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A Good Place For Practice

By / February 12, 2023

A Good Place For Practice

I was recently hanging some wallpaper in our house. I’ve done this before, but always with someone else. I struggled my way through the project and was content with the outcome. Made a few mistakes, but overall an acceptable job. Especially for a place that is low-traffic and mostly covered by other items. 

 

I sent a picture of the finished result to my father-in-law, the one who I’ve done this type of thing with before, and he complimented the work providing me the reassurance I was indirectly asking for. 

 

I made a comment back along the lines of “Probably would have turned out better if I had my partner, but it was fun either way.” His response was, “It was a good place for practice.” 

 

That note struck me. So much wisdom in a conversation about wallpaper.

 

Finding opportunities to practice any new skill is always advantageous. But selecting the right location can hone those skills even more.

 

The ideal time to practice presentation skills is not in front of 100 people. The ideal time to practice free throws is not with the game on the line. 

 

Identify these spaces where skills can be honed and shared safely. Receive the feedback from either your own observations or others and then keep marching on. Find a good place for practice. 

 

Make It Look Easy

By / February 10, 2023

Make It Look Easy

We can all remember how effortless we judge the Olympians during their events, sitting on the couch and snacking away, watching these specimens perform feats that we could only dream of achieving. But the truth is, these Olympians have worked hard to make their performances look so easy. They have put in the hard work and dedication to develop their skill and technique to appear effortlessly graceful and disciplined.

 

We can all take a lesson from them and strive to make our own roles, whether professionally or personally, look easy. Put in the hard work and focus to be so good that you can’t be ignored and attract praise and respect for your abilities. And remember, although something may look easy, it may still be quite difficult.

No Enemies, Only Solutions

By / February 10, 2023

No Enemies, Only Solutions

Your customer is giving you grief about a situation out of your control. The neighbor continuously parks on your side of the street causing inconveniences. It’s that time of year again where you’re going to have to negotiate your salary. 


We can villainize the customer, neighbor, and boss in each of these situations. The truth is we usually do. We scoff at their reasoning and think less of the them. What we should do is flip our perspective. They are not the enemy. They are the key to the solution. 

The customer clearly wants to be heard. Give them your ear, show them you’re listening, and create a life-long fan. The neighbor has been paying no attention to the fact that your kid’s door on the van now opens up to the street instead of the sidewalk and that you struggle to bring all the bags in after a long day. Kindly approach them and discuss what you’ve been experiencing and discuss parking etiquette. Your boss shouldn’t be surprised about your desire for salary negotiations. Lay the ground work early, determine the metrics needed to hit specific marks that earn you what you’re looking for. 

There are no enemies, only solutions. 

Lean Into Discomfort

By / February 10, 2023

Lean Into Discomfort

That is where the growth happens. The perspectives grow. The empathy is built. 

 

We gravitate towards familiarity and comfort because it’s easy and predictable. 

 

But how else are we to expand our limits?

First Pancake

By / February 8, 2023

First Pancake

The first pancake of the batch is always the tester. Or in my house, the one that the dogs end up getting to enjoy. 

 

That first pancake lets you know if the batter is mixed properly, if are you missing something, or if the heat on the griddle is wrong. 

 

If you take your pancake outcomes seriously, this first one is quite a critical pancake. 

 

The same goes for your first drafts of your work, presentations, or change. Getting it out there, putting yourself on the hook, and adjusting based on your, and others’, assessments. 

 

This idea comes from a nugget of gold during the Bit of Optimism podcast by Simon Sinek featuring Adam Grant and Brené Brown which you can find here. 

 

At the end of the day, you want a dozen perfect pancakes. You cannot get there without the first one. You don’t need to approve of it or deliver it, but you can be proud of the start and take it where it needs to go. 

Downtime

By / February 8, 2023

Downtime

Allow for downtime. We can’t always be on and operating optimally.


Plants that get sunlight 24 hours a day get burnt out. They need the dark. They need downtime. That’s where they grow. And process. And develop. They prepare for the next day full of sun.


Your downtime can be sitting in silence, watching the latest docuseries, or walking outdoors. Just make sure you provide yourself with the space to decompress.

Reference Sets

By / February 6, 2023

Reference Sets

The goal of continuous improvement is just that. Always be improving. Never settling. 

 

Another way to look at this is the mission to always be increasing your reference set. 

 

 

By focusing on the tools, education, books, podcast, content that we intake we are just adding to our reference set.

 

 

Improve can be a subjective term, at least at large. That is not in our control. People are allowed to have different ideas of what improvement looks like.

 

But what is in control is our ability to add to our reference set. We can gain new tools, new perspectives and so on and when the time comes to implore them we are ready because of that training. Because of that constant search to invest in our reference set. 

 

Listen

By / January 5, 2024

Listen

It’s not about how well you speak, it’s about how well you listen 

 

If you’re in it just to prove your point, or get through it as fast and painlessly as possible, you’re missing out on truly understanding the other party. You’re missing out on engagement that drives growth. 

 

Your response, and behavior, should be a clear indication to your recipient that you heard them. And that what they have to say matters.

Room For The Unknowns

By / February 4, 2023

Room For The Unknowns

The more we know, the more we should realize how much we don’t know. 

 

 

Keeping room for the unknown fosters the mindset of empathy, creativity, and curiosity. 

 

 

If we start to think we know it all, we leave little to no room for opportunity. How else are we to grow? 

PMP Study Help

By / February 2, 2023

Two PMP Study Tips

  1. Task Exercise
    • Handwrite all the tasks under each domain on a notecard, but DO NOT include the Domain or Task Number. 
    • Shuffle, throw the cards in the air, whatever it is, get them out of order them
    • Pick all the cards up
    • Read each one out loud
    • Now on the floor, so you can see the whole “map” you’re creating, organize them back into the proper order, identify the ones you miss 
    • Do this until it is burned into your head and you know all the tasks and enablers relentlessly
  2. Take the PMI’s free exam once you are a PMI member
    • Take their exam all the way through
    • Once complete, for each question, write out the justification of why that answer is correct in the eyes of PMI
    • The goal here is to acquire the PMI mindset and answer the questions the way they see fit, not the way you see fit
    • You will end up with 180 sentences that transcribe the PMI’s truth and can re-wire your brain to think the same and respond to the exam questions accordingly

Here are some links that can also help:

The PMI Mindset

Your PMP Journey