Carl Setzer

Don't let fear kill your dreams. Plan and act! Focus on hope, on the way forward. Perhaps you've noticed I've been working a theme these past few posts: facing fear, moving forward, pursuing those dreams.

It's easy to let fear paralyze us and suck out our effectiveness. But the only way to conquer fear is through action.

I get so busy Doing so very much Not what's important

My team is reading Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. Just read a line about young SEAL leaders in training who "often try to develop a course of action that accounts for every tingle possibility they can think of".  I get stuck in that thinking, too.  Besides creating a exceptionally overly complex plan that's very hard for everyone to understand, I found that this comes from a place of fear with me. I develop these mammoth plans as I try to build a counter for everything my fears percolate out. Faith and trust in the mission, for me, has always built the simple plans.

As you may have noticed, I think very highly of Seth Godin. This blog post gave words to an idea I've been considering: Money for nothing Seth says "...your best work isn't nothing...". I adore that! A reminder that our work  is valuable, that our lives have worth. Seeking shortcuts to accomplishment not only shortchanges the one seeking the easy path, it short changes us all. We need to see the value we add, embrace that, and, then, get to work! I hope you have a marvelously productive Monday! When searching for a "Featured Image" for this post, I came across this one. Reminds of my favorite things when working for Starbucks and Microsoft. 

“One of the ways that I believe that people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something great, and to put it out,” ~ Steve Jobs Looks like a great mission statement. 

My career has been rather unique. At least when compared to so many of my friends. It's been terribly linear. I've orbited around administrative/secretarial/office manager stuff. Orbited, and sometimes even held those titles. But it's not been a deliberate effort. Mostly, my employment has centered around taking advantage of opportunities. I generally consider the growth and development opportunities, long-term viability, and all that sort of stuff. Ironically, once I tend to be in a role, I generally settle in. Not sure that's the best way to live, but that's what tends to happen. The universe rarely lets that happen. My main element of deliberation: family. That's what's been important to me. Now, both at Starbucks and at Microsoft, I didn't see how deeply that was. When I left Microsoft and decided I wanted to focus on eliminating my commute. I concentrated on Snohomish County, and was interviewing with Boeing before I was hired with C&K...

Came across this and thought I'd share this with you. Hope it gives you energy and focus.

I strive to keep the positive focus. That's where I keep my compass pointed towards. Yet, it's too easy to get wrapped up in petty squabbles. The amount of energy sucked up by this amazes me. And it damages relationships, creating frictions and distrust. Others see your biases and believe you're seeing their view as lesser. Judging others tends to only damage relationships. Somehow, we need to engage each other's differences in ways that build and grow relationship, not further fracture our already divided society. Keeping our discussions centered upon respect and dignity is key. Also, avoiding rhetorical failures, these key logical fallacies will be crucial. Stay on point and avoid defensive responses. Remember that the goal isn't to "win", rather fund a way forward.

With great ease, I get sucked into random distractions. This frustrates me no end. Actually, the worst past of the feeling isn't due to the lingering tasks. I end up feeling distracted, fragmented and worn; I hate that sensation. I love the feeling of moving forward, accomplishing goals with a direction and focus. Of course, I adore helping people, especially those I care about. The right balance, oh how I long for thee!

Thinking recently about Steven Covey's notion of focusing in your sphere of influence. Work where you are, that's how I internalize this. I've long thought of this simply in terms of effectiveness. Actually, this is far deeper. What's critical always lies within this sphere. One must complete the critical, our all else fails. We must hold our attention within. By managing within ourselves, the inner elements of our lives, other pieces come into play. When the core gets neglected, there is either fear of impending collapse, or the consequences of such collapse. Breaking free requires focus on the deepest, richest inner, most critical elements. Only upon mastering these, can other pieces of life become richer, deeper.

It's frustrating to get lost in the tyrannical distraction of NOW. Quickly one is lost to simple, mindless reaction, weaving to and fro, accomplishing little to nothing; even though the day was full, laden with busy. The result of losing focus. When priorities get lost by attending too much to the blizzard of demand, emptiness wins. We're active, yet no progress made since "what matters" was left undone. One must slow down, consider the value of each task before you act. At least get the priority work done first, the stuff that moves you forward. Even better, more powerful; learn the value of "no". Decline to take energy away from your priorities. Doing more by doing less. Focus your energy for energy isn't limitless.

Last week I was listening to John Richards of KEXP interview Brett Morgen, creator of Montage of Heck , the new movie about Kurt Cobain. There was a line which struck me: "are you prepared for luck?" Powerful words. I want to incorporate them deeply into my life. They capture a core belief: our ability to take control of our lives. That we are empowered to affect change, to have a positive impact on the world. I deeply believe luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation. Thus, preparation is critical. It's what we control. It's how we bring change into being. My challenge: to reach past my tendency to fret and worry, focusing instead on preparing for opportunity. To see the potential in life and continuously grow towards that light. Hence, the new name.

Was just told about a real estate agent who regularly dumps files on their admin, without any explanation or discussion, because they're "so busy" . They'll just figure it out. Ugh! If you're "so busy" , then you really need to take the minute or two it takes to give an explanation of the file, or task you've dropped onto your staff. Expecting folks to just "figure it out" is a near guarantee for re-doing/un-doing work, which is duplicative and wasteful (which should be obvious). Reminds me of one of my father's adages: "you might think you're too busy to do it right, but you won't be too busy to do it again". Slow down, folks; take the time to set your staff, and, thus, yourself, up for success.

A life with no regrets doesn't need to mean one with no mistakes. Really it means you're always looking forward, not obsessed with the past. Our culture pushes a fear of failure, deeply. With that, achieving failure often triggers a deep identification AS a failure. It's an easy trap to get ensnared by. Watch for it! It robs joy, and drains focus for the NOW. This builds a negativity mindset, one where all compliments are distrusted, all opportunities are dreaded. In this world, the only efforts wth making are ones with guaranteed outcomes. Which are few and weak. The ultimate regret:  failing to finish a dream. Seek to prevent that. Keep your eyes forward; find dreams and embrace them. Then steel yourself to fight, fumble and stagger your way forward. It's helps to focus forward, towards the top of the hill we're climbing. Efficiency often is inelegant. Crossing the finishline is ultimately what matters, whether perfectly coiffed or dripping sweat. ...

In Steven Covey's "Seven Habits..." book, he relates a story of a consulting gig. After asking "what's the best way to motivate..." some one spat out "hand-grenades".  Apparently a bit of a debate broke out. I've wondered what would say during that, and think I have my answer. "That's effective if your goal is to build a subservient fiefdom. If you're trying to build a dynamic team of effective contributors, this will fail gloriously." In today's economy, a company of meandering automatons who only act directly upon orders is a recipe for failure. This is a blind bureaucracy. Any need for independent thought or action induces a fear based paralysis. These are non-agile orgs that cannot react nimbly. Their only strength comes from sheer mass. Most of the entities which remind effective do so because they command immense resources, enabling them to catch up with innovators...eventually. Or they just acquire them. Many mana...

Going to the "next level" only has value when YOU have defined success, when YOU know where you want to go. Otherwise, without goal/direction, your psyche knows the emptiness of your drive. At best, you'll feel empty, that your work is meaningless.

As a productivity and effectiveness junkie, I found this clever little bit from my chums at Moleskine a gentle little reminder about the importance of planners and planning. And a nice nudge to grab a new paper planner. More on that soon, though.

Random observation: people seem to land in one of two camps regarding their responses to recognizing challenges. Either we over-dramatize (see the mountain instead if the molehill), or under-estimate (see a molehill instead of the mountain). Perhaps the later deception is more productive, as you avoid paralysis. However, neither is truly effective. Either one is paralyzed needlessly, or starry-eyed unaware of truly harmful danger.  Best response: when we've trained ourselves to see challenge, understand our ability to respond, then choose clearly amongst the clear and obvious choices.  I train my mind continuously, hoping that I'll someday achieve that state. 

The obsessive pursuit of perfection can destroy effectiveness. How easy would it be, continuously review, rewrite, redo a project. Keep revolving within this loop until its perfect, or we die. I would expect that giving into this loop, perfection would only be achieved well after the project's usefulness was long past.  Now, we need to keep mind for quality. Try to make whatever we're creating as effective as possible. Yet, something is better than nothing.  Deliver the best you can. Fix, with diligence and haste any material mistakes, smile about the non-material. Be proud of your work, and the problems it solves.