Careful What You Wish For

by Matthew Best

An interesting thing happened to me this past week. One day this past week I was attempting to get out the door to do some work at Panera,otherwise called my office
away from my office. The kids were asking me tons of questions,one of the cats had just done something unmentionable outside the litter box,the baby started to cry - we have a pretty full house,so all this is pretty normal.

I was a bit frustrated though. I was frustrated because I was concerned that I wouldn't have enough time to get my work done. I didn't leave the house in the best of moods. It hit me when I got into my car. At that moment I realized that I had gotten exactly what I wanted and I was frustrated about it. I wanted to spend more time with my family - which has been happening. I wanted to work less - which has been happening.I was getting exactly what I had asked for.

So why the frustration? What I came to recognize about the situation was that I was still dealing with the effect of old habits - habits about how much time I "needed" to work. I was used to working many more hours and now I was shifting to working fewer hours. My key for avoiding a recurrence of the frustration is to not only define the goal clearly, but also the consequences of achieving the goal - think of it as symptoms that let you know that you are completing a goal. When I had neglected to do this, I became frustrated at what was going on. When I remembered what the goal was - I remembered that less work time means working smarter, not harder. It means setting up better systems to handle time consuming tasks, etc.

So what are you attempting to accomplish? Are you making progress on this? How do you know? What are the consequences of achieving the goal?

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Silence

by Matthew Best

Have you ever thought about silence?It's very powerful actually. This is a day and age of constant noise and activity - i.e. IMs,text messaging, phones that do everything, phone calls, e-mails, social networking updates, and especially Twitter, hundreds of TV options, Internet connections everywhere, and more.

Most people are uncomfortable when there is silence - they don't know what to do if nothing is going on. Try being in a room with just 10 people and seeing how long silence will remain. Usually what happens is that someone will cough, or get on their phone, or their phone will ring, or they will rustle paper, or chew gum, or tap fingers, or type something, or who knows what.

Why do we avoid silence? We do we become uncomfortable with silence and quietness? What do we fear? These are great questions to think about this week. You may end coming up with different answers than the next person. This week I want to challenge to be in silence and see what you learn from it. How might this work? When you feel compelled to give unsolicited advice, stop and just be silent and listen. What was the experience like?

When you are in a sales meeting and you really tell your prospect about all the great things your newest gadget can do, stop and let your prospect talk. What did you learn about your prospect that you didn't know before? When you are in a business meeting for your organization and a question has been thrown on the table, try having everyone being quiet for a minute or two. Let your mind do it's work before giving an answer. How were the solutions compared to earlier meetings when people came out with answers right away? What happened with the communication of the people at the meeting?

Here's a big one - try unplugging for a day. If you can't bring yourself to doing it for a whole day, try an hour. I'm referring to all the instant communication and news. What's your day like? Better, worse? How much of what you missed what important?
The old saying is "Silence is golden." What is it for you?

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Internal vs. External

by Matthew Best

This past week I listened to the book Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.I really enjoyed the book.The authors explored areas that most people never even begin to think about and ask questions that no one else is asking. The theme that I took away from the book was the internal vs. the external.The authors gave several examples of how so many external things really have no impact on the outcome of people.

For example - The authors cited a study that was conducted on the Chicago Public Schools (CSD).The CSD opened their students up to school choice a few years ago.Considering the shear number of students this district has, the administration decided that there would a lottery for children whose parents decided they wanted to participate in the school choice program.

The students' performance was tracked through their schooling.Not surprising was the finding that the students who participated in the school choice program and changed where they attended school improved their scores.Likewise, those students who did not participate and stayed in their school did poorly.

The real surprise was the third group of students - those who chose to participate in the program, but were not picked in the lottery. Those students stayed in their current chools. The findings showed that these students also improved their scores. The conclusion that was made was that school choice had no impact on the students' scores. What mattered was the decision by the parents and students that their current situation was not acceptable. The mere fact that these students had decided that they wanted better for themselves caused them to do what they needed to do to improve their scores. This was an internal change.

As I've said plenty of times - attitude drives behavior which drives your results. These students shifted their attitude. As a result, they changed what they did. What are the shifts in your internal attitudes and beliefs that will allow you to be successful?

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Burn the Boats

Andy Andrews, an author and motivational speaker, tells a story about Hernan Cortes,a Spanish Conquistador who went in search of and captured a large Aztec treasure.Before he left for the New World, he gathered the troops he would need and told them the story of how their life would change after they captured the treasure.The day finally came for Cortes and his troops to sail.Each day on the journey he told his troops the same story about the gold and how it would change their life.

When they reached the New World, they camped along the shore for a few weeks and
each day Cortes told his troops the same story about the treasure.Finally,the troops were restless and were eager to find the gold. Cortes knew they were ready.He assembled the troops and gave them one last order - "Burn the boats."The men were perplexed, but did as Cortes had said.Cortes explained to them that by burning the boats they were eliminating any reason they had to fall back to safety - it was either capture the treasure or die.After the troops burnt the boats, they marched off and captured the treasure.

So,what are the boats in your life and your business?What are the things that give you perception that they are providing you safety,security,and comfort?What reasons are you making for not burning these boats?

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