Summer days that blind your face will soon be dead and gone, better get it on (Tears For Fears)

Photo by Ethan Robertson on Unsplash

School is back in session in the southern hemisphere and the first few weeks test your mettle. Big time.

First there's the transition from holiday relaxation to be navigated. Not easy.

There's the start of year gusto for things to be completed now. Testing.

The competing demands. Everyone wants your attention, right now. We live in a world of instant gratification that is low on patience.

Chuck in some wet weather, the fact I had to take two days off for family events, and that we remain largely a building site.

Meh! 

My staff is an extremely buoyant lot and we firmly subscribe to the view that everybody is doing the best they can.

So, while tired, there are plenty of smiles, laughs and celebrations (two birthday girls this week).

Positive close - I really like this thought from Brené Brown:

I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship. 

A sage invites wise people into their life. Fools gather with fools (Dan Rockwell)

 

Excellent piece by Dan Rockwell on the seven marks of mentors who change lives.

Do as I say

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The opposite of insubordination

“Do as I say.” That’s industrial management in four words.

If you don’t follow the instructions to the letter, you’re insubordinate. Not subordinate.

Complete subordination might have been the goal in an industrial setting. But now, it’s dangerous, expensive and inefficent. Because people close to the work know exactly what needs to be done.

The opposite of insubordination is now enrollment.

Someone who is enrolled in the journey doesn’t have to be told exactly what to do. Instead, given the goals, the tools and the culture, they will figure it out.

Seth Godin

The plants grow themselves

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Kash’s garden

She doesn’t grow plants.

The plants grow themselves.

Her job is to create conditions for the plants to grow.

The soil, the water, the light, the weeds… these are the conditions.

But none of it happens if the plants don’t do the thing they want to do in the first place.

This is always true, anywhere a leader succeeds.

Creating the conditions is the hard part.

Seth Godin

The secret to focus

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Steve Jobs explains the secret to focus

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things we have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”

New goals don't deliver new results (james Clear)

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"New goals don't deliver new results. New lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is a process, not an outcome. For this reason, all of your energy should go into building better habits, not chasing better results."

James Clear (Atomic Habits)

Which agenda? (Seth Godin)

Photo by Marissa Grootes on Unsplash

Every day matters.

It seems like a waste to spend one as a to-do list item on someone else’s agenda.

It’s easy to become so focused on checking the boxes that we forget that there are people involved. Peers, colleagues and friends that with something human to offer, if we only cared enough to connect.

Seth Godin