All tagged Focus on the journey
When we lose an opportunity (a sale, a promotion, a job offer, etc.), it’s normal - and OK - to feel down, especially if it was something we really wanted. After all, if we’ve really given it everything we had, we’ve made a commitment (emotional and otherwise) which, ultimately, has not been rewarded.
So, we take the lumps.
Taking on challenges can be daunting. We worry about the commitment and we worry about all of the potential outcomes. In doing so, we can be tepid in our approach.
But, as I discuss in today's episode, the only way forward is as simple as it can be challenging to execute: we need to forget to be afraid.
We tend to think of competitions as absolutes, that there are always clear winner and losers.
But other than in sports, that’s just not the case. (And even in sports, depending on your timelines, it’s absolutely the case.)
In his first letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, wrote:
“In every business we pursue, we’re constantly experimenting and inventing. We’re divinely discontented with customer experiences, whether they’re our own or not. We believe these customer experiences can always be better, and we strive to make customers’ lives better and easier every day.
There’s something to be said for persistence as being the single, overriding factor that leads to success.
That sounds like the right thing to say but that’s not always how we talk in practice.
We tend to think about the brilliant idea as being the most important thing, or perhaps the creation of a detailed plan of action, or (as is more usually mentioned) copious amounts of money (aka funding).
The fact of the matter is that my most productive periods have come when I’ve been immersed in my work and not the idea of it.
What does that mean?
Attaining leadership - in a business, in an organization, in any sphere of life - is a difficult task. It demands a lot of us and absorbs us as we pursue the path. At times, the task feels beyond us, and yet we persevere and work towards our ambitions. So when we get there, it feels like an achievement. Because, of course, it is.
The thing we forget, though, is that we haven’t actually reached the end of the path.
This month's podcasts focuses on the mental aspect of how we work - on the why we get started, how we get caught in ourselves and the mental mindset needed to succeed.
In this episode, I wrap up this month’s theme on the mental mindsets we need to be successful, specifically sharing two ideas. The first is about how we should trust ourselves as we decide what we’re doing, when we’re on “the path”. The second is how we should focus on the process, not just the finish line.
Epictetus’ words are easy to understand, but difficult to practice. Not surprising, given that it’s in our nature to be liked, to gain approval, to be considered valuable.
The problem is that when we accept these opinions, when we consider ourselves to be “important”, we think we’ve “arrived” and achieved some special end-state or level of wisdom.
You’ve probably seen some version of the cartoon.
Two characters in front of a complex flowchart or process map drawn on a whiteboard. The steps on the chart are numerous, many run in parallel, all interlinked and codependent in some way. There’s no clear path to the end until, a single process step with the miracle action we’ve been waiting for:
Sometimes, the goals we set for ourselves are overwhelming. The bigger the goal or the more challenging the objective, the harder it can be to fathom how we will get there.
We get caught up in the sheer scale of our idea, or we start setting all sorts of impossible timelines and expectations that we think we need to achieve on our path there.
