I had a great week spending time with some very smart and influential people. Here are just a few of my takeaways.
Quit thinking about loss and focus on gains: At times I am really good at doing both of these. I can see an opportunity and the gains in some things and I have no reservations about pursuing them. However, there are times when I allow my mind to over think and concern myself with keeping whatever I already have and focusing on that more than pursuing gains and new possibilities. But here are the steps I will take this week. I will look at all opportunities and pursue the ones where I think the biggest gains are. I wont stop thinking about what I already have, but I wont think about it as much.
Humans have a natural tendency to form an opinion and look for ways to validate that opinion: I spent part of my week working with some of the best professionals in the world in the area of executive coaching. These are some really successful and smart people. We discussed how people form an opinion of someone or something, even it is just their perception, and then they will look for things, situations, and even other people to validate their opinion. It is a natural tendency for all humans to do this. It can be on anything. It can be an opinion on what kind of car is best, why a particular restaurant is good or not good, etc. Instead of always seeking to validate your opinion, why not take the opposite approach and see what happens. What if you heard or perceived something about someone or something, and then looked for ways to go the other way. What if you looked for evidence to not support your opinion? Just a thought. I am going to try it this week.
Pursuing too many things at once ensures you won’t be very good or present at any of them: As I mentioned above, I had a chance to work with some of the most successful executive coaches in the world this week. These guys have coached executives at Microsoft, Mayo Clinic, John Hopkins, to name a few. I learned a lot from the material and the content they shared with us. But what I learned most, is something I already know. These guys have made it their life work to coach executives. That is what they do and they don’t really do much else. That is why they are at the top of their field. They are financially successful and don’t do any marketing or active selling. All of their business is strictly on referrals and name recognition. The reason they have accomplished this success is they have focused on their craft for many years. In this crazy busy world, I have been pursuing multiple things for many years. For the most part I can balance them pretty well. But balance shouldn’t be my goal. Balance is like average. If you want to be great at something, you have to go all in on it. You can’t do it every now and then. This week, my focus is shifting from balance to all in.
What lessons did you learn this week?
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