Month: August 2012

I often talk about building side projects, taking on new initiatives and doing ‘stuff’ in this space. I’ve spoken many a time of the upsides of attempting to build things, to change and today, I thought I’d present another side of the situation – hitting a wall.

I’m sure you have felt the frustration of ‘hitting a wall’. It doesn’t matter what we do, we always hit walls which seem impossible to surmount or break through.

The downside of attempting more than you think you can do is that you also hit walls that stretch your thinking. Sometimes, even the stretch of thinking doesn’t really help because surmounting or breaking through a wall requires that bit of inspiration to give us that energy to take us to the other side. We also don’t hit these walls when we are most awake and energetic.. we typically hit them right at the end of a 100 hour week. That’s just how these things work.

I felt like I hit that sort of wall last night.

It’ wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last but it’s still a feeling that knocks the wind out of your sails. I got thinking about ‘hitting-the-wall’ experience and I realized there are a few things that help me when I hit such walls.

The first thing I do is get sleep. Lots of it.

The next thing I do is take some time off to space out, mentally. This may just be a few hours but just to get my mind off things. watching a movie, playing a sport – these things help. Sometimes, it takes a day and other times, it takes only a few hours. Either way, it matters to give it the ‘space’ it needs.

The thing that generally helps most is to take a step back and put the problem in perspective. The measure of progress is not that we are solving problems but that we are solving different problems from those we solved a year ago. When that is the case, it’s generally a good time.

I also find that it helps to remind myself that the challenges never stop. Life is indeed like an ECG, the ups and downs are part of the game and are generally a sign of normalcy.

Image Source: Rosmarie Voegtli

And finally, I like thinking of quotes that inspire me. Thanks to 3 years of Good Morning Quotes, I’m never short of these. :-) And yesterday’s quote of choice was a famous one by Theodore Roosevelt.

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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

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Life is good.

Persistence and Annoyance

Push and Aggression

Gentleness and Timidity

Courage and Stupidity

Initiative and Naiveté

Patience and Lack of Drive

Ambition and Insecurity

Sensitivity and Softness

Firmness and Insensitivity

All separated by that fine line.

Perhaps learning to walk that fine line holds the key to living the life, and living it well.

I got my new iPad a week ago and while I have some plans for some intensive use coming up, I’ve been fiddling with it over the past few days and discovering uses for it. Aside from the fact that it takes ‘keeping in touch’ to a whole new level (clarity of FaceTime, Skype is incredible), the biggest plus has been something else.

Two nights ago, I was hoping to do ten minutes of reading before going off to sleep. I wanted to read something light but didn’t have any ‘light’ books. So, I clicked on my iPad and searched for the Kindle app. Kindle app unavailable in Singapore. Alright, iBooks then. Within a few seconds, I was looking at the iBooks store and voila! I had access to an incredible number of free books – Classics like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Sherlock Holmes and many more.

A couple of touches later, I was lying down comfortably reading ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’. I’ve been reading the book over the past couple of days and am into my 3rd story. I absolutely love the reading experience on the iPad.

Technology has gotten a lot of flak from the media for apparently destroying the younger generation’s love for books. I find that to be a funny accusation. In the last five years alone, I have read more books thanks to Audible apps on my phones than I’ve probably read in all my previous years put together. And I can only see this increasing thanks to the iPad.

At the end of the day, my guess is that youngsters imitate their elders and role models. If we spend all our time on our gadgets on Facebook and Angry Birds, it’s unfair if we expect them to be any different. And if that’s the case, let’s stop pointing our fingers at technology and look within.

Free books on the iBooks store, for me, was an invitation to read. Maybe I’m being naive here but I don’t know of many other generations that had such frictionless access to great stuff for free. The question, as always, is whether we put it to good use because technology, like all other things, is what we make of it..

It is a wonderful time to be alive.

Following last week’s post with a few ideas on structuring verbal communication, here are a few thoughts for structuring written communication.

Principles: The principles I like to stick to are as follows –

– Keep it as short as possible. The ability to keep things concise is second to none.

– Make it easy on the eye. No long winding paragraphs, crisp bullets and key actions

– Make sure the purpose comes across very clear. The first two principles accomplish the goal of keeping the reader ‘interested’. Once the reader has committed to reading your concise and clear email, ensure you specify VERY clearly as to the purpose i.e. is it for information, for review or for action?

Ideas:

– Bullet Points over paragraphs. For all formal communication, I am a fan of bullet points over paragraphs. This is thanks to three reasons. First, it’s hard to get long winded with bullet points since sentences better not spill to the second line. Second, they are easier to read than long paragraphs. And probably, most importantly, bullet points naturally help us structure ideas by infusing order into them.

– Situation-Issue-Proposal Framework. Very often, we use emails to pitch ideas, seek approval/permission. In these cases, I prefer thinking of things in the situation-issue-proposal framework. For example –

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Situation: We are performing a review on marketing effectiveness

Issue (ideally facts driven): Customer view on traditional marketing is changing. Customers seem to prefer to engage via social media.

Proposal: I would propose starting a company blog that we will update every week so customers can follow us closely and give feedback directly.

Would love to hear your thoughts/feedback/Would you agree?

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– Practice writing! The better you get as a writer, the more concise and purposeful your writing becomes. No shortcuts. As Seth Godin would say, just write like you talk.. often.

And if there is a blogger who absolute nails writing concisely while making insightful points, it is Seth. Great writing role model.

Hope this helps! Happy mid-week all.

I was in conversation with a wiser friend who was talking about a senior executive who was going up the ranks in her company very quickly. This person had a great reputation and I asked her what she thought of him.

“He’s smart and all those things..” she paused “but you know, the greatest thing about him is that he doesn’t just give you his point of view. He respects you. He listens.”

I found that fascinating. Listening was seen as the ultimate sign of showing respect to the other person. It makes sense – listening intently is the best way of saying – “I respect your intellect. I’d like to understand what you think.”

“He listens.” Do I? Enough? Do you?

An old couple walking in a park holding friends, two friends reminiscing about the 30 years that have passed them by, business partners who look back at the twenty years since they built their first venture.. there are few better sights in life.

Was it always easy? Definitely not

Were there times when their relationships were threatened? Very likely

Did it go through many ups and downs? Also very likely

Persistence is hard. Really hard. It’s much easier to quit and try something new. I know there’s plenty of advice actually telling us to quit more, but I believe we could do with a lot more persistence in this world (see increasing divorce rates) because beyond persistence, there is magic.

Just ask Michael Phelps, who was afraid of taking one last shot at the Olympics after his 8 incredible 8 gold haul in Athens.

And if we’re talking relationships, ask the many great examples around you.

The only requirement for persistence is the ability to see failures as experiments and experiences. Failure is just a point of view. As the quote of the day goes,

The real failure is not failing at all. | MR

It’s fitting I write this the day after friendship day. I see this time and again in many relationships. I’ve experienced down phases in friendships that last years but that often come back ‘up’ and feel like.. magic.

I am convinced. Beyond persistence, there is magic.

Belated Happy Friendship Day!

This week’s learning is from ‘Talent is Overrated’ by Geoff Colvin.

Last week, we took a first look at the amazing story of Jerry Rice – a boy with unspectacular ‘natural’ athletic attributes who went on to become one of the greatest ball players of all time. We know Jerry worked harder than anyone else in the NFL – but was that all? Here, let’s first study a concept called Deliberate Practice.

Deliberate Practice is activity designed to improve performance and has 4 characteristics

– It is designed, often with a teacher’s help

– It can be repeated a lot

– Feedback on results is always available

– It is very demanding and it is not much fun

Jerry Rice’s off-season work out consisted of cardio exercise that involved running on a hilly 5 mile trail including ten 40 metre wind sprints at the steepest section (!) followed by weight training in the afternoon. His training session was so demanding that the 49ers trainer never released information on his workout out of fear that other players would hurt themselves.

Why such a specific work out? This training regime gave him the 3 traits most necessary for a wide receiver – explosive acceleration, incredible strength for his build and the kind of endurance that won the 49ers many games in the 4th quarters when other teams got tired. In short, Jerry Rice knew EXACTLY what he was doing.

Photo by Navin

There are 2 action steps I have taken away from this –

– For every activity I take seriously, I need to always find a coach!: The best performers always have coaches. If that isn’t a good enough reason..

– Ensure I’m always applying Deliberate Practice. I have been testing out deliberate practice in my guitar practices over the past 2 months and I have ample evidence that this thing just works! It’s not fun.. But it works. Now, I need to apply this across everything I do..

What were your take aways?

Here’s to finding coaches and designing deliberate practice regimes this week!

I took one day off from blogging and email yesterday.

It’s been an intense period over these last weeks and I thought it best to take a day off and disconnect from it all.

The tough thing about such a detox for me is to keep away from blogging. So, these things always tend to be part intentional, and part unintentional.

And, I’m glad to have been off and to be back now.

‘When you least feel like slowing down may be the most critical time to do it.’

It is very rare that the conditions are ideal. There’s always a back story. You were broke, you lost your wallet, you were having a headache, you forgot to bring your phone. Probably most likely, you were hungry, tired, sleep deprived, generally discouraged and wondering if what you were doing was any good.

Big moments hardly ever come when the conditions are ideal. Our character and reputation, in fact, are manifested in all the small ones when the conditions are far from ideal.

What use is a goal keeper who is only reliable on his good days?

Tired? Hungry? Fragmented? Unhappy? Get over it. Let’s get the job done.

‘Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working’

At the end of the day, you either have reasons… or results.

Any goal worth pursuing has really crazy odds. 99 out of every 100 who apply for that coveted scholarship fail. 7 out of every 10 people who start a business fail. 1 out of every 100 athletes likely gives himself/herself a chance at making a career in sport.

We hear such statistics being rattled out from time to time.

So, what should we do then? Be realistic, and do something with 100% certainty and less risk? What does that even look like? What would life look like if all we attempted was stuff that is achievable?

I’d advocate the opposite approach – let there not be a moment in our lives when we aren’t going after a crazy audacious goal with nuts-y odds.

Don’t let statistics mess with your thinking. Screw the odds. Be the hero/heroine of your own story.