The QLog

What's Your Excuse?

As a manager and coach, I've heard a lot of excuses of why people couldn't, shouldn't, or wouldn't do something important for their company, family, or self. Most of them are untrue when examined objectively.

What is your excuse? Too old? Too young? Not enough money? Not attractive enough?

It is time to leave excuses behind. 

Next time you generate some excuses, I challenge you to consider Joseph Merrick or James O'Neal. They probably could have fell back on excuses, but they both chose to strive forward. Life is not always easy and these men each struggled with physical, emotional, psychological, and sociological difficulties that few can imagine.

Who are they? You might know Mr. Merrick as 'The Elephant Man' and perhaps you have seen the 1980 biopic loosely based on his life experience. James O'Neal has a very similar genetic disease: neurofibromatosis. Although he is deformed, he has decided to go beyond excuses and work extremely hard in a very public job for the past seven years. I think his persistence at being an excellent human being is paying dividends finally.

His customers say that he is amazing and I agree. Watch the full story here: http://www.komonews.com/news/19339104.html?video=pop&t=a

As of 2008, James O'Neal lives near Redmond, WA and his efforts at being a constructive member of society even with his deformity has resulted in an effort by others to change his life. I would like to give Safeway a big kudos for pledging the first $10,000 for his reconstructive surgery project (perhaps someone should call Microsoft as I'm sure many of their local employees have met James).

Also, I'd like to recognize Katie Knopf who setup the initial website for the cause in March. I also understand that an updated site with donation information will be up very shortly, if not already.

My last question is this: what's your excuse to not donate and help James O'Neal?

The Last Lecture

"We can not change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." - Randy Pausch

Former Disney Imagineer and Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch is an inspiring man at age 47. He is also dying from pancreatic cancer but you would not know from his enthusiasm for life. On September 18, 2007 he gave his 'last lecture' to a packed audience at McConomy Auditorium. Also, more recently, his new book The Last Lecture, was published and I do recommend it. However, I suggest that watching the original lecture should be mandetory for just about every adult at any age!

As someone who strives to enable the goals of others, I promise that if you choose to spend the full 76 minutes viewing this very enjoyable lecture, you will be well rewarded. It will help focus your thinking on what should be most important for your life: striving to acheive your dreams!

50/5 Challenge

I have encouraged friends, family, and clients (and some strangers) to consider crafting the following:

A. A Life List of 101 Goals that includes goals for 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, (and maybe 50) year time horizons.

B. A Purpose Statement to explain the reason one has for waking up everyday (a good starting point is to consider what you would like people to say about you...both now and 100 years after you have died).

However, a few people have told me that they have have a hard time with both of these activities. Here is an exercise that can help.

Today, you are given both "the good news" and "the bad news".

1. While having breakfast with your accountant, you discover that your net worth has suddenly increased, due to all your efforts, to $50 million dollars!

2. However, after lunch, during a routine doctor visit, you discover that you only have 5 years to live. These will be healthy years until the very last day; however, there is no cure or treatment.

This is the 50/5 Challenge. Map out how you would spend your time for the next five years. Go into detail. Do not just say "travel the world". Where would you go? Why? With who? What would you do there? What else?

If you have a problem with goal setting, this may help you gain some insight into what you really would like to try, see, experience, be, or have before you really do enter into your last five years of your life.   

Five Year Plan

"We greatly overestimate what we can accomplish in one year.  But we greatly underestimate what we can accomplish in five years.”  - Peter Drucker

Successful people usually have a time horizon that spans several years. So, if you do not have a 5-year plan, I highly suggest you take an evening an map out the next few years, consider everything you would like to do, have, be, and experience. Some things are just not possible to complete within 365 days. Increase your goals list to span long-term targets that may take a few winters to accomplish.

Know-What

"There is one quality more important than "know-how" and we cannot accuse the United States of any undue amount of it.  This is "know-what" by which we determine not only how to accomplish our purposes, but what our purposes are to be." - Norbert Wiener (the founder of the interdisciplinary field of Cybernetics), The Human Use of Human Beings, 1954

Thought Question Thursday

Would you rather double your income or triple your happiness?

Of course, these goals are not necessarily mutually exclusive; however, choose the answer that would be more important to you at this point in your life. Then consider the deeper question: why?

Create a Legacy List

This is new exercise I developed for someone who was having a hard time thinking of long term goals. I am releasing it on the Log as a raw exercise as it is has not been field tested; yet, I think it is worthwhile. Take a few minutes and consider these questions:

1) You are 100 years old and on your deathbed. You have lived a full life and are satisfied with your personal and professional accomplishment. What legacy would you be leaving behind to your family, friends, community, and the world on the day you died? Be specific.

2) Now imagine it is 100 years after the day you died. What specific impact would you like to have on the world of your grand children's grandchildren?

Reflect on the Nobel Prize, one of the world's best Legacy project. It was inspired by the erroneous publication of Alfred Nobel's obituary (his brother had died, but French newspaper had the facts mixed-up) and the contents horrified him. Why? It began Le marchand de la mort est mort which means "The Merchant of Death is dead" and then condemned him for becoming a rich man by finding ways to kill more people efficiently than anyone before in history. He did not want the remembered by historians as the "Merchant of Death" so a few years later, he donated the vast majority of his estate when he died to establish the Nobel Prize fund. Today, most remember his name for rewarding the great minds of the world instead of as the inventor of dynamite.

Also, let me know your thoughts on the creation of a legacy list.

Learning Goal

What new skill, activity, hobby, or subject matter do you want to learn about? I suggest pursuing one major learning goal for 2008. Perhaps you would like to delve deep into history and become an American Civil War buff or an expert on the campaigns of Alexander The Great. Maybe you would like to learn how to paint, draw, or sculpt. There are 1000s of possibilities. Some other common examples include:

• To speak a foreign language such as French, Chinese, or Arabic.
• To play a musical instrument such as the guitar, piano, or violin.
• To master a game such as chess, backgammon, or poker.

This year is a great opportunity to learn something new and meaningful. Choose a topic that you would enjoy and then begin tackle the books, the courses, the coaching, the training, or the daily practice that will be necessary.

Health, Wealth, and Stealth Goals

The most common resolutions each year involve health, wealth, and stealth. Resolutions are rarely measurable, time-bound, or planned, so it is no surprise that these rarely succeed. Instead, set some goals within these domains for 2008.

Heath Goals: Weight-loss goals are the most common via more exercise or a specific diet. I do encourage you to optimize your wellness; however, expand your scale and scope and focus on overall fitness. Multiple studies have demonstrated that short-term or temporary diets almost universally fail over time as these behaviors (such as severely reducing calories or only eating a single type of food) are not sustainable over time. Instead, choose new lifestyle habits that can be done for the next 20-years as daily exercise or consuming twice as many fruits and vegetables than you do now. Losing 15 pounds this year can be part of this plan; however, increasing your healthspan and lifespan will have a more significant impact.

Wealth Goals: The majority of these center around reducing debts, earning more money, and finding superior investments. I suggest picking one major wealth goal for the year from starting your own enterprise to getting a promotion. If you really can not think of a single wealth goal, consider becoming a million by December 31, 2013, and create a game plan of how that could be possible.

Stealth Goals: As children, we feel free to share are highest dreams, such as becoming President or flying the Space Shuttle. Stealth goals are often hidden as strangers, friends, and family might not understand the vision and regard it as mere fantasy or delusion as these are often grand and bold ideas that would force the individual to stretch further than they ever had before. If you have a stealth goal, kudos! First, work out a rough plan on how it could be achieved. Second, begin focusing one hour a day every single day.

New Year's Resolutions, Part 2

I advocate Goals, Not Resolutions for the beginning of 2008. However, I do afford exceptions for a few special resolutions.

When a reporter asked Mahatma Gandhi what his message was the world, he simply replied "My life is my message." He also committed himself to the following resolutions:

"I will be truthful.
I will suffer no injustice.
I will be free from fear.
I will not use force.
I will be of good will to all."

These are noble and worthy life principles to re-affirm each new year. I do recommend embracing this set of resolutions.