365QOD- Day1416

Being Ungrateful

"You can be unhappy but not ungrateful."- Good words

We happen to be living during the most profitable times in human existence.  Even  the poorest of us are living more abundantly than even kings lived during the last few hundred years.  

We need to look at the level of abundance that we are enjoying.  We are lucky to have more food than we need.  We are lucky to be connected to so much information in the palm of our hand. We are...

I can go on for a while.  BUT the idea is that we need to appreciate the abundance that has been placed before us and simply say THANKS.

Today's question is:
"How do you show appreciate the abundance in your life?"

365QOD- Day1404

Becoming More Valuable

"It is not what I am but what I can become that makes me valuable."- my thoughts

I believe that most people go to work and try to do a great job for their employers.   However this quote gives us a slightly different perspective.

It urges us not to only work hard but to become more valuable.  How?

I believe that the best way to become more valuable is yup full your company's gaps.  If you see that none is in charge of quality then offer top learn and improve the product quality.

If there is a gap in management offer to step in and fill the role until a new replacement cam be found.   Managing people might not be your first choice but it might be your employers urgent need.

Bottom line is to look for gaps and full them.   This will make you streams out add a problem solver.

Today's question is:

"Do you offer to fill gaps?"

365QOD- Day1391

Grateful

"I am grateful for my life."- my words

I have to be honest and say that I love most portions of my life.  I have many gaps in my life that I do not love.  This is where many of my stresses come in to play.

Mostly, I am grateful for the people in my life.  Some provide the easy with which I move through life.  Others provide the abrasiveness that I need for growth/  Both help me.

So today I pause to recognize that I am where I deserve to be and can change it at any time into what I want it to become.

Today's question is:
"What are you thankful for?"

365QOD- Day1382

Wild Expectations

"You will not live a life beyond your wild expectations until you have some wild expectations"- wisdom

Most of us play it safe in life.  If you play it safe then it is unlikely that you will live a life beyond your safe expectations.

What I find interesting is that the quote advises that we should have wild expectations in order to move beyond the plateau that we often find ourselves on.  If we dream of reaching another level then we can push ourselves to that level.  Without that pull towards that level we will stay content and stay there.

You can not stay "reasonable" in order to have wild expectations.  They have to pull you as if they are a magnetic force.   Break the box and think of a new BIG box with a red ribbon on top.  Dream wildly!

Today's question is:
"Do you have wild expectations?"

365QOD- Day1357

Are You a Cleaner?

"1 hour and 9 minutes"- my recent initial 6 mi result

In the last six months I have been regularly running 3 miles twice a week.  Once in a while I would strecth myself to 4.5 miles.  But I kept trying to not hurt myself more than trying to stretch myself.

So a couple of weeks ago a former running buddy asked me to train with him.  He was getting ready for a 10k and wanted to test himself.  I said OK.  Immediately I thought to myself, "My knees are going to hurt."  But I did it anyway.

So my buddy stopped by and we ran the 10k in 1:04.  This was our normal running pace a couple fo years ago when we ran together.  We could have pushed ourselves to 1:02 but we did not.  He felt good and  believed taht he could run his race in 50 minutes.  I also felt very good about the run.

AFter that day I decided to start running 6 miles more often.  I ran it by myself a week later in 1:09.  A few days later I ran it in 1:06.  Then something happened.

Friday night and Saturday morning I read Tim S. Grover's book called Relentless.  In it he identifies the icons he worked with as Cleaners.  A Cleaner is someone who is willing to push themselves to the limit.  They are not limited by physical limitation BUT push through them.

So on Sunday I decided to go for a 6 mile run.  Before the run I told myself that I am a Cleaner and that I am going to run as a Cleaner.  I finished my run in 59:36.  This is almost 10 minutes less than the first run after my run with my buddy.  I felt good pushing myself to the limit.  I believe that 50 minutes is possible for me.

Today's question is:
"Are you a Cleaner?"

365QOD- Day1353

Self-Sabotage

"We have met the enemy.  It is us"- Unknown

It is interesting that one of the least talked about aspects of success is sabotage.  Yup!  In hundreds of hours of podcasts that I have listened to I have only heard one CEO talk about it.  

Why?

Well some people fear failure.  Others fear success.  And now I want to identify a third type:  one who gets overcomes failure to get to success and then drives it down into failure.  

This does not have to be an entrepreneur.  It could be an employee who is hot one year and out the next year.  Great performer one year and then on list of bottom performers.

I do not think it is a fear of the level.  It could be boredom.  They have reached the level and know that they can get there again quickly.  So there is nothing to lose.  It is almost a need to fail in order to show people that they can get to that level and higher again.

Today's question is:
"Do you self sabotage?"

365QOD- Day1321

Be a Billionaire in Your Own Mind

"I Want To Be A Billionaire So Freaking Bad..."- song lyrics

The other day in a post I wrote about studying success and learning the mindset of the person you are studying.  I believe that knowing how to do something is not enough.  You must also know the mindset of why the person does what they do at the time that they do it.

SO the quote above urges us to be a billionaire in our own mind.  Can it hurt?  NO!  It is adopting the mindset and testing to see if it fits you.  

Some people might argue that money is not that important to live a great life.  With few exceptions(mother Teresa, Gandhi, etc..) so most people the money is key to living a great life.  It is the great lubricator.  It makes everything go smoother.

SO what happens if you shoot for a Billion and hit millions?  Well, you are still better off than someone who does not have that mindset at all.  You might not have hit the moon but you get into a higher atmosphere than most of us.

Today's question is:
"Do you want to be a billionaire?"

365QOD- Day1318

Steve Jobs a Used Car Salesman

"In our country sales has a bad name.  Maybe it is because people have been burned by car salesman so bad that this attitude persists"- an observation

Is it so bad to be a car salesman?  No it is up to the salesman to make it a priority to sell ethically and not to take advantage of their customers but to build a relationship.

With that in mind, why did I title this post by combining Steve Jobs and Used Car Saleman?  Well, most of us would not have considered Steve Jobs a salesman BUT he was.  He was an acceptional salesman.  He sold products to people that they didn't even know they needed.

One interesting fact that many people overlook is that he was not a technical genius.  He was a great visionary that knew when something was great or not.  The technical visuionary for Apple was Steve Wozniak.  Who more than anything wanted to stay at HP as an engineer. 

So Steve Jobs had to sell his on starting the company.  If he had not he might have ended up in car sales... probably not 

The point is that we are always selling.  There is nothing wrong with selling your ideas and products.  Steve Jobs sold Steve Wozniak in order to form Apple.  

Today's question is:
"Are you comfortable selling to others or do you see it as dirty?"

365QOD- Day1317

How do you make coffee?

"Step 1 is..."- a procedure

I have a definite way of making coffee in the morning.  My approach has detailed in a post written many months ago.  It is pretty elaborate.

So why write an article about how do you make coffee?  

The other I watched a short video of a guy who has perfected in his mind the perfect machine for making coffee.  I thought how I made coffee was elaborate.  I was wrong.

He not only created a machine but details the steps needed to make the coffee to the point of it being a job.  So to me there is a fine line between elaborate and an obsession.  

The funny part of the story is that I can see his machine and see that even though he is obsessed by the art of making coffee his device is no better than any store bought machine.  He uses filters that he places in water before using them to remove the pulp.  But he still uses filters and the natural oils get captured in the paper.

Today's question is:
"How do you differentiate between a very strong passion and an obsession?"

365QOD- Day1309

Wrong Perspective

"Man I just did not see it that way."- hard to admit statement

Last of the techniques that the 99u.com article on how to apply lateral thinking is to: Change perspective

I always say that I know what I know but do not know what you know.  This is my way of reminding myself that I need to be open to the ideas of others.

One of the phenomenons that I have observed in my life is the idea of a fresh perspective that a beginner brings to a solution.  A beginner does not have preconceived notions that people ingrained in the system have absorbed over time.  
So a newcomer comes in and asks questions that are uncomfortable.  Maybe that are just trying to understand the way to do something and a piece does not make sense.  Naturally they ask, "Well, what about...?"  You immediately ignore it and then after scratching your head you realize that it is a valid and not just an naive question.

You could play that newbie.  How?  By changing your perspective to one that challenges any preconceived notions by asking why?  The article suggests asking yourself how someone outside of your field would solve the problem.  Maybe your problem is an engineering problem but you ask how an artist would solve it?  

Today's question is:
"How do you force yourself to change perspectives?"

The article can be found at:

http://99u.com/articles/31987/how-to-apply-lateral-thinking-to-your-creative-work

365QOD- Day1308

3..2..1

"Work backwards."- great advice

Sometimes visualizing the end result can help get us out of linear thinking.  Why?  At times it is easier to see the end rather than the next step towards the end goal.

We can ask questions such as:
“How would I get into a trapped room if it were adjoined by a room made out of a magnifying glass?”

By re-framing the question the details get removed and you are not "over-thinking" the answer of being trapped in the room.  

The article suggests re-framing vague questions 
“How could we make the city more energy efficient?”
into more specific question
“How could we renewably generate 10 gigajoules of electricity?”

This will help with removing answers that are not helpful to get to a fresh solution.

Today's question is:
"How do you reframe your questions to remove vagueness?"

365QOD- Day1307

Why Question?

"We believe.  No matter how wrong it is."- my observation

Third suggestion to improve our lateral thinking is to Question the question

Start by asking yourself:
“What if I could rewrite the question?” 
"How do I rearrange the pieces to form a new scenario?"

"In the trapped room scenario, instead of, “Which do you go through?” you might rewrite the question to ask, “Will you go through one of them?” or “Will these really kill you?” or “Do you even need to go through one of them?” 

These questions challenge the questions that we used to come up with the conventional solution.  If we ask better questions we could potentially identify a better solution.

Today's question is:
"How do you rearrange the pieces that you identified?"

365QOD- Day1306

Connections

"A leads to B and it leads to C which leads to failure."- a typical linear path

Second suggestion to improve our lateral thinking is to Verbalize the convention

The article suggests asking yourself questions such as:
"How would a typical person approach this problem?” 

Understanding the typical solution helps us to "map out the obvious".  It helps us tap into conventional wisdom.  But conventional wisdom almost always follows linear thinking.  

So to change the path ask yourself:
“What if I couldn’t go this route?” 

In other words, take that path off the table and think of options that conventional wisdom would not consider as solutions.

Today's question is:
"How do you verbalize the conventional thinking and take that option off the table?"

365QOD- Day1305

Lateral Thinking

"Pretend that you’re trapped in a magical room with only two exits. Through the first exit is a room made from a giant magnifying glass, and the blazing hot sun will fry you to death. Through the second door is a room with a fire-breathing dragon. Which do you go through?

The first door, of course. Simply wait until the sun goes down. "- U99.com article

I love this example.  Almost immediately we jump into linear thinking and having to chose one of the two choices.  Why?

Edward de Bono, who coined the term in 1967 explains that, “We assume certain perceptions, certain concepts and certain boundaries...  Lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces.” 

So how do we go about changing those pieces?  The article offers five suggestions to help us improve our lateral thinking.  Let us break them apart in next five posts.

First suggestion is to List the assumptions

"When confronted with a question (problem, challenge, etc.), write out the assumptions inherent to the question. In the case of the puzzle above, the list might include the following:

• You want to get out of the room
• You have to choose one of the two options
• You have to do something now
• Room One will kill you no matter what (or so we think!)
• Room Two will kill you no matter what"

I would add WHY? behind each one of those assumptions.  

Today's question is:

"Do you ever list the assumptions you are making during difficult times?"

365QOD- Day1303

Single Point of Failure

"I will fail my test"- my daughter's words

My daughter recently started college.  I am so proud of her.  My first baby is in college.

As any parent, I have my worries.  She is a very focused person.  I have even written posts about her laser focus.  

What worries me is that with that focus I am seeing a weakness.  The weakness is a willingness to stop if  she does not get a concept the first time.  This is the fixed mindset I have written about in the past.  

The fixed mindset is all up to us to change.  As Henry Ford said, "If you think you can, or you think you can't, you are right."  So what can we do?

In my world, the idea that I can fail excites me.  That means an opportunity to learn and stretch.  Any fall means an opportunity to jump up higher than I was before.  I will not let a single point of failure stop my forward progress.  At best it will make me go sideways.

All you can control is your action.  Empty your mind and move toward your fear and see it disappear.  A single success or failure does not define you.  It does if you let it.  So look any result as feedback and work on how to improve.

Today's question is:
"Do you fight through a single point of failure?"

365QOD- Day1287

The Why, How, and What

"Sunny Bonnell, co-founder and creative director of Motto, explains: Figure out what you stand for and what you believe in, and use that as your point of difference. In a crowd of designers, how will you stand apart? If you’re guilty of leading with what you do, start with why you do it and articulate that on your materials, website and social channels. Find out where your talents and values meet, and use that to leverage the power of your purpose."- U99 article, Follow Your Why Not Your What

It is known that often times the reason that we fail is that the Why is not bigger than our How.  I have written a few posts discussing this idea.  In a recent post  I even examined that beliefs are what the Why is truly based on.  In order for the Why to be truly bigger than the How we must spend time evaluating our beliefs. 

This quote adds to the right side of the equation.  Since Why has to be bigger than the How then we can have one of two possibilities the How is greater than the what, How>What, or the What is greater than the how, What>How.  The reason I believe that it must be the How>What version is that usually supervisor will know how to best do a job and an employee will be told what needs to be done. 

To be a complete winner, work on your beliefs which will confirm your Why.  Once you know Why you want to achieve something, get into the details of the process and completely understand how to complete the goal.  The What is the actual quality of the How work that you complete.

So mane sure your beliefs align so your Why is greater than your How which will make it easy to do the What.

Today's question is:

"Are your beliefs aligned to benefit from the Why>How>What equation?" 

365QOD- Day1212

Being Wrong

"I believe that you have to have an open mindedness to the possibility that you are wrong, or that anything may be wrong."-  Deborah Meier

In previous posts I have mentioned that I approach life from the position that I am wrong, prove me right.  This is opposite of what I believe most people believe.  Most people believe they are right and find it hard to believe that anything they believe could ever possibly be wrong.

Deborah agrees with me BUT also adds that anything could be wrong.  It could be that we are labeling something H when in reality it is A.  Why use H and A letters? Notice how similar these two letters are.  The only difference is weather the two top points are joined or not.

By accepting we simply no longer question why.  As we learned from the habits of mind posts, we need to look for evidence, diverting viewpoints, connections to previous patterns, form conjectures when things are different, and question the relevance.  These thinking tools do not let us accept everything so easily.

Today's question is:

"Could you be wrong and not even know it?"

365QOD- Day1195

Sitting is the New Smoking

"Sitting for most of the day reduces your life "- wisdom

For most of our history men has been a hunter or a farmer.  Both of these types of ways to make a   living force men to be active.  Modern day work does the opposite.

Recently a new trend is emerging.  I have seen coworkers purchase desks that are able to raise in  order for them to be able to stand and work.  Varidesk is one brand of such a desk.

Another type of desk includes a treadmill.  The person walks at two miles per hour.  So in theory if  one uses the treadmill for just for hours a day, the person would have walked about eight miles.   Pretty  impressive.

I believe that if someone has an office to themselves this could be wonderful way to get exercise in  during the day.  But if you do not then using a treadmill could be very disruptive.  Walking is a great way to clear the mind and this type of desk could be very helpful to the creative process.  So there are positive and negative aspects of it.

Today's question is:

"Could you use a treadmill for a full day?"

365QOD- Day1190

Stopping Oneself

"What prevents me from making the changes I know will make me a more effective leader?"- Marshall Goldsmith question in Inc.'s 35 Great Questions article

When I read this question I immediately thought why should it be limited to leadership.  Not every one of us is  a leader.  Some of us are doers.

The question could easily be rephrased as:.
"What prevents me from making the changes I know will make me a more effective X?"  where X is anything you feel needs improving.  If you want to be a better boss then you fill boss for X.  A better parent? Better husband?  Better X where X is meaningful for you.

The question is really a gap identifier.  If answered honestly you should be able to quickly state what needs to change in order for you to be a better X.  Now making yourself change it is another hurdle.

Today's question is:
"What prevents me from making the changes I know will make me a more effective X?"

365QOD- Day1171

Be Less Certain

"Blind Certainty- a close mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn't even know he's locked up"- David Foster Wallace

Tonight I watched most of a Frontline show on prison solitary confinement.  It clearly showed how people quickly deteriorate when placed in a box for most of the day without human contact.  It sucked out the will to live and quickly they deteriorated into self-destruction.

The quote above focuses on a different type of imprisonment.  But are they the same?  The prisoners know that they are locked up and even if they wanted to leave can not. They have no choice.

How about blind certainty?  Well the quote teaches us that the person might not even know that they are locked up.  It is completely internal.  No fences exist.  Unlike the solitary confinement prisoner, we have a choice but we never exercise it.

We like being imprisoned by blind certainty.  We like it so much that we only want new information that fits the existing certainty.  Quickly we can discount and dismiss anything different from our belief.
The choice to remove the certainty is available.  We just have to be big enough to exercise it with a little bit of doubt about everything we believe to be true.

Today's question is:
"How can you be less certain of what you believe to be true?"