4100weeks

How do you calibrate your definition of success?

Here is a brief overview of a very good article recently posted in the Harvard Business Review titled . . . How Will You Measure Your Life?

Clay Christensen, Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, and one of the world’s foremost experts on innovation and growth, teaches a course that helps students understand what good management theory is and how it is built.

On the last day of class, Christensen asks his students to apply his principles and thinking to their personal lives and find the answers to 3 questions:

1. How can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career?
2. How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness?
3. How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail?

How can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career?

• the powerful motivator in our lives isn’t money; it’s the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements.

How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness?

• Create a strategy for your life. A company’s strategy is determined by the types of initiatives that management invests in
• Because they focus on tangible and immediate returns, companies shortchange investments in initiatives that are crucial to their long-term strategies
• A number of Christensen's HBS classmates come to reunions unhappy, divorced, and alienated from their children. Why? They didn’t keep the purpose of their lives front and center as they decided how to spend their time, talents, and energy
• Having a clear purpose in life is essential, but it was something you must think long and hard about
• Without a purpose, life can become hollow
• Your decisions about allocating your personal time, energy, and talent ultimately shape your life’s strategy.
• Allocation choices can make your life turn out to be very different from what you intended. Opportunities that you never planned for emerge. Be careful not to misinvest your resources.
• When studying the root causes of business disasters, you’ll consistently find a "predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification." When studying personal lives through the same lens, and the same pattern emerges: "people allocating fewer and fewer resources to the things they would have once said mattered most."
• Create a Culture. Culture, can be a powerful management tool. "It dictates the proven, acceptable methods by which members of the group address recurrent problems. And culture defines the priority given to different types of problems."
  
  Families, like organizations have cultures. "Those cultures can be built consciously or evolve inadvertently." Power is the most simple tool a parent can use to gain a child's cooperation. At some point (often the teen years) using power no longer works. Upon reflection, the parents realize that they should have built a culture at home where the child instinctively behaves respectfully toward others, listens to their parents, and chooses the right thing to do.
  
  "Like employees, children build self-esteem by doing things that are hard and learning what works." This must be designed into the family culture early on.

How can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail?

• Avoid the "Marginal Costs" mistake. "When we choose between right and wrong. A voice in our head says, 'Look, I know that as a general rule, most people shouldn’t do this. But in this particular extenuating circumstance, just this once, it’s OK.'"
  
  "The marginal cost of doing something wrong 'just this once' always seems alluringly low. It suckers you in, and you don’t ever look at where that path ultimately is headed and at the full costs that the choice entails."
  
  "It’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place."
• Remember the Importance of Humility. A key characteristic of humble people is a high level of self-esteem. "They knew who they were, and they felt good about who they were." Humility is also defined "by the esteem with which you regard others." When you respect others, good behavior flows naturally.
• Choose the Right Yardstick. "This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success." Rather than measuring by the individual prominence you have achieved, measure by the individuals you have helped become better people.

Get off the ledge

Imagine standing on a high bridge as you're told it's your turn to experience your first bungee jump.  Suddenly the guide starts counting down, three , two, one...  What emotion would you feel - excitement or fear? 

If you look up the words bravery and courage they are sometime used to mean the same thing but I believe they are VERY different.  My father was a brave man.  He served in WWII and I never saw him scared.  Right before his aorta replacement surgery I sat with him in the pre-op area and he was cool as a cucumber.  The nurses were amazed that his heart rate was normal and that he did not want anything to "take the edge-off".  There was no edge.  I'm not sure if he was like that his whole life or if he saw too much in the war and lost his ability to fear.

In my mind courage is much different.  One cannot have courage without fear.  The brave person will stand on the bridge without fear and jump.  The courageous person will stand on the bridge, maybe need a change of clothes due to overwhelming fear and jump anyway.  I believe that courage is much harder and more common than bravery.

Here is your challenge for today: Be courageous in one small act.

What have you put off because you fear saying or doing it?  I'm talking SMALL here.  Don't ask someone to marry you or challenge the company bully (or boss) to a fight.  Simply call someone that you haven't talked to in a while and let them know you were thinking about them.  You know who I mean since you probably had a name pop into your head while reading this.  Go ahead and jump - three, two, one...

Where's Waldo??

When you think about the greatest personal trainers of our day the names of Jillian or Bob from "The Biggest Loser" may come to mind.  But when it comes to great mental trainers - one name stands alone in a crowded sea of people (literally).  That name of course is Waldo. 

Jillian and Bob help clients become more fit by having a plan of action and so does Waldo.  Waldo is a pretty strange looking character.  Red and white hat with matching shirt.  Is there any possible way that you would miss this character walking by us on the street?  But when he's thrown into a crowd he seems to disappear from view - at least to the untrained eye.

Here's Waldo's secret that he doesn't want you to know (for obvious financial reasons).  Don't look at the crowd.  Focus on red stripes.  Over time the other colors will fade and you will only see red.  With more practice you will only see red stripes and before you know it you will not be asking Where's Waldo.

Here's your simple mental challenge for the day: 

Part 1: Look for squares.  Everywhere you look you will see squares - ceiling tiles, computer keys, post it notes and more.  After a while you will be tired of seeing squares and will be ready for part two of the challenge. 

Part 2: Pick your favorite color and only see that color.  You will amaze yourself with the mental power you have over your focus.  Good luck and come back for your next challenge soon!

The 24 hour rule - Communication that works.

It's frustrating  beyond belief when you expect an answer or a call from an employer , employee, vendor or friend. ...  and the e-mail box or voicemail is empty....

Great organizations,  competent professionals and good friends always respond when promised.  Weak organizations, disorganized managers and fair-weather friends don't meet their commitments and leave you hanging.

"The 24 hour rule" is a standard that defines the speed and importance for returning calls or emails in many professional organizations.  That is:  ALL requests, promises , calls or email are responded to within 24 hours.  That may simply be to say:  "I need another 24 hours or 7 days" to fulfill my promise to you but I didn't want to keep you hanging.  In great organizations the response time is even faster.

Slow responders make you mad, reduce your productivity, develop a poor reputation and  put you on the lookout for new employees, suppliers or friends.   If you are going to fill 4100weeks, you need to know where the meeting is, when the flight leaves and whether or not to bring the running shoes... and now.

All of the excuses are dead:   Smartphone's, PDA's, Mobile Phones and Satellite phones connect everyone on the planet except possibly (and maybe not) your 95 year old Grandmother  24/7.   "Oh you were trying to get in touch with me." reeks of no integrity.  It takes approximately  16.3 seconds to hammer out an email reply if you type with one finger.

The other 24 hour rule - Not to be confused with the first 24 hour rule:

The 24 hour rule states that any partially consumed liquor left over at the host's house for more than 24 hours after the end of a party becomes property of the host. The host is not required to notify the owner during this period.

"Hey man, I left some rum here last week, did you see it?"  

"I drank it, 24 hour rule dude."

"Fair enough."

 Borrowed from the Urban Dictionary.

The second 24 hour rule can be employed when the first 24 hour rule is broken.