Suck it up

There’s success literature everywhere. People like Covey and Ziglar have had a great impact on the way I embrace life and business. In recent years I’ve gravitated towards many of the bloggers and writers you see posted on this site’s links, people like Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. They all provide great insight into the changing business landscape and contemporary success.

Yet the greatest advice is something my dad gave me at a very early age.

Suck it up.

Stop complaining. If you’re outcome is not ideal change the outcome. You’re empowered to create your ideal outcome. Perceived massive stumbling blocks turn into minor speed bumps after the fact.

Suck it up.

A Guaranteed Dividend

Doom and gloom is about all we hear these days when it comes to individual investing. Portfolios have dwindled and that miracle stimulus package didn't really stimulate anything. With more and more Americans out of work, financial hardships are becoming the norm. One type of investment still existst that is definitely worth your attention.

An investment in Time.

Fresh off a six day family road trip I've learned that investing my time has yielded some incredible returns. For example, my four year olds fascination with "where are we?" has insipred the purcahase of an atlas. Instead of repeated Clifford stories at bed time, we've been exploring the world. Last night we talked about Italy. This investment also invigorated our senses, "Bunny smells like grandmas house", we have rocks from Lake Superior, we jumped off a pontoon boat to cool off on a hot summer day and spent time on the dock watching fish eat pieces of a granola bar. The investment of time has created some wonderful memories and has allowed us to connect with friends and family we don't see often enough.

An investment in time isn't much different than an actual financial one. There are risks, like the scenic route possibly not having a lot of bathroom options, or stop-orders, like stop immediately for that antique shop. Like any wise investor, or road-trip planner, you begin with some general calculations, and from there you analyze progress. I could have charted my investment in time just like that of any stock. There were moments of pure joy, excitement and happiness, and those inevitable meltdowns. Times when I hoped the trip would never end, and moments I wished it never started. The key was holding on for the long-term.

An investment in time is an investment in people. It's about talking, listening, laughing and crying. It's the making of memories, some only for a moment, and others for a lifetime. You never know what can happen, you might even start a blog.

Forget Your Five-Year Plan!

There's a particular sales guru that I receive frequent emails from.  He's renowed in his field and has helped me immensly over the years. Virtually all of his blog posts are full of useful wisdom that if enacted can greatly benefit your career.  A constant theme of many is the ideal "5-year plan" with the classic career planning mentality and how you need goal setting and a vision towards that ideal outcome. It makes perfect sense, yet it all seems so outdated.

Forget the five-year plan! In fact, stop thinking in terms of "five-years from now I'll be here," etc. Many of the five-year objectives we set will not be a reality in five-years. This mindset creates a thought process where many people delay decisons and opportunities that could benefit them in the here and now. Don't get caught in the jet stream of what is perceived as the ideal life outcome. The notion of putting in your time and getting that dream job is a great vision but the reality is it doesn't have to be a vision. If you have an ideal outcome in mind why delay that outcome for five-years?

When many people invoke the idea of the "five-year plan" they also bring up the notion of "putting in my time". Unfortunately that's exactly what a lot of people are doing--- putting in their time.

How about a five-month plan?  Or a five-day plan?

If you're in business, like I am, you have to think of life in terms of business. In five-years the business landscape may be completely different, as the last five-years can attest. You may be in an industry that doesn't exist in five-years or a company that doesn't exist in five-years. You need to constantly challenge with frequent introspection the direction you're headed.

Many people get caught up in the five-year mindset because of a fear of the unknown. Embrace the fear of the unknown.  If that career path or dream job is perfect in "five-years" why not acheive it now?  Don't wait five-years to start your own business, start the business now! It's not knowing what's on the other side that prevents many of us from making changes that seem completely rational to the outsider.  Unfortunately one of the most difficult things in the world is making those life-changing decisions that seem so daunting inside our head. The best way to analyze such a decision is to take a look at it with the worst possible outcomes in mind.  What is the worst thing that could possibly happen?

Once you stop fearing the unknown your potential is limitless. Start by avoiding the "five-year" mentality.

The Importance of Recharging

Here's some great advice by Richard Branson in his weekly syndicated article. He very astutely breaks down what we all know about the importance of recharging and taking time off. One particular paragraph caught my eye and sums up pretty well my views on the business culture in the US when it comes to taking time off.

It’s also important to take a good look at your company’s policies regarding holidays and paid vacation leave. Sadly, in some countries, particularly the US, companies do not allow employees enough time to relax and recharge. The traditional two-week holiday is just not enough; this attitude of discouraging employees from taking vacations encourages absenteeism and unhappiness. In Europe, most businesses have a better sense of what is appropriate and what will work for both employee and employer.

I'm a big believer in the idea that time off does not neccessarily mean a gap in productivity. Little things, such as an added week of vacation per year or leaving early on Friday's, have a minimal impact on productivity but can have a huge impact on morale. Some progressive companies have begun to institute programs such as ROWE (Results Oriented Work Environment) giving employees more flexibility when it comes to traveling or working from home, provided they still perform at optimal levels. Bestselling author Daniel Pink has written several books on the changing landscape of work and has really challenged our traditional work culture and how its narrow focus restricts possibility. Pink has concluded that what employees really want is is autonomy, master and purpose with the ability to better balance their work life with their interests and home life.

Here's a fantastic TED lecture by Pink on this very subject. Take twenty-minutes to view the video, it challenges many notions that we all have about intrinsic motivation.

Common sense tells us that a happy worker is a productive worker. The traditional model of management pitted against the employees in a battle to ensure productivity is outdated. Giving someone autonomy is not a bad thing.  If we can shift the focus from keeping an eye on everyone to make sure they put in their eight hours to simply making sure the work is completed you'll have happier and more fulfilled employees which should, in turn, lead to more productivity in the long run.

My favorite App of the Week--- MapMyFitness

For the past several years I was a card-carrying member of the Blackberry Brigade until Verizon finally broke through the AT&T stronghold and picked up the iPhone.  Like many I immediately became a convert (and I'm not alone considering RIM just layed off 1500 workers). Needless to say I'm a bit behind on the world of apps but am catching up very quickly.  Recently I've become a huge fan of MapMyFitness, a collection of tools for mapping your fitness whether it's individual workouts, walking, hiking, biking, etc.  The app uses location to track your exact route, time and distance.  It then aggregates the data to give you a snapshot of your progress over time.

You quickly find out some pretty interesting things.  For example I now know that to push mow my lawn I have to walk about 4 miles, which tells me I either need to get a smaller yard or buy a rider. I also found out that my walk from the train to my office in Minneapolis is 1.2 miles--- not bad twice per day.  If you make an effort to turn on the app every time you go for a walk you'd be amazed how much ground you actually cover.

With recent studies (via Men's Journal) showing that as little as forty minutes of walking daily can boost memory and even regenerate shrinking brain tissue, it's important to get that daily walk in.  With walking being harder to quantify than running a certain number of miles on the treadmill or doing reps at the gym it's nice to have a handy app to track the distance you covered.

Most importantly you get real data in that endless quest to quantify and track your fitness efforts, and if you're a real Ironman you can even post your workouts to Twitter and Facebook.

Here's a great interview via Mixergy with co-founder Robin Thurston

Manage your Inbox

Email can be someone else’s agenda for your time.  I think it’s essential to develop a structure around how you check and interact with email. Below are a couple of tips that have worked for me and can be effective in not getting chained to your inbox.

Top of the Morning: Check your email for 10 minutes right away I the morning.  Open, answer and prioritize the important stuff.  If your boss wants you to get on it, get on it.  Then minimize the screen and start to drive productivity.

My email attack plan: How I handle email is to structure my workday into blocks of 60 minutes. I put in 45 minutes being productive and then take five to catch up with co-workers, my boss or perhaps make a coffee run.  I then devote the remainder of the hour checking and responding to any important emails. My rule of thumb is that if it doesn’t need immediate action, don’t respond to it.  For every important email from your boss you probably receive five to ten emails that can be answered at the end of the day.

The end of the day: Remember the old adage “don’t take your work home with you?” Don’t take email home with you!  Smart phones have made us more productive and more mobile.  Unfortunately it’s also created a generation of people mindlessly and endlessly refreshing their email inbox.  I was as guilty of this as anyone until my wife called me on it. Clear out the inbox at the end of the day and check it again in the morning. The time from business end to your arrival in the morning is your time—don’t spend it checking to see what email your boss sent out at 8:30 PM.  That dinner conversation with a close friend is a lot more important that the “save the date” invite for the next company picnic.

Caught up in the Dip

I just finished “The Dip” by Seth Godin and I wished I would have read the book years ago.  For the past three years I was firmly immersed in Godin’s “Dip”, a valued contributor to the multi-national company I worked for, but not reaching my personal and professional growth goals. 

The concept of “The Dip” is simple—if you’re not moving forward in a job and you see no measurable progress in sight, why stick with it?  According to Godin, “If you’re trying to succeed in a job or a relationship or a task, you’re moving forward, falling behind or standing still.  There are only three choices.”

I wasn’t moving forward.  I was firmly planted in The Dip.  In hindsight I was caught up in the “company man” mindset of years past.  Like many I was raised with the notion that you get a job with a good company and put in thirty years and then retire with a nice vested pension.  The problem with that notion is that the loyalty that builds a thirty-year career is not often reciprocated by the company you work for.

That’s not to say you should quit.  When you’re in The Dip you don’t necessarily have to quit your job.  You may want to change your approach or your tactics.  If you see personal and professional growth it may be worth “leaning in and busting through”, as Godin says in the book.

The biggest takeaway is to recognize when you’re in The Dip, then take action.