This is good rule I use to form any new habit.
I have no science to back this up but one hour a day for four months has been sufficient to change most behaviors.
If you want to go faster, work two hours a day for two month.
Standing up when you’re afraid.
Speaking up for the voiceless.
Standing out of a crowd.
Shipping your best work, even when you are not ready.
Laboring when no one is watching.
A posture: People like us do stuff like this.
Believing in a vision, a dream or movement.
Shunning non-believers.
Pushing through the dip.
Finding a place to put the tired.
Facing Resistance.
Leaning in.
Responding to stress.
Making change happen.
Igniting.
Listening, really listening.
Making things better for someone (not everyone).
Being vulnerable.
Exploring edges, going somewhere you have never gone before.
Guts.
Grit.
And most of all…
Showing up, every day.
Snap judgments can be a useful tool in saving time. The problem is they are based on irrational behavior and biases to protect our world view.
If you are going to insist someone is wrong, eventually, you have to do the reading.
Audiobooks, YouTube videos are fine. But reading, the physical act of picking up a book, marking pages, writing notes, folding corners, totally engaging yourself in the material, working through problems to reach a better understanding is what is needed to make our gut decisions better.
Judging books by their cover is simply not enough in this golden era of access to information.
It is unlikely to change someone’s mind by dividing lines, focusing on our differences and pointing out why someone is wrong.
However, closing the gap, identifying what common threads we share, making the leap attainable will help enroll others to join your movement.
Patricia Ryan Madson has an exercise that can be useful for anyone working on any creative endeavours:
Imagine a box with a lid on it. Put this box in your hand. Now open it.
What do you see?
There is always something to find in the box.
The best tool for anyone creating art is the belief in things we can’t see.
Once you see that it is fake, everything about pro wrestling looks different. You see the pulled punches, the spatter blood packs, manipulated props, smoke and fire…
It’s all for our entertainment.
There are lots of things in our world that are fake. They distract us from seeing the world as it really is.
Once you see these truths, you can’t unsee it.
The cook carefully reads the step by step set of instructions and follows the recipe. He does what he is told to do.
The chef, on the other hand, decides what goes on the menu. She creates things that might not work. She throws the ball in the air to see what will happen.
The first mixer had cooks worried that their job was eventually going to be replaced.
As we have seen in history, technology has been replacing manual labor. Competence is becoming less and less valuable.
We need more dreamers, someone who can think, take risks and delight the people we serve.
It’s no surprise, that Chefs are on the rise. Cooks, on the other hand, not so much. Because anyone can follow a set of instructions. The real value is the one who can create.
(It’s easy to find a good cook, difficult to find a really good chef.)
The other day, I pulled up to a local retailer to pick up some merchandise that I had ordered online. The sign said open but the door was locked. On the window was a note:
“Dear valued customer, we are on a short break. If you need immediate assistance, please walk around the corner to the main office. Our front desk person will be able to assist you. Thank you.”
I walked around and the front desk person was unable to help me, citing that she had to stay at the front desk to watch the phones and that the rest of the staff was having their Christmas party.
No problem, I will come back another time.
It did get me thinking, why not say that the company is having a Christmas party? Why call someone a valued customer when they are more worried about who might call? Why say someone can assist you when no one actually could? What is there to hide? I think they would have been better off writing:
“Hello, thank you for stopping by. We are currently having our annual Christmas party. In order for everyone on our team to participate we had to close the shop for two hours and will return at 1:00 pm. If you were hoping to pick up a shipment, we are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. We know your time is valuable so as a token of goodwill, attached is a coupon code for 15% off your next order. If you can’t come back at a later time, walk around the back through the side door. We have hors d’oeuvres and drinks for you while we finish up. Thank you again for supporting us throughout the year.”
The lesson: The person who is standing at the door is more important than the person who might call. Take the time to write a better story. Getting people to buy in, to enroll, is not easy but worth it.
AI, drones, virtual reality, augmented reality, self driving vehicles, cryptocurrency, smart ____________ (insert any household item) are on the horizon.
In order to tip the scales for the masses to embrace these technologies, entrepreneurs, marketers will need to understand the pain points of their customers.
What problem does this solve?
Why should I care?
What about my privacy?
How much is this going to cost me?
What does this product say about the type of person I am?
What will my friends think?
Does this resonate with my worldview?
The product may be perfect–state of the art, ahead of its time, inexpensive and solve real problems–but tech is not enough. The story, the narrative that the consumer is buying is much more valuable.
The only thing more difficult than developing a perfect product is reversing a narrative.
What could you do with all that time?
