What is your present attitude toward producing results? Here are a few results-related posts you may have missed.
“Well done is better than well said.”
“All you can do is all you can do.”
“He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.”
Today’s quote does a great job of describing many of us over the last year. From my view, I’ve seen a bit more hippos with a large dose of mudslinging, highlighted particularly in the media.
Emotions have been running wild like roller coasters — leaving many of us sick to our stomachs, dizzy, and wanting to throw up.
What has your ride been like in your personal and professional communities? What has been your soaring-to-wallowing ratio over these many months, and how have these events influenced who you have become through this process?
How can and will you be more of a soaring eagle moving forward? How might you teach and support a few hippos in your world who want to fly?
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Do you remember the game played by teachers and students when you were young? You know — the game where the teacher asks a question and immediately all the over-zealous students wave their hands in excitement — maybe with a few verbalizing to be called on to share their knowledge and show off a bit.
Certain subjects and topics in school play nicely into this game, where there is a single correct answer — and being quick on the draw with these single bullets of wisdom is usually rewarded. Consider all the game shows on TV that play into reward or punishment for the right or wrong answer.
As we enter the world beyond our traditional educational upbringing many of us notice that there are often a variety of right answers that can lead to numerous iterative versions of success. We are now encouraged to be far more creative and agile, thinking outside the box to discover new and perhaps even better answers just beyond the horizon of our knee-jerk thinking.
Where and on what personal or professional issues would digging deeper and longer to search for the second right answer magically provide even greater possibilities and opportunities in your life?
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The book Cosmos by Carl Sagan was first published in 1980. It was a sensation, and Sagan became an astronomic hit (pun intended!). His work significantly popularized the explorer in each of us, to more fully examine our relationship with the universe and the role man has as a pioneer and adventurers of our solar system and beyond.
His word played a considerable role in bringing humanity’s voice, images, and the sounds of Earth to the rest of the galaxy, through the famous Golden Records attached to the Voyager probes launched in 1977.
When we look into space and see the cosmos, we are seeing the past based on the finite speed of light. Despite traveling 35,000 miles per hour, Voyager has only traveled a bit over 13 billion miles — well short of even the closest star in our Milky Way Galaxy.
What are the most influential books that made a lasting impact on your life? How have the voices of the recent and distant past taken you on a voyage through time to contemplate the thoughts and wisdom of man through the years?
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Time is the coin of life. Unfortunately, unlike money — which can grow and compound if wisely invested — our time on this planet, at least in physical form, is finite.
Once we take our first gasp of air at birth, our parking meter of life begins — with perhaps 27,375 days. Do the math — multiply your age by 365, then subtract the result from 27,375. You can play with this to explore the potential number of weekends, vacations, or even sunny days you have left, depending on where you live.
Now of course, you plan to beat the odds and live far longer than this average by eating right, exercising, and getting plenty of sleep. You also expect all kinds of medical advances to kick in and add a few more years with perhaps a nip and tuck here and there, to look younger — to the amazement of others.
The time is always now! What do you plan to do with this precious moment, and the next? Don’t wait!
Someday is not actually a day of the week.
What role does hope play in your life? Here are a few hope-related posts you may have missed.
“Hope awakens courage. He who can implant courage in the human soul is the best physician.”
“Never hope for it more than you work for it.”
Image from Unsplash by Joe Dudeck
What does being highly productive look like? How do things go when you are at your best? How have the last few days, weeks, or even the past year compared to the benchmarks and standards you hold for yourself?
Let’s face it — our best each day can vary widely due to internal motivators and capacities as well as a host of external constraints and limitations. How do you feel at these times, when your expectations of yourself and your world are not met?
Our lives are constantly under construction. What we get done with each day is simply what we get done — that’s it.
What cornerstones and foundational bricks can and will you lay today to build upon with each new day?
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Following a two-year career as a middle school science teacher in Philadelphia, I secured a job as a pharmaceutical sales representative with the Upjohn Company.
That’s right — in the early 80s I was a legal drug dealer, promoting Motrin for pain and arthritic conditions to physicians, over other meds available at the time.
My training was rigorous, with an initial one-month stint in chilly Kalamazoo, Michigan in January. The company — which is now part of Pfizer — was about a century old at the time and took great pride in preparing over 1,000 sales reps to be among the best in the industry.
Once our book learning was complete, we were sent out to work with our district managers, to get field experience meeting with real doctors, intending to influence them to prescribe our magic orange tablets.
In the beginning, my manager did most of the work, describing features and benefits of our medications over those of our competitors. Following a few such interactions, my manager, Stan Ershler, informed me that he had to leave. I indicated that I would head right home to continue my studies. He said, Absolutely not! Go out and find some more physicians to talk to — see what happens! I definitely could have used a pill for panic attacks at that time!
With great patience and a bit of tough love, I was out the door, diving in the deep end in my new career.
Where are you hesitating or procrastinating on taking action because you feel you need to learn more?
In what situation is taking action and getting in the game likely to be your best teacher?
Image from Unsplash by Adam Winger
Who have been your most influential teachers? Which of them tapped into your greatest interests and inspired you to want to learn, grow, and achieve?
Which of them poured themselves into you with love and also saw that their job was to bring out the possibilities within you?
The questions, Will this be on the test? and How will this prepare me for my future? are worlds apart.
Fulfilling even the most well-intended curriculum and tapping into the knowledge stores of many teachers and other advising professionals can only go so far.
How can we better prepare our youth for a future in which exponential wisdom will be required?
What would be possible if your role as a life-long learner was to use up all the teachers that come into your life?
As you soar beyond the relevancy of these well-intended individuals, keep looking for the future sages and stoics to help you take your next steps.
Image from Unsplash by Susan Q Yin
Thinking back over my education, I seem to have lived two lives. Up to and through college, I was a classroom kid — following the rules, studying for each test, pursuing good grades — to become what society called a success. At the time, my SAT scores and GPA were all that mattered, with, of course, the right extra-curricular activities and work experiences.
Cracking a book that was not required reading or (Heaven forbid!) reading a book for pleasure could never compete with playing with friends or watching TV.
Years after traditional school was over, I discovered the wonderful world of books in which I could explore any interest that suited me. Suddenly, I couldn’t get enough of the knowledge and wisdom packed into all the treasures they held.
Examine your own educational journey. Where and how have your classrooms and libraries influenced your life so far?
How do you intend to continue your education from this point forward?
Please reply to this post with a few books that have opened up your world and set you free.