You have got to give yourself the chance to be surprised.
Not because you are unprepared. Not because you had not thought about something enough. Not because someone is trying to get ahead of you. Not because you have lost the bigger picture.
Just because people are surprising, and you got to give them credit for it as well as allow yourself to feel positively about it, without feeling in any way diminished.
We spend an incredible amount of time looking at others behaviour and trying to figure out what they think, when actually the largest impact comes from changing our own behaviour and the way we think.
Awareness starts from within. Don’t get distracted.
In order to set your mind to giving, you have to rid yourself of the expectation to get something in return.
Of course, mixed motives will play a role. But it’s eternally unsatisfying to keep a ledger of what goes and what comes.
Give freely and you will be ready to welcome any reward.
We can’t keep assessing productivity in terms of quantity.
The amount of emails we reply to.
The number of meetings we have scheduled.
How many conversations we are in.
How late we are leaving from work.
The quantity of leads, presentations, or projects we deliver.
Productivity needs to be a function of a goal we set and of the actions we take towards that goal.
If within a measure of work (an hour, a day, a week) we complete something that takes us closer to the goal, that’s where we find meaning.
The rest is just a poor proxy. Just faked busyness.
Tomorrow you can try to:
If you do, take note of how it is. And if it is good, try to do it the day after as well. Perhaps try to add another one from the list, or from your list. Expand from there.
You've got this 