Project Exponential

Tag: decisions

  • Transitions

    I’m often asked how I made the transition from social work to social curation. If I’m honest, I never dreamed of having my own business or running my own show. In fact, for a very long time, I was looking for the perfect job, desperately trying to figure out how to craft the perfect cover letter to land the interview that would set me on a fulfilling and profitable career path.

    I wish I could say I woke up one morning and realized this dream job was something I could actually create.

    It started slowly, with an idea, and — drip by drip! — grew from experimentation to action.

    You, too, can start small. You don’t need to have a finished product on the table before you decide to go. Simply identify what’s important to you, acknowledge your skills, and begin to make choices that excite you.

    You don’t have to figure it all out today.

    The things that really mean something take time.

  • Redefine work

    It’s no wonder we consider work very separate from play. It’s hounded into our heads since we’re able to talk.

    We watch Dad grimace as he races to work, and Mom moan about never having enough time (and she doesn’t look like she’s having fun). We’re given hours to learn, write, read, and make things. We have separate hours to talk, move, go outside, discover, and mess around. Recess becomes our gold.

    Once the school bell rings freedom, homework hours stand between us and our reward: time to play and make mischief. We quickly learn that good behavior and productivity yields more play time. Decisions are easy.

    Then we’re told to find jobs. Quite naturally, we look for ones that bestow upon us the right to play. We look for more money, more time, more vacation hours to do the things we really want to do.

    “Work” becomes the vehicle through which play is possible, our income, our sacrifice. Worse yet, boredom. “Play” stands for our hobbies, our leisure, our rest.

    Darlene Cohen, author of The One Who Is Not Busy, spells it out:

    “We describe our activity as either ‘busy’ or ‘not busy,’ either productively working or taking a blissful break from working. But actually it is possible to experience both ‘busy’ and ‘not busy’ simultaneously, to reach beyond the labels and connect with our work in a way that is deeply satisfying. What this requires is that we develop the breadth of vision and the mental flexibility to be both busy and not busy at the very same time.”

    Is it possible to shift our perceptions and redefine what’s work and what’s play?

    Can you turn one into the other and find joy in each?

  • The $12,392,786.00 blog post

    I have had the good fortune of meeting, counseling, and sitting in business seminars with intelligent, driven, successful individuals — and they just want to become better. Industries range from music to publishing, finance to social good, art to real estate. Age, life experience, and stage of life vary; students, fathers, midlife, C-level, nearing retirement, starting up.

    Despite a plethora of variables, I’ve noticed a few themes that come up again and again. In fact, they repeat themselves so frequently I wish I could bottle them for distribution, sending them around the world to inspire people to do more and dream big.

    I’m sharing them here in hopes they resonate with you.

    Why $12,392,786.00? Because I believe if you act, the following nuggets will add value to your work and life. And if you’re really diligent, you’ll see benefits worth even more.

    ———

    We get in our own way. Believe it, accept it, move forward.

    Be willing to listen — to the point someone could convince you to throw your idea out the window or drastically change it.

    Don’t wait. Do it now.

    No one is going to give you permission.

    You have a choice. Don’t be seduced into thinking otherwise.

    Relationships are important. The “unexpected ones” often prove to be the most valuable.

    Milk the in-between spaces. In-between jobs, appointments, calls, relationships, events, ideas. They hold more potential than you think.

    There are an infinite choices. Pick one. If it fails, there will be another.

    No decision is irreversible.

    Question. Ask lots of them.

    Who (or what) can you connect? Everyone can bridge two people, two ideas, two companies. And it will multiply.

    Stop trying to sell to people you don’t know. Start with the people you do.

    Be vulnerable. Connect, reach out. People cherish authenticity.

    What are you really saying? Get honest with yourself and with your audience. Cut the crap and get real.

    Don’t assume. You never know whose talents can help you and how.

    Set dates otherwise you’ll never get it done.

    Pick up that pen, make that call, stop waiting to begin.

    There is no perfect.

  • How do you see risk?

    Everyone experiences risk. No one is immune to the anxiety that comes with it.

    The difference between the daring and the successful is that they’ve learned to cope with it.

    Questions to ask:

    How can I minimize my anxieties surrounding this?

    Can I make myself feel better about this decision?

    The more you dive, the more you’ll enter the water in a way that doesn’t hurt, and the board won’t seem quite as high…

    Jump.

  • Universal worry: “Am I good enough?”

    “Do I belong in this group?”

    “Does what I have to say matter?”

    “Are my ideas valuable?”

    These are questions that have plagued the most brave, the most confident, the most successful among us. At some point in time, most people have had these thoughts.

    The difference lies in the answer.

    Successful people know how to convince themselves “YES!”

    And even if they don’t believe it, they pretend anyway.