Posts tagged mindset
On Mindset
Oct 2nd
I never fully understood the true value of mindset until after I survived two rounds fighting cancer in my early 20s. I spent a lot of time studying martial arts in my younger years and as I got older I studied military tactics down to the individual soldier level. Tying all those together it became clear to me that in order to make it through the hard times you have to have the mindset that will get you there.
As a child of the 1980s I grew up with a movie that teaches you more about mindset in three words than these few paragraphs will. My close friend Frank recently unleashed his graphic artist skills pulling a quote from one of my favorite movies from the 1980s.
Head over to his site and download this wallpaper. It will serve as a gentle reminder to stand by your principles and to never, never give up. So put this on your desktop to let your boss know that you won’t be backing down anytime soon.
This Year is Just Practice…Next Year is for Real
Sep 8th
Back in January I made a crucial mistake. I asked for work. I asked for a lot of work. I didn’t get it in January but eventually I did. Last week it looked like my random vacation week was about to get canceled; fortunately it did not. I’m now sitting in my pajamas while my wife is rocking out with Guitar Hero III and I’m trying to get back some of the energy I had when I asked for all that work.
I have a lot of energy and I’m willing to devote it to my employer and to go above and beyond what is necessary. I do that when I have that energy available and when I believe what we are doing is the "right" thing. Apparently I’m not alone in this. Discretionary Energy is a hot topic in leadership and organizational development.
Not that it’s anything new. Militaries have used this throughout history. How else could you get someone to go to their potential death for little or no pay and without other methods of coercion?
Last week we had a reconnect session with the RLF and LLF graduates at REJIS. Dick Dooley was there and we got about an hour worth of verbal ‘beating’ from him (more like gentle reminders of the things we need to be doing). We talked a lot about discretionary energy because every organization needs it and needs its employees to devote some level of it to get the real work done.
The title of this post comes from one of Dick’s sayings which really clicked with me. I think it’s very true and has real meaning to all of us.
Keep practicing hard because the real work happens next year and it won’t be any easier.
