What Are Your “Needle Movers”?

I often tell clients that “boring is good”.  It sounds terrible, I know.  But is boring really that awful?  Obviously, this is a subjective concept as both “boring” and “good” are moving targets for us all, but here’s what I’m getting at.  Know what you’re trying to accomplish, have a definitive and ongoing strategy to get to where you want to be, diligently work the process. 

That’s the formula to achieving “boring”.  If I had to assign attributes to this descriptor I’d say things like consistency, dependability, honorable.  The older I get, the more I like “boring” and that’s what it means to me. 

Does this concept apply to your personal life or your professional life?  Yes.  All of the above.  In fact, if I am being honest, I find I always want to fight the tendency to look at life through this lens.  My reality is that things don’t go very well when I’m bifurcating life to the personal and to the professional.  There is just life.  The more overlap there is the better, remember, know what you’re trying to accomplish, have a definitive and ongoing strategy to get to where you want to be, diligently work the process.  If that’s boring, sign me up. 

I don’t consume social media, I have a general disdain for group activities, I’ve come to realize that I need community and have to be inspired by something for life to work right, and I like simple, simple works for me.  If we want to improve as people and how we assist others in what we do, this is what I’ve come to realize…

Industry guidance and self-help sucks….if the next step isn’t your personal vision, it won’t work.  For years, literally years, I’d read some article about do this or do that and your business will improve and you’ll be extremely successful and make lots of money.  Or do this workout, read this book, implement these 5 steps and life will be amazing.  Maybe your experience is different than mine but what works for someone else has rarely worked for me.  Sure there are interesting things to consider and solid ideas to implement.  But the point is, unless I am clear about what I believe in and how I want to pursue something meaningful at work or at home, I’ve never experienced true success or sustained ambition toward a specific end goal.  Make the process yours, believe in it deeply and own it. 

Ruthlessly evaluate your reality.  Do I have any avoiders in the group?  More than once or twice I’ve located one in the mirror.  Sometimes when life or work or family, whatever, doesn’t match the picture we’ve created in our minds, it becomes easy to settle with some level of discouragement and embrace mediocrity.  Goodness knows I’ve been there and it has taken quite some time for me to truly abhor staying put.  Our steps don’t have to be in the perfect sequence but we do have to take the next one.  Understand what the good, reasonable and profitable thing to do is and if you’re not there, change course.  Reality is in fact reality whether we like it or not, deal with what is, don’t languish in what you think should be and get to work. 

Be passionate about what you bring to the table.  I truly don’t want to put an “every kid gets a trophy” spin on this section but the reality is, if you can’t get fired up about what you can do for your clients, family or community, guess what?  No one else can either.  For me, if I’m in a period of life when I’m not truly passionate about something, I am in fact failing and life feels like a square peg aimed at a round hole.  It just doesn’t work.  There is a difference between excitement and passion.  I am excited when my son scores a goal but I’m passionate about knowing him deeply, the two of us being transparent together, and digging in with the man he is becoming.  Have the courage to do the sometimes dirty work of truly understanding what your passionate about.  If you haven’t thought about this concept for a while, you may be surprised what you come up with.  I call these items my “needle movers”.  You can’t have passion about everything but you can care deeply about your needle movers.  So what are they? 

 ~Richard