Category: personal purpose

How to Find Your Sweet Spot

I like the enclosed schematics which is very much inspired from the work of Jim Collins (Good to Great, etc.).

circles_of_life
Where is Your Sweet Spot?

What is says is basically that the Sweet Spot you should seek lies at the intersection of what you are passionate doing, what you are good at (word class) and what pays well. There are other possible locations in between these different poles, which are also possible to sustain, with advantages and drawbacks.

Of course, this is not all independent: if you love doing something there are more chances you will become good at it.

You might also decide to combine simultaneously a job (where you are good at it and it pays well), and a hobby (where you are passionate and good at it).

Anyway, this is an interesting framework to classify your hobbies and activities and check there is sufficient balance in your life. Check your activities against it, it might inspire you!

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If You’re not Scared a Lot You’re Not Doing Very Much

This is a quote from Robin Sharma. I feel it is true – although one can debate the “a lot”. There is probably a limit to fear beyond which it becomes improductive.

FEAR - False Evidence Appearing RealAnyway, the truth holds that if you are not scared enough, you probably are not sufficiently outside of your comfort zone. Pushing further the approach, Robin Sharma continue: “Your excuses are nothing more than the lies your fears have sold you“.

When you’ll start doing something that counts, your environment will resist and you will feel, dee within you, that feeling of fear. That’s fine. It means you are starting to move things.

As one of our grand masters said, “Named must your fear be before banish it you can” (Yoda). Name your fear. Look in its face. Defy it. Acknowledge it.

And then move on. Continue what you have been doing.

How scared are you today? If you are too comfortable, it is time to change things around here. When do you start?

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It’s not about Work-Life Balance, it’s about Work-Life Integration

This is a quote of Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, as related by Hugh McLeod. Hugh continues: “Work and personal life seems to meld together in a way that can be either enhancing or debilitating – and it is up to each person to structure what works in their life and in ways that allow them to be their best in work and at home. What is interesting is that this is a new phenomenon, borne out of technology.”

Work-Life Balance puzzle codeWork-Life balance is a typical concept stemming from a time where work and life were happening in different environments, separated by the barrier of commuting. This geographical border has now been abolished by technology. Work has already heavily invaded our private home, and life increasingly (but with more difficulties due to old habits) invades a bit our work.

Visionaries try to develop new spaces where life and work could co-exist harmoniously (this seems to be one of the objectives of Tony Hsieh’s Las Vegas downtown project that allies urban and social experiment).

We need to stop these obsolete and pervading considerations about work-life balance and concentrate on how we can integrate these two activities. In fact, they are not antagonistic but in synergy and we need to recognize that better. Once we look at it that way, a world of possibilities opens.

What about you? What do you see when you consider that work and life are in fact integrated and will become ever more integrated?

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Why Don’t You Start What You Want to Do NOW?

The quote on this picture I encountered in internet by chance struck me.

the most dangerous riskIndeed it is a great risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the consideration you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.

It assumes a bet on life, on the future. Some people indeed work like mad looking for an enjoyable retirement without ever taking advantage of it.

Is it really the most dangerous risk of all? In terms of personal balance it is certainly a great risk. Still sometimes it is great to have the possibility to take advantage of available opportunities to fund or prepare a future venture. I don’t think it is a problem if it corresponds to a clearly defined period that does not exceed a pair of years, and relates to a clear plan.

If you are like me, it is still good to remember sometimes that it is important to take advantage of the present moment and not bet everything on the future in particular further than a few months away.

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Why We Should Strive for Complex, but not for Complicated

I loved this Gapingvoid cartoon by Hugh McLeod. Remember first why Complex is not the same as Complicated.

strive_for_complexAccording to him,

Complex is intrinsic. Something is complex if it involves a lot of moving parts, even at its most basic.

Complicated is extrinsic. Something is made complicated by external factors, made complicated by stuff that’s non-essential.

Even the most simple of lives are complex… so much that can go wrong, so much needing taken care of. That doesn’t give one an excuse to make things more complicated than they need be. In fact, the opposite is true, especially in business.

Add to this that in a complex world, good (and bad) surprises and discontinuities can appear that can be exploited as opportunities.

So, when do you ditch Complication for Complexity in your life?

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What Luck is Really About

“Victory awaits him, who has everything in order – Luck we call it. Defeat is definitely due for him, who has neglected to take the necessary precautions –Bad Luck we call it” – Roald Amundsen.

"Lucky" Amundsen at the South Pole - December 1911
“Lucky” Amundsen at the South Pole – December 1911

Amundsen is known to be the leader of the first successful expedition to the South Pole, beating Scott who was comparatively very ill-prepared and died on the return journey (after  the heart-breaking discovery of Amundsen’s Norwegian flag at the South Pole!).

 

 

This probably summarizes a philosophy of luck that many of us should adopt as a general approach to life!

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Do You Have the Courage of Persistence?

In the post “What’s Your Brand of Courage“, Danny Iny insists upon the different brands of courage: either the fiery exuberant type, or the day-to-day persistent type.

Which one is the most effective? Except in a few occasion (which should not be underestimated as sometimes lives can be deeply changed in those rare events), it is probably the persistence courage that is probably the most important to achieve our goals.

Courage does not always roar
Will YOU try again tomorrow?

This quote by Mary Anne Radmacher that Danny Iny’s refers to made a great impression on me. Courage is indeed often the quiet voice at the end of the day saying “I will try again tomorrow“. It is courage against complacency, the courage to build up something stone after stone, step after step.

Those of us that show this courage of persistence are possibly more courageous overall than those heroes society shows us on film, books or TV. It’s less glamour, but it’s what changes the world.

Remember. When you’re persistent, you show great courage. Be proud!

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How to resist the increased immediacy of our world!

We live in a world of ever increasing immediacy. This tends to change significantly the way we behave. We can’t spend a few minutes without watching our devices!

In social networks, our posting history is soon unavailable, after a few days at most. It is difficult to search for past posts. Even in the case of emails, data shows that people tend to forget ever sooner those emails that are not on the top of the pile (see “Is Email Open Rate Decay Increasing?” blog post by Christopher S. Penn). A reason might be increase in the use of mobile devices with a much more limited screen and usability of scrolling down!

Curve showing optimal twitter frequency for marketing
Curve showing optimal twitter frequency for marketing (from marketingsavant.com)

The curve above suggests that for marketing purpose, tweets should be sent many times per hour!

In the same time, tools that allow to read content in an asynchronous manner like Google Reader are being discontinued by their producers.

So, are we supposed to be permanently hooked up to our devices so as to not miss the latest update or news? Isn’t it a conscious strategy by marketers to push us to remain hooked  in front of our tiny screens? Does that really correspond to a need?

Every time I disconnect, or I stay in a situation where I can only connect once a day or so, like during holiday time, I feel like it is enough. Not so much changed in the meantime.

One of the skills in the Collaborative Age will be the ability to manage time. To resist to this behavior expected from us to remain hooked to our social network feed.

Will you use these holidays to get off the hook and disconnect for a while? Practice your time consciousness?

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How to feel forever young

I stumbled upon this quote from Om Swami: “When your life has more memories than ambition, consider yourself old“.

Old Man
Is that the way you are feeling today?

Om Swami goes on: “When all you have to talk about is how you did this in the past or how you did that in the past, how you were amazing a decade ago or how you were so incredible back then. When you no longer live your present or look up to your future, when all you do is reknit the same stories in the present using yarn of the past, you are old. An unfailing sign of the one who feels old within is they mostly talk about their past“. (the entire post is here)

Stop feeling old. Remain forever young. Have ambitions and projects. The past is the past, the future is open. Go for it.

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Choose – be a critic or a hero?

Too often we praise critics instead of praising those that go down in the arena to do things – real stuff that is, that can change the world.

Facing fear in the arenaAs Theodore Roosevelt so well said: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better”.

Theodore Roosevelt continues: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Are you exposing yourself in the arena or do you just watch from you cozy critic’s seat?

Hat tip to Robin Sharma.

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How to Cut Through Complexity: Using Compelling Purpose

Cutting through complexity and simplifying complexity is a key value proposition for organizations and individuals. That’s why good consulting or coaching is about simplifying complexity.

Purpose signOne of the most elegant ways of achieving this result is to find the organization’s or individual’s purpose, and let them align their actions and issues with their purpose. If the purpose is strong and compelling enough, the rest will be certainly simplified:

  • what’s not a priority will be easily abandoned in favor of what’s important
  • what’s a priority will be clear, compel action-taking and destroy all sorts of procrastination.

Are you doubting it? Well, remember the last time you were madly in love with someone. It was a purpose. Didn’t your life suddenly appear simple, and wasn’t action-taking made easier? Didn’t you do things you would never have dreamed of trying before?

It all comes down to the compelling factor. To passion. If, when you think about your purpose, you don’t feel emotion, it’s not your real purpose.

Find your real compelling purpose. It will simplify your life.

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Good consulting or coaching is about simplifying complexity

What is actually good consulting or coaching? As a professional consultant and coach it might be time that I ponder on that question!

Zen Garden
Focus and reflection is often what people expect from external contributions

Reflecting on my most successful and satisfying moments, I can relate them to AHA moments for my clients, who were discovering an entire new perspective on things. This perspective was in fact often a way to simplify their life (or their organization’s) by providing new focus. Of course, consulting and coaching are not the same thing: consulting comes with advice and solutions; while coaching takes an open approach and lets the client come up with its personal solution. Still, again and again, the key of the intervention was to simplify real or subjective complexity. It often got realized through finding purpose, or what the actual, real, objective of the endeavor is.

Often enough most of the value is brought in when the coach or the consultant simplifies complexity, letting a clear path readily visible and less confusion as to the way forward. One consulting firm (KPMG) even has the tagline “cutting through complexity”. It can only take a few minutes – but the external eye, sounding board and independent perspective is essential in discovering that new path. I love these moments where coming with an independent, sometimes irreverent viewpoint suddenly simplifies years of artificially added complexity layers!

How did the coaches and consultants you’ve used performed in simplifying complexity?

Hat tip to Patrick Laredo, President of X-PM, a leading interim management company, for the thoughts and discussions on consulting and complexity

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