How Smart Are You Today?

Every day you make decisions.  These decisions impact your life into the future.  They are made based on how smart you are TODAY.  You may look back and feel foolish about a choice you've made, but you will be looking back with more intelligence.

When making a decision accept that you are as smart as you will be at that moment.  Understand that you will be smarter later and you may change your mind or change course (and that's okay) but DO NOT remain stagnant because you feel you need to be smarter.  Guess what....you'll never be as smart as you want to be.

Trash vs. Treasure

We're all familiar with the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."  It is easy for any of us to apply this to objects, but apply it to people and things get a little uncomfortable. Okay, so the words are harsh but the idea is correct.

A person may seem difficult to you, but to another they are a genius. You may work for someone that does not understand your value, but change jobs and suddenly you bring nothing but value.

These examples are situational.  Often your success is directly correlated with the people that surround you.  Finding something you love to do is not enough.  Doing the thing you love with people that compliment your talents and see your value is the holy grail.

Be responsible for your destiny (in other words, pointing fingers doesn't get you anywhere) but if things just aren't feeling "right" there could be more to the situation than what you bring to the table.

Control vs. Influence

I encountered an online article (from some years back) written by Debbie Jenkins (nope - I don't actually know who that is) that contained the following.  It hit home and I wanted to share.

That which is beyond your immediate and complete manipulation is not, whether we like it or not, within our control. So what is within our control?

• Our Emotions and Motivation (although not all of us accept this)
• Our Response To Outside Influences (although not all of us accept this either)
• The Direction We Take In Life
• Every Action We Take
• The Way We Communicate
• What We Say and Do and Promise
• What We Choose To Believe or Ignore
• Inanimate Objects & Tools We Use

Everything else that is outside of us (especially other animals/humans) we can only influence. Here are some examples of things you can only influence...

• Whether Someone Likes You
• Whether People Will Buy
• What Other People Find Important
• Whether People Believe You
• Convincing Someone of Something
• Getting Someone to Do Something (even if you're a hypnotist)

Sure, you can exert enough influence that it seems like control. If someone held a gun to your head, they could probably influence you to do a lot of things. But despite that, they couldn't get you to think different things or feel differently about something because they still only have influence.

Finally, there are some things we have no direct control or influence over... such as the weather, space, time, where we start out in life, but there's no benefit dwelling on the things we cannot do - because it's more empowering to focus on what we can do.

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The article was about the concept of under-promise and over-deliver, something that I referred to in my last post.  Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/59584

The Right Way to Set Expectations

You have likely been on both the asking and answering end of this question:

"How long will it take?"

If you are the one answering this question, more often than not the answer is more complicated than "2 days."  In those cases be very aware of how you frame your answer.  Most people will listen to what you tell them and only
pull out the portions that they need.  For instance, you may be thinking to answer in one of the following ways:

1) "If everything is set up it could take as little as one week."
2) "One month, but if everything is set up it may require less time."

Yes, there are variations of these statements, but the point is this....the people listening for the answer to "How long will it take?" are going to hear:

1) "blah blah blah blah one week."
2) "One month, blah blah blah blah."

If those are the ONLY data points they walk away with, what do you want them to think?  That they can do it in a week or a month?  If you subscribe to the idea of under-promise and over-deliver, I think you know the answer.  Though when the timelines are too far apart you risk not being asked to do the work at all, so be realistic.

Stupidity

Everyone is stupid sometimes.  (I'll hold to the belief that no one is stupid all the time.)

Haven't you ever done something and once you were finished asked yourself, "What the hell was I thinking???"   Everyone deserves an occasional break, so give them one.  Learn from their stupidity (and help them to learn if you can) and hope that you're not next.

The Salon Experience

I got my hair done at a new salon recently and started to pay a lot of attention to the customer experience.  A good salon (of which this is one) is 100% focused on making the customer feel good.  Everyone is conditioned to tell you how fabulous or refreshed you look....regardless of their own, individual opinion.  When a gorgeous person tells you that you're gorgeous, well, it can't be bad, right?

This methodology works for that specific industry, but I see others applying it.  Sure you want your customer to feel great, but their experience lasts long after they've left your vision.  Pushing to get a sale for an item the customer may not like later will impact long term success.

Luckily, I still like my hairstyle.

Leveraging Bestsellers?

So I'm reading an inspiring management book and thinking of all the ways I can apply my new found knowledge when it dawns on me...this is a bestseller.  What does that mean?  Millions of people, just like me bought this book in order to leverage its knowledge (we'll just assume they didn't buy it just to put it on a shelf and say they read it).

Wait a minute.  Millions of people are applying this information?  Or, at least, attempting to?  How can someone stand out if the foundation they are building upon has the same stones as many other individuals?

So I don't have an answer to this one.  You could speculate that its a formula...one part written knowledge....two parts understanding....and a whole lot of drive and raw abilities.  I'll just continue reading.