Most problems arise between decision and execution. It’s when you start to reconsider based only on fear, redundant or irrelevant information, and shiny new opportunities.
To mitigate this, try three things.
See the opportunities to connect the dots.
A colleague might be working on a project that is related to the work a person in a different department is doing.
Your campaign’s results might be an important learning for those who come after you.
The feature that is ready to be released might be a fantastic opportunity to create new content about your key differentiator.
The outcome of a workshop organised by the management team might be relevant to share with your external partners, so they can also see what your company is about.
The point is that most of the things that are achieved in a business do not end there. They open up new opportunities, they are linked to other initiatives, they can be repurposed in various circumstances. That’s why auditing what is happening at any given time is much more important than pursuing something new.
The world is full with people that define success in a single way.
Nothing bad with that, but the reminder is that success has different shapes, it comes at different times, and it is your responsibility (not theirs) to define how success looks like for you.
Ask a historian, “What was mankind’s greatest invention?” Fire? The wheel? The sword? I would argue it’s history itself. History isn’t fact. It’s narrative, one carefully curated and shaped. Under the pen strokes of the right scribe, a villain becomes a hero. A lie becomes the truth.
Foundation, season 1 episode 9
You probably have no interest in writing or controlling history, but you should be invested in managing your own narrative. Who you are, what you stand for, what version of you is in your future, what goals will take you there, what people will you have closeby, what decisions you are making every day.
It’s easy to delegate all of this to others.
Be the right scribe to your very own history.
In most things we see presage, meaning, intention. That’s our way to try and control the chaos of life.
But just because our child is slow eating their lunch, it doesn’t mean they will be slow at everything as they grow up.
Just because someone has not answered our call for help, it doesn’t mean they don’t care.
Just because we have not been awarded that important role, it doesn’t mean we are less worthy of consideration.
More often then not, things merely happen. We should be brave enough to accept that without judgement and move on.
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