The QLog

What Are You Learning in 2008?

What one subject do you want to learn in 2008? An additional skill? A second language? A new hobby? Or do you want to become a subject matter expert in specific field or niche?

Both formal and personal studies are important for self-growth. Successful output is linked to wise mental inputs. Make sure that you have decided to learn something novel and worthwhile this year.

Intensity With Direction

A layman's definition for the term velocity might be "speed with direction." What is the velocity of your life? Which way are you going and how fast?

Consider a car. If it is going in the right direction, but only traveling at 1 mile an hour, it has a low velocity. If the same auto has a high speed, like 75 miles per hour, but going in the wrong direction, it will never reach the correct destination. Both factors are important.

For human goals, the velocity of success is probably better defined as "intensity with direction" as projects require many types of effort which may or may not be 'fast'. Goals require work. This is the Law of Action.

Have you determined your direction?
Have you maximized your intensity?

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?

Two Extremes and the Mean

When considering any major problem, it is useful to consider these three potential end-games.

1) What is the worst possible thing that could happen? Consider the bleakest consequence. What steps can be taken to decrease the possibility of this occurring?

2) What is the best case scenario? Stay objective when answering this; however, consider the optimum solution and the methods that would produce this successful result.

3) What is the most likely outcome? Why do you think this is the case? Analyze your assumptions.

THE Answer or Answers?

As we grow up, schools often instill the idea that problems have a single answer. Exams and questions are often worded to provide the 'correct' solution.

Few problems are this black and white. To become a successful problem solver, it is vital you break away from this sociological conditioning. Instead of seeking THE answer, seek a minimum of three potential solutions. Then evaluate the costs and benefits of each possibility and select the best choice. 

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.

Three Magic Words are...

...Write It Down!

1) Do you want increase your productivity? Write It Down. Think on paper and consider your top concerns, assumptions, questions, goals, projects, and tasks.

2) Do you want to increase your creativity? Write It Down. Record your observations, conversations, ideas, insights, answers, solutions, crazy thoughts, and wild memes.

Simple advise? Yes. Easy? No! Think of all the times you had a million dollar idea for a great book, movie, business, or project but could not recall the details later.

I do suggest keeping a daily journal as a life enhancing habit. Why? It is an excellent way to insure that you capture your thoughts on a regular and semi-systematic basis.

Stop List for 2008

Take a moment to think about habits, activities, and past times that are extremely low value. Are you watching too much TV? Would you like to stop eating fast food? Perhaps you take coffee breaks at work that are longer and more frequent than they should be, and thereby impacting your overall productivity?

I suggest you set aside 30 minutes tomorrow to consider all of the bad behaviors that waste your time or which are undesirable. Write them down and then create a Stop List. This is a 'NOT to do' list. Review the list and rank each item (no ties). Then pick the top three entries as these are the most pressing time waster which you would like to eliminate from your life.

For the next 28 days, focus on removing the first item on your list and ONLY the first item on your list. If you relapse into the activity, start over. Experts agree that the learning process to remove a habit takes at minimum 21 days. I suggest a full four weeks as that will insure you are ready.

Once you have eliminated the first item from your life, it is time to move to the second item on the list. After a full 28 days of successfully removing that second habit, you can move on the third item on the list.

After all three have been vanquished, you may begin at step one to re-create a new Stop List.

Cultivate Your Minutes

Time, like water, can pass one by, drip by drip...one minute, five minutes, thirty minutes...gone forever. I think Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best "Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life."

Fear vs. F.E.A.R.

Fear is a legitimate emotion and it seems to be part of the human condition as a survival mechanism. Most importantly, it help protect children as it constrains many behaviors that could prove hazardous or fatal at a young age.

Nevertheless, many fears are really F.E.A.R or False Evidence Appearing Real. F.E.A.R holds people from achieving their absolute best. Often, it helps maintain 'the good' instead of promoting 'the great'. F.E.A.R. keeps many people doing average things in a mediocre way for years without growing beyond their status quo.

Five common examples are:

• Fear of failing
• Fear of looking foolish
• Fear of rejection
• Fear of success
• Fear of loss

Instead, embrace the mantra of the late productivity expert Dr. W. Edwards Deming: Drive Out Fear!

How? Below is a simple 7-step techniques to focus on the real problem and determine the best next action instead of being controlled by fear.

1. State the problem, situation, or opportunity as clearly as possible. Clarity is key. Write it down and include who, where, when, why, what, and how.

2. Review the data as you presented them for possible biases. Be as objective as possible. Determine which facts are really assumptions and personal interruptions.

3. Play Devil's Advocate. Is everyone in agreement on the above facts? What would an opponent claim? What is the opposite hypothesis and how might this point of view be correct? Be honest with this exercise.

4. Restate the REAL problem, situation, or opportunity as a question.

5. Create a list of potential solutions with a mindstorm, including both outrageous answers and conventional methods. Be creative and open to new ideas. Do not stop until you have at least 20 items on your list.

6. Review the list critically, considering variables such as cost, time, effort, and complexity. Pick the best two option on the list. One will be your primary course of action. The other will be your plan B.

7. Act today. Begin working on the solution to your fear now.