Consider our habits when we play board games. We roll the dice, and let’s say we get a “9.” We then tend to consider our options, try to think through a few rounds ahead, before we take our nine paces. All in the effort to win a fictitious reward. How much more should we do so in the activities of our careers and life?
Begin this week by carefully considering your options and choosing actions that will garner progress.
Roles and positions with granted authority are needed and have utility, but the allure can be misleading. Even authority granted, must be leveled up to earned respect. Further, to truly make an enduring impact, one must shift focus to serving and influencing leaders, creating bonds that live beyond the season of that role.
Daily, we make decisions that run the gamut from the seemingly unimportant to the life-altering. In reality, each time we make a choice, we add an element to our life’s tapestry. Visualize the reflecting principles you want to see in that beautiful fabric and let those guide you.
The focused pursuit of a goal is a good thing. However, zooming out periodically allows you to check progress, assess new information, survey the evolving landscape, and assimilate. With that, you can determine what, if anything, you need to do differently as you re-engage in the pursuit.
Purpose, goals, and even clear priorities alone won’t move the mountains in front of you. Those are the aiming mechanisms. The action that follows creates progress.
Build quality relationships with people whom you have something in common. “Something in common” doesn’t mean you will agree on everything, nor should you. It is the exchange of ideas and the element of “iron sharpens iron” that proves out the quality of the relationship. [Read more…]