Category: motivation

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motivation

How will businesses survive this pandemic?

Quote from Daniel Pink: "A healthy society—and healthy business organizations—begins with purpose and considers profit a way to move toward that end or a happy byproduct of its attainment."

I have learned much from my wife over the years. One of the key takeaways I have seen in her that deep meaning and purpose is a powerful motivator. I have seen it in her recent decision to resign from a great position and to pursue what she feels is next in her life.

She certainly didn’t do it for the money. There was no lucrative position waiting for her. She did it because she feels she is being called to a higher purpose. We are still working on what that looks like. Yet, I am confident she will find her next step and help many women that have seen their lives turned upside down during the coronavirus lockdown.

Working With a Purpose

This current environment has had a deep impact on businesses. We won’t fully know the impact for months to come. One effect will be is that businesses that have lost their purpose years ago will most likely die. After all, it is going to take an extreme effort to restart many businesses. If the only reason it existed before March of 2020 was to make a profit, it may not be enough of a motivator to get it running again.

Just existing for profit will not be enough to resuscitate many businesses. Mission statements will become more than just something the leadership pays lip service to. Businesses will need a mission to continue through the challenging times that are ahead. We will all need a purpose that is more than just going through the motions of profit. Because profit may not come easily. It may take time and patience to become profitable once again.

So what is the purpose of your business?

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motivation

The Value of Determination

Cartoon of two boys walking. One has a dog in his bookbag. The boy says, "I don't know what's gotten into my dog. Lately, he's been so sneaky."

We all know someone who is determined. Another word for it is stubborn. Anybody who has a pet that doesn’t do quite what they want it to do probably considers the fur baby stubborn. Of course, the pet is probably thinking the same thing about its owner!

Determination is needed more now than ever.

  • The United States has been knocked by the coronavirus pandemic for two months now
  • Some states are allowing businesses to restart
  • Business owners have to figure out how to operate in this new environment
  • Employees have to consider if their jobs are still viable or if they need to find work elsewhere
  • Corporate offices have to figure if it is still best for everyone to work remotely or to modify office space for health and safety

Determination will be as valuable and desirable as an asset as a nice stash of bathroom tissue was six weeks or so ago. We will need to be determined to bring the economy back online. This doesn’t mean we must be determined to make things the way they were. Rather, we will need to use ingenuity, creativity, and patience to make things work in a new reality.

Let’s all lead the way to a new way of doing things. Let’s be as determined as a little dog that really wants to go to school.

Cartoon of two boys walking. One has a dog in his bookbag. The boy says, "I don't know what's gotten into my dog. Lately, he's been so sneaky."
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motivation

Do training and preparing get any easier?

Quote from "Drive" by Daniel Pink "As anyone who’s trained for a marathon, learned a new language, or run a successful division can attest, you spend a lot more time grinding through tough tasks than you do basking in applause."

When I was reading Drive by Daniel Pink, I thought of how society tries to make things easy for us. Advertising is all about serving up an easy answer to wants or needs. I posted about the desire we all have to coast in October 2019. I found then that training doesn’t get any easier, but the results are worth it.

Training doesn’t get any easier. But if we are diligent, we can get more effective. Finding success in an endeavor may seem easy from the outside. But it’s the grind, as Daniel Pink wrote, that one has to do every day. It’s getting up early and putting in the miles.

Be patient and train

When I trained for a marathon, I searched for different solutions and different training methods. If there was a solution that would have made it easy to run a marathon without any training, I probably would have stumbled across it. If such a solution existed, I would have been both happy and disappointed. I would have been happy that I would not have had to put in the hours. But I would have been disappointed that the effort was taken away from me. What is the point of a marathon, after all, if it takes little sweat and effort?

Today, all of us have been thrust into a COVID-19 marathon. All of us wish that this crisis would end tomorrow. But it doesn’t look likely. All businesses and employees will have to adjust in some way. Like it or not, we are now all required to train for the next level.

Patience does not mean we simply wait this out. If I just waited for the day of the marathon without training for it, I would have never crossed the finish line. While we wait, we must train. We must prepare.

Turn a crisis into an opportunity

Since we have all been sidelined in some way, how are you using that time to train?

  • How are you training physically?
  • How are you training mentally?
  • How are you training spiritually?

We all have an opportunity to do the work and to make a difference today. Grind through the tasks. Learn from them and become better through them. Training doesn’t get any easier. But the results are worth it. You may not hear a stadium full of applause. But it will be worth it in the long run.

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motivation

How do I know if something is too risky?

Cartoon of a boy and a shark. The shark says, "Hey, Buddy! Let me know when you're going to get in the water, okay?"

When we would take family trips to Florida in the summer, it seemed that no matter what week we took, The Discovery Channel was playing Shark Week. There was nothing like watching shark attacks the evening before, then going to the beach. I probably had those experiences in mind when I posted this cartoon.

Watching Shark Week didn’t prevent us from going to the beach. We laughed about the over-the-top stories. Sure, some of them were harrowing and we took what we could learn from them. We knew it was more dangerous to wade in the water at sunrise or sunset. We realized we needed to be aware of our surroundings in the water. But it didn’t prevent us from having a good time.

Leadership in Risky Times

Today, leaders are facing all kinds of decisions involving risk. COVID-19 is causing business, government, and institutional leaders to make some tough decisions.

  • When should we open businesses?
  • When and how should we open churches?
  • Where and when should we wear masks?
  • How do you enforce social distancing without being authoritarian?
  • What will be the best way to get kids back in school this fall?

It would be nice if the answers were as obvious as a shark enticing a bather with fake sincerity. There are a lot of unknowns. Our decisions will be complicated with the understanding there will be some risk that wasn’t there last year. Yet, all of us will have to take on some of that risk to move forward.

The odds of being attacked by a shark are 1 in 11.5 million even when you only include people who go to a beach. We are still trying to get a handle on how likely someone is likely to get the coronavirus. It will likely increase as time moves on. In any case, it will be best to continue practices such as social distancing, frequent handwashing, and sanitizing surfaces. We will need to learn how to live with this virus while maintaining safe practices and restarting our lives.

Cartoon of a boy and a shark. The shark says, "Hey, Buddy! Let me know when you're going to get in the water, okay?"
Categories
Attitude motivation

Does complaining do any good?

Cartoon of two women next to a wilted plant. One woman says, "It's a valuable plant. When I complain, it wilts."

When I drew this cartoon and posted my blog, Wilted Complaints, I was preaching to myself. Three years after this post, I got into a bad habit of complaining. I rendered myself ineffective at work because I let challenges overwhelm me. Instead of working on the problem, I would complain with colleagues about how insurmountable the odds were. Meetings weren’t effective. The planning seemed pointless. It was all because I was stuck in a complaining mode.

What about venting? Can I vent?

When tensions are high, or when we are in a situation alike a coronavirus lockdown, we all need to vent a little. If I don’t talk with my wife about what’s bugging me, it will simply build up.

The Web Economic Forum has an article on why it’s okay to vent about the coronavirus as long as it doesn’t become a habit. We are naturally going to be frustrated when things aren’t going the way we like. And very few people are excited about being in lockdown for several weeks (with the exceptions of some dogs and hermits).

The problem with a complaining habit is that it doesn’t solve anything.

  • It absolves me of responsibility
  • Instead of speaking life into a situation, it speaks death
  • It lets things fester like picking a scab
  • It doesn’t make for a pleasant companion (and who wants to isolate even further?)

I am starting to read a book entitled, The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal With Negativity at Work by Jon Gordon. I’ll let you know about the highlights. Complaining is a habit that is too easy to start. Let’s find ways to be positive today and keep our plants from wilting.

Cartoon of two women next to a wilted plant. One woman says, "It's a valuable plant. When I complain, it wilts."