A Clear, Strong Mind

The end of December offers a chief opportunity for self-evaluation. In the past 12 months, have you been on track toward sustainable long-term success?

One important area for self-evaluation is the maintenance of one of your greatest assets. You take care of your body, budget, and car. But do you also see the importance of the regular care and feeding of your mind? For a leader, a clear, strong mind is hugely important.

As you evaluate your past year, here are 4 key questions every leader must ask toward that aim:

1. Have you regularly taken at least 1 day off per week?

Everyone needs at least one day a week that allows a change of pace from regular work.

In this age of instant availability, it’s easy to be always at work, even though you’re not physically in the office. You’re constantly researching new products or checking e-mail, Twitter streams, client contact lists, or voice messages.

But an effective leader needs to have at least one day a week where his nose isn’t held to the grindstone. Preferably two.

An old adage says a man cannot do seven days’ work in seven days. But he can do seven days’ work in six days.

Have you regularly taken the time off you need?

2. Do you have at least 1 hobby?

The older you get, the harder it is to have hobbies. Other activities crowd in, and hobbies seem selfish or childish.

But the exact opposite is true. A healthy hobby allows your mind to recreate, recharge, and refresh. It allows you to be a better you.

Some leaders golf. Some run. Some ride dirt bikes or ski or play racquetball or strum a guitar.

It sounds a bit random, but I know a well-educated professional who carves tops—little wooden toys that kids spin around. A few years back he set up a woodworking lathe in a shop behind his house. Whenever the pressures of his job get too much, he goes out to his shop and carves wood.

3. Have you read at least 4 books you wanted to read?

Sixteen hours after the Twin Towers crumbled and fell, Rudy Giuliani, then mayor of New York City, stumbled home to get some rest. It was 2:30 a.m., but instead of sleeping, he opened Winston Churchill’s biography and began to read.

Giuliani was impressed with the people of his city, and believed they deserved a leader to match them. The Churchill he looked to for guidance was the Churchill of 1940. The man who led England through its darkest hour.

Leaders read books for growth, education, inspiration, entertainment, and advice.

A best practice is to read one book per season you truly want to read—4 books per year. Keep the book on your bedside table and read some each night. A book a month is even better.

4. Were you silent a portion of each day?     

Some leaders always have the volume set to 11. It doesn’t matter if it’s the car radio, TV, IPod, or everyday conversations of life.

But part of a healthy life means allowing yourself space for contemplation. Silence is golden.

What good things would happen in your life if, once a day, you purposely turned everything off and gave your mind a rest?

Okay, how did you do?

The point is not to beat yourself up if you fell short in an area. But to be honest when evaluating yourself. Then set new goals and press forward.

A clear, strong mind is vital for long term success. How well are you taking care of yours?

Question: What are other good ways you take care of your mind?

How Beautiful the Boring Games You Played as a Child

“So, Dad,” said my 8-year-old daughter, Addy. “What are you going to get me for Christmas?”

“A stick, a cardboard box, and an old potato,” I said with an absolutely straight face.

“Hmm,” she said. “That doesn’t sound like much fun—except for the cardboard box.”

Addy grinned in seriousness. The child can transform a box into anything. Her life is presently immersed in Barbies, and over the past season, for her collection of dolls, she’s constructed a schoolhouse, a theater, a restaurant, and an airplane—all made from cardboard boxes.

Oh sure, she enjoys her share of pre-made toys. Under the tree this year she’ll find plenty of new ones. Electronic whatzits and online whozits and fantastical contraptions that screech and boogie and leap and croon.

Yet mistake not the quiet call of a cardboard box in a child’s life.

When a kid can create her own fun, as a parent I respect that.

I respect it a lot.  

Dewitt Lowrey, one of the original Band of Brothers, was telling me about the games he played as a kid growing up in Alabama during the Great Depression. One was called Mama Pig.

“You took an old Barlow knife with three blades and put the littlest blade in the ground,” Lowrey explained. “Then you tried to flip it to make the knife stick on the big blade.”

Clear joy filled his voice when he told me about Mama Pig. The game sparked a recollection, a remembrance of simpler times.

But then he shook it off and added, “Oh, but it would be far too dull for kids to play today.”

Maybe, I thought. But maybe not.

When my wife was a kid in the 1970s growing up in Ventura, California, she and a neighborhood friend created their own game called “Hide From Cars.” When I asked Mary to explain the game she shrugged nonchalantly.

“Well, that was it,” she said. “Cars came down the road, and we hid from them. It was a hoot.”

I understood perfectly. During winters in Canada when I was a boy, I chopped ice off the big rocks in our backyard. It must have appeared dull compared to anything you’d find in a store. Nothing to plug in or make noise. No lights or bells, whistles or scores. A real dud in the grand scheme of games.

But, oh it was exhilarating. Can you picture it?

You grabbed the ax firmly and went chop, chop, chip.

The ice slid off in slabs.

Sometimes when you swung your ax against the ice, the ice groaned and fought back. But you drove the ax down again harder, and up sparked a shower of powder. The wind whistling off the lake caught the fine frozen particles and carried them north into unknowingness. You felt shivery but powerful. It was your ax that broke through the blockage. Your sweat.

In the hands of a 10-year-old boy, you couldn’t buy a game that made you feel so grand.

I believe that every generation, no matter how much we insist we’re different from other generations, is basically the same. When we’re kids, we all enjoy our self-made games. Those games get placed into the enormous blender of who we become, the mixture of wonder and mystery, creativity and color.

How beautiful our boring games. Our cardboard boxes. Our Mama Pigs. Our Hide From Cars.

Maybe they are not so boring after all.

This Christmas, let more of those games begin.

 

Question: What “boring” games did you play when you were a kid?

 

The Ease—and Difficulty—of Consistent Excellence

In the 1980s, an 18-year-old named Steve Fonyo made big headlines in Canada, where I grew up. Fonyo lost his leg to cancer, then committed to run across the country to raise money for cancer research.

It was an ambitious goal. Fonyo started at the Atlantic Ocean and headed west. Day after day he slogged on, dodging prairie blizzards and running on a specially-designed prosthetic leg.

After 14 months, Fonyo dipped his leg into the Pacific. The nation cheered; $13 million was raised. Fonyo was awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s second-highest honor.

With his huge goal completed, Fonyo seemed unsure what to do next. Sadly, his life took a turn for the worse.

In later years Fonyo again made big headlines, but this time it was for alcohol and drug abuse. He struggled to hold a job. He struggled relationally. He faced numerous criminal charges, including assault with a deadly weapon, fraud, and theft. In December 2009, his membership in the Order of Canada was revoked.

An important lesson can be learned from the downside of Fonyo’s life. Setting and completing a huge goal is a noble undertaking. But the real challenge is to live with consistent excellence, day in, day out, one day after the next.

How do you live with consistent excellence?

Some say the key, whenever you complete a goal, is immediately to set another. Success emerges when mountaintops are connected. A good life is an endless string of aiming for the next big thing.

Sure, there’s much merit to repeated goal setting. Yet I believe consistent excellence comes in a quieter way—when you remind yourself daily of the core reasons that you live for, and then make choices with those reasons in mind.

Think of these core reasons as the foundational motivations that keep you going in good directions. Have you ever defined your core reasons for living? The criterion for identifying them is straightforward. Just ask, “What’s most important?”

If you’re seeking to define your core, below is an example, mine. Your list will undoubtedly look different, but perhaps this list will provide ideas for what’s most important to you as well.

My top 5:

1.      GOD. I want to please God in everything I do. Sure, I believe in grace—that God loves unconditionally and offers unmerited favor. But I also believe my actions can tick him off. I don’t want to do that.

2.      SELF. Self-respect is everything. By “self” I don’t mean to elevate my position. It’s just that each morning when I look in the mirror, I don’t want to look at an idiot. My actions and choices can go a long way (or not) toward who I am, and become.

3.      SPOUSE. I want to have the best possible marriage I can have. My wife is the babealicious love of my life, and I need to be consciously aware of nurturing that vitally important relationship.

4.      KIDS. I want to be a good model for my children. I need to live wisely so I can speak into their lives. I don’t want them ever to lose confidence in me as a father.

5.      WORK. When it comes to my career, I want every available opportunity. If I make wiser choices, then the more my career will benefit, and (hopefully) the more people I can help educate, inform, and inspire (my core reasons for writing).

I go through this list in my mind every morning. It’s like taking a vitamin pill. It sounds like such a simple plan, and it is. I simply remind myself daily of the five main things that keep me going.

Do you want to live with consistent excellence?

Define what motivates you. And then live with that in mind, day after day.

You can do this.

You and me and Fonyo—we’ve all got what it takes.

 

Question: what are your core values, and how do you remind yourself of them—and live with them in mind—on a consistent basis?

Know the Crow Code

SPECIAL SERIES: YOUR BEST JOB NOW, PART 5 OF 5

I’ve been blogging every day this week in a special series titled, “Your Best Job Now.”

Today’s topic: The one skill that trumps all others.

What’s the most important job skill you can have?

A strong work ethic?

A hunger for constant learning?

The ability to develop a thick list of network contacts?

Perhaps. But I’m going to suggest that the most important skill you can have at work is knowing and living by something called the Crow Code.

This code isn’t original with me. I gleaned it from a colleague, Shaun Blakeney. Several years ago we wrote a book together about maturity for young men. The code is something he first learned more than 20 years ago.

I’ll let Shaun tell the story in his own words:

During my senior year of high school, I worked as a dishwasher at a noodle-and-soy restaurant.

Washing dishes is seldom fun. Plus in this restaurant they used all these sauces and stuff, so it was even grosser.

But the strangest part of the job was this—

One day two cooks were hanging outside in back of the restaurant, and one cook spotted a crow flying by.

Right there behind the restaurant he whipped out a shotgun and blasted away. KA-BLAM!

In no time flat, the crow was defeathered, sliced, diced, and sizzling in a pot.

The two cooks ate it right then on the spot, spitting shotgun shells out whenever they crunched on one. No lie.

So what’s the Crow Code?

It’s that your work can be full of crazy things. And if your job is completely wacky, then at very least you’ll have some hilarious stories to tell twenty years later.

Knowing that can help keep you sane at the nuttiest of times.

Okie doke, today’s post was for fun.

But there’s vital seriousness to it too.

Keeping a good sense of humor in an incredibly important job skill. Some would say it’s the most important skill of all. It can help you survive and thrive in any job situation.

Have a good Friday, everyone.

Read the rest of this series:

Part 1: Gleaning theGold from Your List of Jobs

Part 2: Five Ways toTell if Your Job is a Good Fit
Part 3: Three Surprising Realities of Where You Work
Part 4: Ten Strategies to Survive and Thrive at Your Job

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Question: What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened at a place you’ve worked?

10 Strategies to Survive and Thrive at Your Job

SPECIAL SERIES: YOUR BEST JOB NOW, PART 4 OF 5

I’m blogging every day this week in a special series titled, “Your Best Job Now.”

Today’s topic: Strategies for success at your current job.

You might have been hired yesterday. You might have been hired 10 years ago. In a downed economy, your performance is more crucial than ever.

At the same time, your job isn’t meant to be a pressure cooker either—at least not endlessly. It’s where you’ll spend an important third of your life. You want to not just survive at work, but thrive.

How can you do both? How can you demonstrate to your boss that you’re a valuable commodity, without getting an ulcer or tearing your hair out?

Here are 10 strategies to survive and thrive:

1. Study your job description. Make sure you know what you signed on to do and not do. Don’t be afraid to clarify your boundaries. If babysitting your boss’s pet St. Bernard seems suspect to you, don’t be afraid to ask your supervisor if that’s what’s actually expected.

2. Expand your skill set. New innovations are coming down the pike at the speed of a mouse click. Everyone constantly needs to rethink how we do things and why. Attend seminars. Read books. Study your craft. Get the degrees and certifications to stay current.

3. Be humble. Cockiness is seldom appreciated at a workplace,. Keep quiet, learn the way things are done, and choose your personal crusades very carefully. Don’t expect stardom overnight. And never criticize your company, fellow employees, your boss—at least out loud.

4. Own up to mistakes. Everybody makes them. It’s okay to do so, but take responsibility for it when it happens. Treat mistakes as opportunities to get wiser.

5. Take time off. Plan for a sustainable pace, particularly if your job is in an industry you’re interested in long-term. How can you be doing this job (or be in this industry) a year from now, or ten years from now? Don’t be afraid to really enjoy your weekends. You cannot afford to not take a day off.

6. Commit to time on. At the same time, don’t be afraid to burn the midnight oil, particularly in your early years.

7. Respect everyone. Be polite and professional to everybody—even if he or she is the low dog. This means junior associates, porters, doormen, secretaries, assistants, valet parkers, and busboys. Not only is it the cool thing to do, but in many industries, job turnover is high and people get promoted quickly. If you’re nice to a junior associate, he may well be a senior associate soon. Things will go better for you if you were respectful of him when he was the low dog.

8. Dress the part. If your company’s look is corporate casual, don’t show up in either blue jeans or a suit. Fit into the culture of your workplace.

9. Don’t surf the net on company time. Yep.

10. Never embarrass your boss. Enough said.

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Read the rest of this series:

Part 1: Gleaning theGold from Your List of Jobs

Part 2: Five Ways toTell if Your Job is a Good Fit
Part 3: Three Surprising Realities of Where You Work
Part 5: Know the Crow Code

Question: What’s the most important piece of advice you’ve ever learned about surviving and thriving at work?

3 Surprising Realities of Where You Work

SPECIAL SERIES: YOUR BEST JOB NOW, PART 3 OF 5

I’m blogging every day this week in a special series titled, “Your Best Job Now.”

Today’s topic: What can you actually expect at work?

When you train for a job, usually the bulk of training focuses on how to do the job.

But seldom does anyone train you to understand the culture surrounding employment.

What can you actually expect at work? Well, usually you need to figure that out for yourself. But there is help.

Talk to people in your industry who’ve been there longer than you, or network with people in other professions to see what it’s like on the other side of the fence.

You’ll be surprised to discover similarities that creep up in every profession.

That sense of discovery is key.

Knowledge is power, and having a clear idea of what to expect can help you successfully navigate what comes at you daily at work.

Here are 3 realities you can expect in almost any job:

1.      You’ll seldom like all your co-workers.

At any workplace, you’ll find dogish managers, gossipy co-workers, cranky secretaries, or supervisors who’re flat-out louts. Yep, it happens.

Ever see the old TV show WKRP in Cincinnati? There are plenty of real-life Herb Tarleks and Les Nessmans in the world. Your workplace is bound to have a few.

The key is to be warm, considerate, and professional to all. You don’t need to be best friends with coworkers. You just need to work alongside them.

2.      You’ll work at some tasks that are just plain drudgery.

And there are a ton of those tasks out there.

A ton.

A friend with a finance degree got a job for a brokerage firm. You’d think that would be a sweet gig. But what does he do all day? He pours through endless lists, cold-calling potential clients. It means eight solid hours a day of being told no. How’s that for a fun time?

He reminds himself that he’s got a job, and that it won’t be like this forever.

3.      You might make less money than you deserve.

My first career job paid roughly half the industry standard. I took the job anyway. I didn’t take it for the money. I took it because the job was a good position where I knew I’d learn a lot.

The reality of low wages happens at a lot of jobs. Nobody likes to part with their money, including employers, and someone, somewhere, some place in the same industry you’re in, will inevitably be making more than you.

Successfully negotiating a fair wage is a good thing. So if you’re getting less money than you deserve, it might mean you need to talk to your boss and ask for a raise.

Or it might mean you need to follow the money elsewhere.

But often it’s in your best interest to stay put. A job might have other perks. Sometimes it’s simply enough to know in your gut you’re worth more, and leave it at that.

Some of this list might sound like a downer, but it’s actually meant to be empowering. When you know what to expect, you’re less surprised at what you find in your job culture, and you can take things in stride.

Knowing and understanding the culture surrounding your work place is essential to survive and thrive in your career.

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Read the rest of this series:

Part 1: Gleaning theGold from Your List of Jobs

Part 2: Five Ways toTell if Your Job is a Good Fit
Part 4: Ten strategies to Survive and Thrive at Your Job
Part 5: Know the Crow Code

Question: What surprising realities have you noticed where you work (either now or at a previous job)?

5 Ways to Tell if Your Job is a Good Fit

SPECIAL SERIES: YOUR BEST JOB NOW, PART 2 OF 5

I’m blogging every day this week in a special series titled, “Your Best Job Now.”

Today’s topic: How to tell if a job is right for you.

In a downed economy, any job might make a good fit.

But many times a leader will want to evaluate a job—either the job he’s in, or a job he’s considering—to make sure it’s a good fit.

Over the past years I’ve developed a checklist of 5 ways to evaluate a job.

For easy recall, the checklist follows the acronym P*A*P*E*R.

When it comes to a job, look for:

1. P—PROVISION

A paycheck is a huge reason for working. Does a job provide for your financial needs?

If you don’t get paid enough at a job, and you aren’t able to scale back your lifestyle, it will become difficult to remain in that position over the long haul.

You might need to raise your skills so your value rises to your employer. Or perhaps it’s time to look for another line of work.

2. A—APTITUDE

Aptitude means you can do a job, (or you can learn to do a job), and your temperament is suited for the work.

You might want to be a fighter pilot, but you wear glasses as thick as Coke bottles. That cancels out the aptitude question. Or you might work as a trial room attorney, but you find you have no stomach for confrontation. Not a good fit.

You have natural and learned talents, abilities, propensities, and preferences—all those factor into how you are able to do a job.

3. P—PARTNERSHIP

It’s easy to think only of yourself when it comes to a job. But a wise leader factors in what his spouse thinks about a job situation too.

If you love a job but your wife hates it, (or vice versa), it probably won’t be a long term fit.

For single people, this is still something to consider as you evaluate a job or career direction.

With some jobs, it’s virtually impossible to do the job well and have a family. For instance, a friend works as a military contractor and is gone overseas for up to two years at a time. He’s often forbidden to disclose his whereabouts or even to have contact back home. That makes it tough to be an effective husband and father.

When seeking a job, factor in the partnership equation. Will this job allow you to handle your responsibilities at home and enjoy your family?

4. E—EXCITEMENT

Being passionate about a job is a good thing. If you absolutely hate a job, chances are it won’t be a good fit long-term.

You might not love everything about a job, but maybe you’re excited about what you’ll learn there, or the opportunities it provides, or where it might lead. That’s fine.

Similarly, sometimes a job carries a level of excitement only for a season, and then the excitement wanes.

If you’re not excited about your job, that may be your nudge to seek something new.

5. R—REASON

Last, but perhaps most importantly, does this job matter? Are you doing a good work? Does it affect people in positive ways?

If you see your job as purposeless, it will be hard to sustain over time. But if you see your work as purposeful, it can help overcome other difficult factors that may be present in a job.

The most satisfying jobs will have all 5 factors present.

Sometimes that’s not possible, of course, and concessions need to be made.

Still, it’s good to know what you’re getting yourself into. Or what you need to get yourself out of.

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Read the rest of this series:

Part 1: Gleaning the Gold from Your List of Jobs

Part 3: Three Surprising Realities of Where You Work
Part 4: Ten strategies to Survive and Thrive at Your Job
Part 5: Know the Crow Code

Question: What’s your job right now? Do you consider it a good fit? Why or why not?

Gleaning the Gold from Your List of Jobs

SPECIAL SERIES: YOUR BEST JOB NOW, PART 1 OF 5

I’ll be blogging every day this week in a special 5-part series titled “Your Best Job Now.” The idea is for us as leaders to examine our jobs, where we’ve been and where we’re heading, so we can survive and thrive in our best occupational callings.

Today’s topic: What you learn from where you’ve been.

There’s gold in them there hills, but if you’re not working at a job you love, it can be difficult to see the bright flecks in the bottom of your pan.

You might be elbow deep in soap suds while washing dishes, or making tiny check marks in a room full of cubicles.

Whatever your position of employment, if what you’re doing is not your dream job, then you’ll be wondering if better times are ahead.

Here’s one action step that can provide perspective and direction.

Find someone you know who’s working in a job he enjoys. Invite him out to coffee. Get him to list all the jobs he’s ever had. Then ask him how his previous jobs prepared him for the position he’s in today.

You’re bound to hear some great stories and receive some great encouragement.

For instance, here’s a quick look at my job history:

·         As a kid I mowed lawns.

·         Throughout high school I had a paper route.

·         In college I worked construction and was a janitor.

·         Several summers I worked at camp.

·         I did two internships after college.

·         Throughout grad school I waited tables.

·         My first career job was youth director at a church.

·         I switched careers and became a newspaper reporter. To help make ends meet, I freelanced as a book editor. Book work gradually encompassed my newspaper job.

·         In 2005 I made the jump to full-time book writer and started my own editorial company. My occupation today is author-editor, and I love it.

No matter who you ask about his job history, here are 3 patterns you’re bound to see:

1.      THE PROCESS IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE DESTINATION

By the time you finally do what you want to do, you’ve done a lot of other things along the way. Relax, work hard, learn all you can, and be patient. Being a waiter was never my dream job, but I learned tons there about working with people. I’m a more effective writer today because I once worked in restaurants.

2.      THE LONG LINE IS INEVITABLE

Dues need to be paid. On the road to your dream job, there’s a long line of getting your education or training, figuring things out, doing stuff that’s less than you hoped, getting paid less than what you think you deserve, making contacts, and learning and re-learning your industry’s ropes—all the stuff that goes into creating a career.

3.      THERE ARE BRIGHT SPOTS ALONG THE WAY

No matter what your job is, even if you hate it, chances are good that you’ll get to do a few cool things there, things you might not been able to dream up had you not had the position. As a reporter, I met all kinds of colorful people. When I was a youth director, I lived a high-octane life full of skiing, laser tag, rock climbing, and international service trips. When I was a waiter, I once toured the inner workings of a funeral home, (a long, zany story I’ll tell you about some other time).

No matter what your prior jobs are, they have helped you become who you are today. What’s on your list? When you look over all the jobs you’ve done, you’re bound to find gold.  

The question to ask is what can you learn from where you’ve been, and how will this affect where you head next?

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Read the rest of this series:

Part 2: Five Ways to Tell if Your Job is a Good Fit

Part 3: Three Surprising Realities of Where You Work

Part 4: Ten strategies to Survive and Thrive at Your Job

Part 5: Know the Crow Code

 

Question: What’s one job you had in your past, and how did it help you become who you are today?