All in Aspirations
Where’s your head when you’re doing work?
Are you focused on the work itself - on exploring the nuances, the difficulties, navigating the actions needed to ensure it’s done the right way?
Or are you focused on just getting through it - simply finishing and moving on to the next item on your (never ending) To-Do list?
This month's topics focus on personal war stories and observations.
Today's episode discusses how, in our quest for 'more', we’ve confused learning, knowledge and credibility with degrees, diplomas and doctorates. We need a reset in our collective thinking and biases on the subject of education.
Bruce Lee’s philosophy when it came to learning was that there was no single best way to learn.
He didn’t prescribe to the idea of fixed patterns and approaches to education, rather he believed that real education is unique to the individual. It comes from absorbing what’s helpful (in your own judgement) rejecting what’s not and then defining your own ‘truth’, your own path forward.
This month's topics focus on personal war stories and observations.
Today's episode focuses on career management and specifically the fact that we cannot outsource our career management to others within our organizations, no matter how good or strong they might be.
Forecasts and projections come with the territory, regardless of whether we’re speaking to business, social or political subjects. From new industries to climate change to our own companies, we’re desperate to know what the future holds.
What’s the potential? How long do we have? How serious is this?
Setting standards is important.
Standards help us define the level at which we’re performing and, in the event, we’re not at par, how far we need to go to get there. Standards serve a real purpose as they push us to be better - to master our craft, change the way we think and deliver greater value, both to ourselves and others.
Mark Manson wrote that we should overestimate our future but underestimate our past. That sounds about right to me.
Many of us tend to do the reverse - we overestimate our past (both in terms of the implications of what we’ve achieved, as well as the ramifications of the mistakes we’ve made) and we underestimate our futures (in terms of what is still possible).
A price of innovation and growth is criticism. If you’re intent on creating change in any material form, you have to expect it.
The simple fact is that the change you’re trying to create will result in some sort of displacement, both real and perceived, and it’s likely to come from many different areas.
The thing is, no one actually has the answer.
We want to believe someone does - perhaps that we do - but we don’t actually know that to be a fact.
Sure, we might believe our version of the answer right to our very core. We might be convinced that our boss or our peer can be trusted to get us where we’re trying to go. But what we’re trusting is our versions of the story. We’ve made a judgement based on the accumulated data at hand.
Competition is a sharpening mechanism.
It forces a clarification of our strategies, demands a strengthening of our capabilities and forces everyone to improve (if they want to continue to stay on the field).
And, in order to have competition, you have to have participation - without constraints.
This month's podcasts focus on people, specifically the different aspects to consider when it comes to the talent acquisition, development and management.
My last episode talked about the value of the team, even when we have a star performer in our midst. Today's episode discusses the idea that, while it still is about the team, we should all strive to adopt the star performer's mentality.
I think we get so caught up in the goals that we’re after that we lose sight of the need to focus on the process. Especially when the goals are big, audacious.
This makes sense, intuitively, of course. The bigger the goals, the higher the stakes, the more invested we are in their achievement. It’s natural then that we takes these goals seriously, and that they occupy our thought processes.
This month's podcasts focus on the topic of mindset, and the kinds of traits and ideas we need to embed to achieve what we want.
In today's episode, I speak to the importance of being an optimist, to fight cynicism. Many view unbridled optimism as a weakness, because it requires a health measure of vulnerability. To the contrary, I believe it's a superpower.
Authenticity has become a rare commodity.
I mean, at first blush, you’d think it would be abundant in society, personal or professional. Because when what you see is what you get, there are no illusions, no need for personal estimations or second guesses. What you saw would, in fact, be what you got.
But in a world driven by social media, the lure of the instant, ADD-fueled soundbite, and the much-discussed finality (and hence, importance) of the ‘first impression’, most of us are on our toes.
“Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others.” Pablo Picasso
When we hit upon a winning formula, it’s tempting to think we’ve got it all figured out. Because we actually do. We’ve understood what the market wants, what customers are seeking, at least at that specific point in time.
If you compare a song off of Radiohead’s first album, Pablo Honey, and their third album, OK Computer - for example, a song like “Anyone Can Play Guitar”, with “Let Down” - you can hear a real sonic difference.
From the complexity of the songwriting to the musicianship, right through to the production work, you can hear an increasing level of sophistication. Essentially, you can hear the growth and evolution of the band over the years.
Getting things done, as a team, is a challenging task at the best of times.
It requires us to pull together and take actions that are consistent and coherent with respect to our common end goal. This, in turn, requires clarity, communication and alignment.
In other words, we need to all buy in and then do our bit (as part of the overall plan) to get there.
This month's podcasts focus on the topic of mindset, and the kinds of traits and ideas we need to embed to achieve what we want.
Today's episode focuses on the concept of idealism. It's a concept that comes naturally as kids but one we tend to sacrifice as we grow older. I argue that's a mistake.
A platform is a byproduct of success.
What I mean by that is that success in any given field results in not only the usual rewards (economic gain, career progression, industry recognition, etc.), it also provides us with a voice. We’re sought out by our community and those interested in, and impacted by, our work. They want to hear from us, and are ready to give us the opportunity to speak, to be heard.
Why are some people ready to get up on a platform (physical or digital) and share their message with the world? Why are some people not?
Why is it that some folks can overcome the (inevitable) self-doubt that tends to accompany these acts of leadership? Why is it that others cannot?
