Being Smarter

Newton’s 3rd law

OK, I admit it, I’m obsessed with ‘taking action’… I’m not great at prevaricating… I perhaps don’t spend enough time thinking. However – it’s the best way to be.

Having worked in and with the corporate world for many years – it’s clear to see paralysis by lack of action is rife and it’s slowly killing these organisations.

A few years ago a good friend and colleague reminded me of Newton’s 3rd Law.

For every action, there’s an equal an opposite reaction.

Now, if you subscribe to this school of thought, you probably won’t get the reaction you were expecting, however you will get a reaction… maybe even not straight away, but you will.

I’m currently sitting in an appartment in Melbourne, working with a great bunch of folks for a few days and the reason I’m here is that I sent an email about 3 months ago. I didn’t think it would get answered, but I sent it anyway. I’ve sent plenty more that haven’t been answered, but this one did.

I’m about to be part of a three day conference in which 100+ people will gather for three days, watch (I know) some fabulous speakers and be given a ton of practical advice. How many of you/them will take action as a result of attending? And by that, I mean pick just 5% of the most relevant things you were taught and implement them the following week? I’m not sure? Some will, some won’t. Some actions maybe fruitful, some maybe not – but if you’re taking action, and gaining momentum, things WILL happen. Eventually.

So there we are then. What are you not going to put off today?

If at first you don’t succeed

Monday mornings are always good for a pep talk. I’ve been talking to a few people about the concept of not giving up over the last few weeks and wanted to share a few thoughts, being someone who’s tried hard to persevere in a big way over the last couple of years.

I had to have a few words with my 6 year old son the other day about not giving up… teaching him to ride a bike has been quite an achievement for me – trying a few different tacks to keep his morale high, but judging when it was OK to let him fall off safely. My wife suggested I shouldn’t have let him fall off, however in my opinion, it was a great way to teach him the skill of perseverance.

There’s five tips I’d offer below to help with your perseverance efforts:

1. If you listen to everyone who offers you advice, the chances are you’d be paraylsed by non-action. Take advice, sure, but also have some belief in what it is you are trying to do. This will help you to get through difficult days.
2. Accept that some days aren’t going to go your way, dust yourself off, find that belief once again and remember that tomorrow is another day. If a trend of bad days starts to kick in – then it’s time to revist where you are heading.
3. Think outside the box. Always. There’s always a different way to tackle a problem you may be having. Don’t limit yourself to ‘going what you know’. It’s hard to persevere when you don’t do things differently, as you will always get the same result.
4. Ignore your gut feelings at your peril. Listen to your heart – it will really help you make decisions and decide if something is fundamentally wrong, or you just need to try a different approach.
5. The most brilliant people have got to where they are today with a good splash of perseverance. You may be shocked at how some of them started out. Watch the video below for inspiration if you need a bit of a lift….