Random thoughts on mindset, boredom, taking action, and failure…

Embrace challenge. Work on mindset. Your situation becomes as good or as bad as you tell yourself. Manage your emotions/beliefs.

Be ok with boredom. Notice what you’re thinking of. Use this to your advantage. Be creative. Don’t have too much structure. Be flexible. “Be like water.”

Take action. Learning/acquiring new information is good, but doesn’t do much for you if you don’t act on what you learned.

Live to fight another day. Don’t give up. Be persistent. Things may not have gone your way this time, but if you keep chipping away at success (steadily/consistently), you will get there.

“Failure” is final. You don’t fail unless you quit. Use the experience from disappointment to learn from and gain in the future.

A simple tip to lead to success

Have you ever been unsure of what you want to do, of what goals you would like to achieve? Or do you have a vague idea of “what you want” but are overwhelmed when thinking of how to get there? Here’s something you can work on every single day…

Go to bed smarter than you woke up.

Now, having more knowledge/information doesn’t guarantee success. But it is at least a step in the direction towards becoming an expert in your field. Once you have the information, you can act upon it.

So ask yourself when you wake up…What will you learn today? How will you improve your mind, your body, or your relationships in any way? There’s no such thing as equilibrium – just tiny adjustments, up or down/better or worse…will you improve yourself and your knowledge today? Or will you get worse?

Control the controllables

Here is what you can control: Your effort. Having the best attitude in the room. Not complaining. Being a good listener. Being able to take criticism. Working harder than anyone else. Researching and trying to figure out ways to become the best. Being a good student.

Things you can’t control? Results/outcomes. What other people do, think, or say. “Luck.”

Focus all of your energy and attention on the things you can control and don’t let the things you can’t control get you up or down. They are what they are. If the ball bounces the right way for you, great! But don’t expect things to go well for you if you’re not putting in the work.

If you did what you felt are the right things and didn’t get the result you wanted, don’t dwell on it. Allow yourself a short period of reflection to see if your decisions and actions were actually correct. If they were, continue to do that and work hard with a positive attitude. Eventually things will go your way. If your actions, while made with the best intentions, ended up being incorrect or ineffective, keep that in mind and change how you act in the future to help produce a better end result.

Management

If you are in a position to manage others, there are two major mistakes to avoid. The first is micromanaging. If you have capable people working for/with you, they have good ethics, they have produced results in the past, and they know what the near-term and long-term goals are for themselves and the company are, do not constantly be looking over their shoulder. Don’t step on their toes! Let them do what they know best. But it’s good to keep the lines of communication open. You should still have regular check-ins to see how they’re doing, if they need help/another opinion on how to do something, etc. When you micromanage, you take away not only their sense of autonomy, but you also remove accountability from them. After all, they are only following your orders when you tell them every single thing to do.

The opposite is also a problem though, which is to becomes so hands-off that those you are managing don’t think you know what’s going on. If you’re not present, don’t talk with them regularly, or aren’t in any meetings with them, when you go to make a suggestion they are much more likely to disregard your suggestions. You become an outsider at that point, not a team member, a leader, or a manager.

Aim to strike a healthy balance between the two forms of communication. Guide them, but let them be the heroes. Ask them questions so they can think of how to improve a situation. Monitor their results and be prepared to step in if you feel they will do something that may have catastrophic/irreversible results. But, ultimately, keep in mind that people will work hardest for you when they like what they do, when they’re engaged/interested, when there is mutual respect between themselves, their manager, and their co-workers, and when they feel you have their back.

Taking Action: The cure to fear

Action cures fear. The more you do, the less you fear. Don’t spend time thinking or overthinking about a worst-case scenario of something that has not happened and is not likely to happen.

If there are major consequences to your actions, take the time to think about the best way to approach the situation. Be serious and focused, do your research, read, talk with experts, get advice. But eventually, you have to make a decision with the information at hand. At that point, give yourself grace no matter the outcome. You did everything you could and were thoughtful in your approach.

If there are NOT major consequences to your decision, stop wasting time worrying about it. Time spent worrying is time taken away from enjoying life.