with it. Embrace that knowledge in advance.
3. Craft a proper response to your struggle, defeat or failure. What will you do? Those wise counselors you sought out can help you figure this out, but remember – you are the President of your own life. You alone must decide how to respond to the arrow of life.
Do not go it alone. Seek wise counsel. Don’t be brave. Don’t be stoic. Share your pain with people who care deeply about you – people who can help you.
4. Get busy. Once you decide the proper response, get busy doing something. Take action. Know that your response may require adjustments along the way. That’s to be expected. So, expect that. But don’t sit around waiting for the world to change. Do what you can with what you’ve got.
BONUS 5. Do not try to learn from the failure too soon. Learning the lessons of defeat takes a perspective that only time will supply. This is learning that you can’t apply some Tim Ferris fast learning methodology to. Now is not the time. That’ll happen later. Let it. Go with the flow.
I wish you well. I hope the coming year brings with it the opportunities you seek. Prepare well.
P.S. Here are a few more pithy Mark Twain quotes for your inspiration.
“Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thought that is forever flowing through one’s head.”
“To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.”
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here first.”
“What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.”
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”
“Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.”
“I’ve had thousands of problems in my life, most of which never actually happened.”
“Come on down!” Game show announcer Johnny Olson made that line famous on The Price Is Right. Audience members sat in anticipation that their name might be called to “come on down.”