Knowledge advantage: In life there are times when we might be outmatched or outweighed, or things might be stacked up against us. We have all felt this way at one time or another. I know I have. There is one thing that we can all do, that doesn’t require us to be the biggest, the strongest, the fastest, the richest, the cutest, the most charismatic, etc. That is we can all have an advantage when it comes to knowledge. You can read anything you want on everything you want. You can become an expert in your line of work. You can become the go to person in your place of work. You can become the go to person in your city, on this or that topic. Go out and get the knowledge advantage. It is yours for the taking.
When you lose the “I’m important factor”: Have you ever challenged someone’s level of importance? You may have had a manager or boss, who is that kind of boss that wants everyone to know they are in charge? Or it could be that department within your company that for years has been the department that gets everything they want and their level of importance, at least in the eyes of the company, is the department that matters the most. What happens when you challenge their level of importance in either of these cases? I have watched in many cases some bad things happen. Usually they go in to overdrive to show how important they are.
This week I was listening to a talk show host talk about the current field of republicans for the 2016 presidential race. The commentator discussed how the long time politicians in Washington and in our country don’t want an outsider to win. An outsider meaning someone who has never been in politics. In this case they are referring to Ben Carson and Donald Trump. When it comes down to it, most people in the political world will do whatever they can to diminish or devalue these so-called outsiders. Because if an outsider can win, it diminishes their own value to politics and their chosen field of work. At any level, it will diminish pollsters, it will diminish political directors, the different level of staff positions within a political campaign, every single position within the current political ranks will be diminished because it would show that their expertise is not needed and anybody can run and win.
Why is this a good lesson for us to know? Because if we look at this “importance” concept from the eyes of the person whose “importance” is being challenged, then we may have the advantage of knowing how they will react to certain things and why they react the way they might react if we challenge them.
Manage by hour, not by day: I made this commitment within the past week. On days where I don’t have a lot of meetings it is really easy to get caught up in this or that and not be as productive as I would like. So I made this commitment to myself last week that I would manage my days by the hour instead of by the day. Seems really easy to do, but for some reason I haven’t been doing it as effectively as I have in the past. So I have recommitted to it again.
Another great week of learning. Please share with me what you learned. Remember, experience doesn’t teach us anything. We must evaluate our experiences for us to actually learn from them.
To your success and your future.
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