Tag: empowerment

This is it

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What is joy?

What is commitment?

What is love?

What is friendship?

You can take these questions from the top-down. You take a definition – the one your parents gave you, the one your culture preaches, the one your past taught you – and you try to find what it is that take you as close to it as possible. As these are ideals, it’s difficult to seek them and make them real. It’s usually disappointing.

You can also take these questions from the bottom-up. You look at your life – what is given to you, what you are taking with your skills and attitude, what you give out to others – and label the individual items with the term that best fits.

You say, “this is joy” after a genuine laugh. And you seek more of it.

You say, “this is commitment” after some hard work. And you seek more of it.

You say, “this is love” after holding your partner in an intimate embrace. And you seek more of it.

You say, “this is friendship” after a 2-hour chat with your heart wide open. And you seek more of it.

This is it.

You are dealt some cards and it’s up to you to make of them whatever you pursuit. Change will follow, and it begins with you noticing that you already have the ideal life.

Passion and distraction

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There is a lot of difference between spending time and energy and resources on something you are passionate about, and spending the exact same amount of time and energy and resources on something you don’t care about.

In the first case, no matter how much you give, you will always find a bit more. You will feel recharged even after a full day of intense activity. In fact, the other stuff and the people in your life will most likely benefit from your positive attitude and adrenaline. Just because you are committed to something you love.

In the second case, the opposite is true. Even ten minutes of the activity will drain you. You will mostly complain, find issues with everything and everyone, and that attitude will spill to everything else, and everyone else, in your life.

So, the trick is this.

Do something for long enough to get committed and passionate about it, and reduce the distractions that make you feel miserable.

Easy. Not simple.

For you and for me

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What’s in it for me?

That’s on our mind when we approach something, whether consciously or unconsciously. We have some idea of what we will get from a situation, from a person, from a request. We play scenarios in our head and expect to maximise the value we can get.

Of course, everybody does that at the same time, and so focusing on what you could get is probably not going to take you very far.

Challenge yourself and start with: Here is what’s in it for you.

Once that becomes the default, you will find you can change the world.

Silos

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If your organisation has a problem with silos – that is to say, you are dealing with departments caring mainly about their internal processes and KPIs, blaming poor results on others, not aligning around what success looks like -, the best way to break down the silos is to start a project that needs the input and commitment of people that come from the different silos.

Make them know each other, come up with ideas and execute in the same space, define success and celebrate together.

It will teach them empathy for other functions and it will allow them to take that empathy back to their respective teams.

Wrong turn

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When things take a wrong turn, the only thing you can hope for is that you have cherished the moments you have had until then.

If everything is a hustle, a battle, a fight, a competition. What are you left with?