Tick ‘em, boy!
Do you like to do lists?
Yeah, I do too. I noticed recently that I have a reluctance to tick things off.
I come to the end of a task, I look at the item on the list and for some reason I don’t quite believe I finished the job.
Weird aye?
I found out it was because the names I gave each item were open ended. They were things like
“Make a start on project X”
Or
“Feel prepared for event Y”
I’d make a start or do some prep but I never felt worthy to tick them off!
So not only am I learning the art of better defined outcomes, but also the faith to rock them off!
Actions and outcomes
I just watched an episode of Grand Designs UK (my favourite).
It was one of those episodes where the house doesn’t get finished. I think it may even be one of the longest builds on the show.
There was something I noticed in the language of the guy building the house. He said he would ‘tinker’ away at the build over the next ‘little while’.
When I picked up on these language patterns, I understood why the build took so long. Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with tinkering or with taking a long time on projects. We can all do whatever we like.
What I’m interested in is effectively meeting our outcomes as determined by ourselves.
All we need to do it make sure our actions match our outcomes.
If you want to enjoy a build that is a long labour of love, then to ‘tinker’ is quite an appropriate verb.
But if you want to get it built in three months and to high spec- you might want to choose another word.
Actors choose action verbs in their work. Different action verbs activate us in different ways.
What do you want and what are the action words you’ll choose to get there?
Outcomes by accident
Whether consciously or not, we all have outcomes as teachers.
And depending on the day, they will be of varying qualities. If I’m a bit hungry and tired, in the middle of a school day my outcome might be “To get through this in one piece”
On a better day, my outcome might be “To light these kids up and get them excited about this lesson”
Taking a second state my outcome is always a good idea. We’re all here to do a job and it’s too important to let outcomes be left to chance and to be decided by the whim of your biochemistry or mood.
What is your outcome for your work today?
Little geniuses
People tend to be who you believe them to be.
If you want to be married to a god treat your significant other like a god.
I love thinking about this for teaching too.
I want my students to be clever, funny, interested, inspired, unique and have amazing magic to share with the world.
I want to teach little geniuses- How lucky would that be!
So you can guess what I choose to believe about my students. And so how I treat them.
Decide who you want the people in your life to be and treat them like that.
Associated
Do you know the feeling of being unbelievably motivated to do something?
Its the feeling of inspiration when you first decide to do something. You’re there at the finish line when a friend comletes a marathon. You’re in the audience at an award show. You attend a concert and imagine yourself up there performing.
There’s that feeling- “YES! I will do that too”
It’s a powerful feeling. You’re completely associated to the feeling of the goal.
And at that time it isn’t just a goal, it’s a visceral sensation. A pull that can be unstoppable- no one could change your mind at that time.
The further we get from that moment, the more we get disassociated with that powerful feeling.
The trick, then, is to somehow stay connected to that feeling.
It’s like a plug. The vacuum works perfectly when it’s plugged into the power source. The moment it’s unplugged… it stops. The further from the socket it gets the more useless it becomes.
The vacuum needs the plug. We need to re-associate constantly with that initial experience.
Find your way of doing this and don’t stop for anybody.
Useful metrics
Measuring things is useful. But not all metrics are useful at all times.
Like anything, it depends on your outcome.
How many likes you get on a video might not be a useful metric when you’re using the video to explore an artistic idea for yourself.
But if you made the thing for the likes, you ought to measure them.
Weighing yourself mightn’t be helpful… but rating yourself on a scale of 1 – 10 on how comfortable and strong your body feels might be.
To know what to measure we must know what we’re after. And to measure the right thing, we have to be strong enough to only care about the thing we are actually measuring.
Some metrics are louder than others. Real growth comes when you can listen to only what matters for your journey.
Make space for chocolate
Last week I bought two containers of protein powders for my morning smoothie. Two vanilla ones- my favourite!
When I got home I was really disappointed to find I had accidentally bought one vanilla and one chocolate. CHOCOLATE! No! I didn’t want chocolate.
I diligently used half of each for the next few mornings with one thought in mind: I’ve got to get THROUGH this.
But then something interesting happened. I started to love the chocolate flavour.
So much so that I slowly phased out the vanilla flavour and used ONLY chocolate.
Now, this all might seem trivial and you might be wondering “why am I reading about this guy’s breakfast smoothie”?
Well I learned a valuable lesson. You might like the chocolate flavour.
Our job repeatedly is to make space for the possibility that there is a better alternative.
Inside of comfort and routine we can get hypnotised into thinking this is the best way. And it may well be. But sometimes chocolate ends up being better.
I’ve loved my breakfasts the past week and on my most recent shopping trip I bought only chocloate flavour.
Make space for chocolate, everyone.
The best people
The best people are quite simply present with you.
They aren’t trying to make a quick joke, under cut anyone or make themselves look cool.
They’re simply there.
They have a gentle sparkle in their eye. They answer your questions with no agenda. They ask you questions because they’re interested in your heart.
The best people are just, well, the best.
And best of all we get to choose what type of people we want to be.
Catch them
So many things happen to you and around you on a daily basis.
If you wanted to you could find tiny moments that you love.
Little instances of joy.
Micro snaps of magic.
They are there but only if you look. And it’s easy not to look. I’m enjoying journaling as a way of catching them before they’re forgotten forever.
You don’t have to journal- but I’m inviting you to create some way of catching these as well.
The game master
We all have rules.
Rules that state what has to happen for us to feel a certain way or experience a valued state.
What has to happen for you to feel like a valued team member? Questions like this will help you uncover your rules, by the way.
You might discover they empower you or you might discover they’re quite difficult to meet.
In order to feel like a success, for instance, you might have a rule that says people need to tell you you’re great all the time. This rule is good when it’s met, but you could end up feeling pretty bad when you don’t receive that external validation.
It’s worthwhile exploring our rules, I’ve found most of my discomfort or upsets in life stem from rules that are not setting me up to win.
Here’s the question again to help you find yours:
What has to happen(rule) in order for you to feel X (value/ desired end state)?
You’re the game master and you get to make the rules.