Tag: Priorities

Background Processes:  How much emotional capacity are they consuming?

Have you ever looked at all the processes running in the background on your computer?  You can see them in Task Manager. 

Some of them are recognizable and necessary.  But there are probably a bunch that don’t need to be there.  Some may have been put there by advertising platforms, some may be remnants of old programs you used years ago.

Each one consumes your computer’s finite CPU and memory capacity.  Each one is jockeying for position in the hierarchy of tasks.

If you’re able to take the time to identify and eliminate the unnecessary background tasks, your computer’s performance improves.  Software runs faster.  You can open and work on bigger files without waiting forever (measured in seconds nowadays) for them to load. 

How many meaningless or unnecessary background processes do you have running in your life? 

How many of these processes consume valuable emotional capacity in your head? 

How many are sapping your energy, your creativity, your productivity, or your ability to think deeply about a subject?

Our minds are amazingly powerful.  They can provide incredible clarity and understanding.  They can energize and motivate us to push into new frontiers, explore our limits, and hone our craft beyond all outside expectations. 

But if we allow our mind to be clouded, to waste its valuable processing power on dumb things, unnecessary background processes, or dramas that have nothing to do with us, all that amazing power is wasted. 

Our understanding and motivation about what we’re doing, both now and in the future, will become cloudy and fragmented.  It’s easy to see how this can lead to a sense of hopelessness…a sense that there’s nothing for us in the future except for more cloudiness and confusion.

Consider all the distractions we allow to get in the way of our clear thinking. 

How many can we eliminate?  How many can we channel in a productive direction, or remove entirely from our lives?

It’s worth our finite time to do a “background process audit” in our life.  See just how much of our emotional capacity is being wasted without adding any real value to our lives. 

It won’t be easy.  These meaningless background processes are desperate to continue living in our head. This audit will require self-awareness, introspection, and sometimes difficult decisions about what to eliminate. 

The payoff for all this effort? 

Mental clarity for the things that truly matter, increased productivity, and a more hopeful view of our future.

p/c – Justin Tietsworth – Unsplash

The Power of Multiplying Yourself: Why Training and Supporting Your Team Leads to Success

The belief that doing everything yourself is faster can limit growth. Training and empowering your team leads to expanded capabilities, time for strategic initiatives, and a strong organizational culture.

p/c: Andrea Gian – Unsplash

“It’ll be faster for me to just handle this task now and get it done.”

“It’ll take me more time to train someone how to do this than it will take me to do it myself.”

“I’ll just take care of this task myself and get it out of the way.”

Sound familiar? 

It’s easy to fall into this trap of thinking that doing everything yourself is the most efficient way to get things done. This mindset not only limits your own growth and potential but also minimizes your team’s and your organization’s potential.

Investing your time in training and supporting your direct reports is not just beneficial—it’s essential for long-term success.

Here’s why:

  • Trust and Empowerment: When you take the time to train your team members, you show them that you trust their abilities. This trust fosters a sense of empowerment, motivating them to take on new challenges and responsibilities with confidence.
  • Expanded Capabilities: By preparing your team for their next levels of challenge, you expand their capabilities and push their limits outward. Consider this: Instead of just solving today’s problems, imagine if your team could handle tomorrow’s challenges without you needing to intervene. As they tackle new tasks and acquire new skills, they become stronger and more versatile contributors to the organization.
  • Time Management: While it may seem faster to handle tasks yourself in the short term, investing in training your team ultimately frees up your time for higher-level responsibilities. Imagine if you could focus on strategic initiatives, process improvement, and growth opportunities for the organization, rather than being bogged down in day-to-day tasks.
  • Cultural Impact: Creating a culture of learning and growth within your team not only boosts morale but also strengthens the entire organization. When your team members feel challenged and supported in their professional development, they’re more engaged and motivated to contribute their best work.
  • Preparation for Growth: By nurturing the skills and talents of your team members, you’re preparing the organization to adapt and grow. A team that is continuously learning and evolving is better equipped to handle the new challenges that are just around the corner (whether you see them coming, or not).

Neglecting your team’s development can have serious consequences. Employees who feel stagnant and unchallenged are more likely to become disengaged. Disengaged employees will leave, or worse, they’ll choose to stay and become seat warmers—adding nothing valuable to the organization.

People want to learn. They want to be challenged. They are most engaged when they’re pushing the boundaries of their capability, taking on new skills, and becoming more valuable to their organization.

The adage of “it’s faster to do it myself” is short-sighted and will limit your career growth.

Take the time to train and support your team. You will multiply your effectiveness and create a powerful culture of empowerment and continuous improvement within your organization.

The Delicate Balance of Telling and Teaching

Your role as the teacher and mentor is to prepare your mentee to work independently and effectively…

“I can’t believe she can’t tie her own shoes.  She’s old enough to know by now.”

My friend was talking about his 5-year-old daughter at the time. 

I asked if he’d ever taken the time to teach her how to tie her shoes.  He stared at me and said that wasn’t his job and that she should have figured it out by now. 

Why tell this story (which really happened!)? 

To illustrate how important it is to teach and mentor others…whether they’re our kids, grandkids, employees, family, or friends. 

It should be obvious that if you don’t teach, your student misses out on the chance to truly learn and grow.  By choosing not to teach, you’re short-changing your mentee of the lessons you’ve learned through hard-earned experience.

In moments of urgency or simplicity, direct instructions are most appropriate, providing a clear roadmap for immediate action (telling).

But true teaching is the art of imparting understanding – the “why” behind actions. It requires a commitment of time and energy, and showcases the significance of tasks, the interconnections between steps, and the importance of specific approaches…usually through storytelling.  

What kinds of stories?  Stories that provide a personal connection, illustrate key points, and allow your learners to connect emotionally to what you’re teaching.  Stories also help students drop their defensiveness toward receiving new information.

Another great teaching method is to ask questions. Questions encourage critical thinking.  Ask the student why they think something is important, or how they view a situation.  What would they do in the situation?  What’s happening that may not be obvious? If their answers are incomplete or miss the nuances of a situation, you can provide additional perspectives and help them understand what to look for.

How can we tell stories and ask questions about something when it’s urgent?  We already learned that in urgent situations, telling is often the most appropriate way of getting the right action quickly.  To create truly teachable moments resulting from an urgent event, it’s critical that you take the time after the urgency has passed to discuss lessons learned, and maybe even how to avoid the urgency next time.  

Your role as the teacher and mentor is to prepare your mentee to work independently and effectively.  Not only how to tie their shoes, but why it’s important to tie them in the first place. 

I have one favor to ask:  If you find this information useful, please forward and recommend it to someone else.  Thanks! 

A Season for Renewal

True renewal is a deliberate act of self-reclamation…

p/c: a recent sunset at our little homestead

Prayer to Saint Joseph the Worker

O Glorious Saint Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor,

obtain for me the grace to work in a spirit of penance for the expiation of my many sins;

to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my natural inclinations;

to work with thankfulness and joy, considering it an honor to employ and develop by means of labor the gifts received from God;

to work with order, peace, moderation, and patience, never shrinking from weariness and trials;

to work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self, keeping unceasingly before my eyes death and the account that I must give of time lost, talents unused, good omitted, and vain complacency in success, so fatal to the work of God.

All for Jesus, all through Mary, all after thy example, O Patriarch, Saint Joseph. Such shall be my watch-word in life and in death. Amen.  – Pope St. Pius X

In life’s journey, we may find ourselves off course or losing track of our original path. We may even fail ourselves or those we love. It is in these moments that we are being called to profound self-discovery and renewal. 

Renewal is not a passive occurrence.  As the prayer to Saint Joseph states, it requires us “to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above [our] natural inclinations.”  True renewal is a deliberate act of self-reclamation.  We have a duty to ourselves and those we love to put in the work that leads to our self-transformation. 

It isn’t easy (nothing worthwhile ever is).  It involves adapting, finding new ways, and being intentional about embracing change. 

When we realize that ours is always a season of renewal, that we can “work in a spirit of penance for the expiation of [our] many sins,” then we will be able “to work with order, peace, moderation, and patience, never shrinking from [the] weariness and trials” of our self-improvement. 

May the spirit of renewal be our guide, not diverting us from our journey but enhancing it.  May we find the resilience within us to adapt, renew, and move forward with a fresh sense of purpose and determination.

Term Papers and Preventable Urgencies

Procrastination initiates a cascade of preventable urgencies, turning manageable tasks into overwhelming burdens and sowing seeds of chaos in our future.

Few things strike fear into the hearts of students quite like the term paper.

The teacher lays out the assignment – a substantial research paper requiring thorough analysis and a minimum of 5000 words.  Oh yeah…and half of your grade in the class will be based on how well you do on the term paper.  You have until the last week of the semester to get it done. 

You think about the topic.  You might even jot down some notes on your phone about how you’ll approach it.  But there’s no need to rush on this assignment.  You have plenty of time.  Besides, your friends are heading out to get some tacos and margaritas at your favorite Mexican restaurant.  This term paper can wait another day.    

As the weeks go by, a creeping feeling of impending doom grips your subconscious. You haven’t started work on that term paper.  Growing anxiety and stress become unwelcome companions as the deadline looms closer, and you realize the gravity of the task at hand. 

Unfortunately, you have other things on your plate that need more attention.  Ironically, many of these more-urgent items are other long-term projects that you had chosen to delay…until now. 

The urgency of the term paper magnifies as the deadline inches closer.  The once-manageable project becomes an overwhelming burden. 

You start to question the fairness of the assignment.  How can this teacher expect me to write 5000 words on this topic when I have all these other classes to manage and so little time to get it done?

A cascade of preventable urgencies engulfs your life, leaving you in a world of self-inflicted chaos.

Sound familiar? 

The term paper saga is a small-scale reflection of the self-inflicted busyness and chaos in our lives.    

Only a disciplined and methodical approach to our tasks can break the grip of procrastination.  Our bias must be toward thoughtful and immediate action, not mindless delays to another day. 

The time to start work on that long-term project is now, not tomorrow.  The time to continue work on that long-term project is tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day after that.      

Procrastination is a choice.  Each delay we accept sows seeds of chaos in our future. Every task we postpone adds to the burden our future selves must bear.

Are You a Time Billionaire?

If you live to the end of your 90th year, you will have lived 2,838,240,000 seconds…

I heard the term, Time Billionaire, a few weeks ago on the Tim Ferris Podcast (which I highly recommend, by the way).

There are 31,500,000 seconds in a year.

If you live to the end of your 90th year, you will have lived 2,838,240,000 seconds.

Each of us is a time billionaire.  We have billions of seconds at our disposal.

To date, I’ve used about 1.67 billion of my seconds.  If I’ve slept for a third of my life (wouldn’t 8 hours per night be nice?), I’ve been awake and actively (?) living for 1.1 billion seconds.  I have roughly 770 million more active seconds remaining (if I live to be 90).

How many billions of seconds have you used?  How many do you have left?

It’s easy to answer the first question, impossible to answer the second one.

One thing is certain.  If you’re reading this post, you’ve already used billions of your seconds, and you probably have millions more.

The most important question is:  What do you want to do with your remaining seconds?

Love.  Work.  Play.  Explore.  Rest.  Watch.  Avoid.  Climb.  Run.  Accumulate.  Distract.  Hate.  Support.  Waste.  Invest.  Achieve.  Overcome.  Reach.  Reduce.  Enhance.  Ignore.  Engage.  Imagine.  Share.  Write.  Read.  Produce.  Consume.  Hide.  Encourage.  Recover.  Experiment.  Challenge.  Destroy.  Create.  Build.  Live!

We decide how we use our seconds (even when we choose not to decide, or let someone else decide for us).

None of us gets a second helping of seconds.  It’s worth investing some valuable seconds to consider what to do with the rest of our seconds before they’re gone.

 

Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash

The Important Thing about Things

A short thought exercise about things:

  • Write down the 10 most important things in your life.
  • How many of them are actually “things?”
  • How many of the things on your list are only important because they help you achieve or experience the other things on your list?
  • Now, eliminate five things from your list.
  • Feel free to re-word the remaining five items on your list.
  • If you haven’t already done so, sort the remaining five things in descending order of importance.
  • How much time and energy do you devote to the most important things on your short list?
  • How many of the remaining items on your list are actually “things?”

The important thing about things is that the ones that matter most aren’t even “things” at all.

Just Another PICNIC

I learned a new acronym recently: PICNIC

I learned a new acronym recently:

                PICNIC–Problem in chair, not in computer.

“Way” back in the early 90’s when one of my jobs was desktop support, I referred to the same phenomena as a “nut on the keyboard” problem.  At least 80% of the “computer problems” were actually human problems.

It’s the same thing with Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer.  Most “dog” problems are human problems waiting to be solved.  Cesar spends most of his time “whispering” to dog owners.  Cesar can’t call his show The Human Whisperer, even if that’s an accurate description of the service he provides.  To do so would alienate the audience that he’s trying to help.

The challenge with humans is that most of us would rather not admit that we are the problem.  It’s so much easier to blame the computer, the dog, the airline, the car, traffic, evil Republicans, evil Democrats, government, the economy, our manager, our parents, our kids, society, the system.  The list of excuses is infinite.

The good news is that the solution to most of these “problems” is in the chair.

We Are All Mountain Climbers

Until you face a climb yourself, you can never fully understand what it takes.

AlanAroras--Mt Everest 2013

There it is…Mount Everest from the air.  Each year, about 150-200  climbers attempt to reach its summit, 29,029 feet above sea level.  There are thousands of other mountain peaks in the world, but Everest is the highest, and most challenging.  Of course, from this angle it looks pretty tame.

That’s the thing about mountains.  Perspective is everything.  Until you face a climb yourself, you can never fully understand what it takes.  Watching others make the climb, or hearing their stories about what it was like, are no substitute for taking on the climb for yourself.

Look around you.  If you look closely, you’ll see that each of us are climbing a mountain.  Some mountains are short and easy, while others are as high or higher than our friend, Mr. Everest.

This is the point where I could wax on poetically about striving for the highest peaks in life, chasing ever higher summits, new vistas, and new challenges.  Yes, do all of that.  Don’t let anyone stop you…especially yourself.

No, I’m not going to talk about the standard, inspirational mountain stuff.  Instead, I’m going to talk about weight.

When embarking on a climb, is it better to carry twenty pounds, fifty pounds, or one-hundred pounds of gear on your back?  Obviously, all things being equal, less weight is better.  Gravity is not your friend.

How much weight are you carrying on your climb?  Only the essentials?  Anything extra?  Are you carrying baggage that won’t be used?  Why?  Carrying all that extra baggage isn’t helping you reach your summit.

What about your fellow climbers, especially those closest to you?  How much extra baggage are they carrying?  How much of it is yours?

The best strategy for extra baggage (and its unnecessary weight) is to avoid packing it in the first place.

 

 

Photo Credit:  Alan Arora, who owes me some details on how he was able to be in the cockpit jump seat of an Airbus A319 at the perfect time to capture such a beautiful shot of Mount Everest.

The Last Mile

The telecommunication provider has a tremendous amount of control over everything in their network…except the last mile, where the end customer is.

The last mile describes the final leg of a telecommunications network.  It’s the part that actually reaches the end customer.  It’s often the most difficult and uncontrollable link in the network.  This is where most of the bottlenecks occur.  The simplest of networking processes can be complicated by the wiring and equipment in the customer’s home.

Telecommunication networks exist to serve end customers.  Without the end customer, there’d be no one to pay the bill, or finance the network’s creation and maintenance.  The telecommunication provider has a tremendous amount of control over everything in their network…except the last mile, where the end customer is.

The customer’s experience comes from the last mile.  They don’t need to know or understand the engineering and infrastructure that goes into operating the massive network.  They don’t care about the traditions and history of the telecommunications provider.  They only care about the cost, speed, and ease of use they experience in their home.

The same is true for nearly any business.  The last mile drives the story your customers will tell.  How much attention are you paying to the last mile?