Recommendation

How often do you issue recommendations?

What are they based on?

Have you worked with who you recommend?

How much do you trust someone’s recommendation?

A recommendation from a trusted source is sacred.

Yet, many make them without knowing the quality.

Often, we do the same, we trust a friend, so we recommend them.

But what is that recommendation really worth?

Can you trust your own recommendations?

Can you trust someone else’s?

Personal Rules

Do you adhere to personal rules?

Where have you set rules for yourself?

Why did you set these rules?

Where else could you set rules?

Setting rules for ourselves is a powerful tool.

We often know best, what we need and when.

And we know what we do not want.

Adhering to personal rules can recreate these scenarios.

We are in control of most of our environment.

By setting rules we cement this control down.

Situational Strategy

How often do you review your strategy?

How much does the situation influence it?

How much change in situation can it take?

Can what is important to you change?

What is important to us can change.

The situation we are in can change.

And with this, our strategy should change.

Being true to your values is important.

But a certain degree of flexibility is needed.

Industry peculiarity

How well do you know your industry?

How similar is it to others?

How peculiar are the workings of your industry?

When working in a new one, what can translate over?

Some of us stay in the same industry all our lives.

Some of us change industries frequently.

Some industries are very peculiar and some less so.

What is standard practice in one, is disruptive in another.

Don’t offhand the newbie, who questions everything.

Combine the new guy with an open-minded veteran.

Watch the magic unfold.

Information Accuracy

How accurate is the information that has been presented to you?

How do you decide if you need to counter-check it?

Where does the information come from?

Is there a hidden agenda at the presenting party?

We receive information every day.

In negotiations, from partners, from the news, from governments etc.

Yet, seldom does the information come in purity.

Most of the time it has been manipulated or is inaccurate.

It can be inaccurate due to agenda, incompetence, naivete or slopiness.

If it is important, go to the source and get it yourself.

forget: suppress vs process

How much do you forget?

How much of it actively vs passively?

When do you choose to suppress?

When do you choose to process?

Why do you make this decision?

To forget is not to suppress.

Suppressing things is a bandaid.

Processing attacks the root cause.

To actively forget and move on,

we need to process.

Otherwise, you create a trigger for future grief.

Wall incoming

How hard can you hustle?

How long can you keep it up?

Why do you leave out rest?

How does this end?

We all have our limits.

Heck, we all know them.

Yet, we tend to ignore them.

Ignore them, till the wall hits you in the face.

Don’t overwork yourself for too long.

The reckoning is not worth it.

People Energy

How many meetings do you have?

How much energy does it take?

How much do you have for this?

How useful are meetings when you are exhausted?

We all have a specific threshold.

Some have more energy for people, some less.

You get less out of tiered meetings.

And so do the people meeting you.

Don’t waste everyone’s time.

So plan accordingly.

How we age

How strong is your body?

How much energy do you have?

How has this changed over time?

How can you compensate the difference?

Ageing comes with the deterioration of our bodies.

We become weaker, have less energy and less mental capacity.

Upkeeping ourselves becomes more of an effort.

There are things you can do to compensate.

This is part of life, you will have to accept this.

Investing, betting and gambling

How often do you gamble?

How often do you make educated bets?

How much of your money do you invest?

How different are these three?

When we invest, we make a bet on future performance.

When we gamble, we make a bet on a future outcome.

So where does investing end and gambling begin?

All investments have risk, some more, some less.

Can you afford to take no risk?

Creativity & well-being

When are you most creative?

When are you least creative?

How important is your health?

How important is creativity to you?

When we feel bad, we are less innovative.

When our health is constantly an issue,

we lack energy and our mood is low.

This is not the most fertile ground.

Unless you are into depressive poetry.

So go and get that rest, so you can thrive.

Mistakes repeat

How often do you make the same mistake?

How often do you see others make them?

Can you learn from others’ mistakes?

Do people learn from your mistakes?

We tend to repeat mistakes,

they tend to build up in severity,

till we learn the lesson.

The same is true for others.

We are often incapable of learning from others’ mistakes.

And so are others in learning from yours.

Be understanding, be supportive, and learn together.

Not all steps are equal

How much do you progress?

How does yesterday compare to today?

How large are the steps you take?

How do they differ from day to day?

We can only take one step after the other.

With each step we progress,

With each step, we get closer to our goals.

Yet, not all steps are equal.

Some are more daunting than others.

Some are more important than others.

Step with confidence into the future.

Motivate the demotivated

How do you deal with the demotivated?

How much can you motivate someone?

How long do you wait for improvement?

How many attempts do you make?

Partners, friends, employees, relatives,

all people close to us,

all people that can be demotivated.

We can try to motivate, lead, and support.

But change needs to happen intrinsically.

At some point, we can motivate no longer.

Being disrespected

How often are you disrespected?

How often are you disrespectful?

How do you react to it?

Why are you being disrespected?

Why do you disrespect others?

We all get disrespected at some point.

How we react to it is important.

We might not realize it right away,

however, standing up for yourself is essential.

Sometimes you should walk away.

Communicating the complex

How well do you communicate complex topics?

How important is that skill for you?

How good is the other’s knowledge base?

How much do you need to dumb it down?

We all need to explain what we do to laymen.

The more specialized your knowledge,

the more you need to simplify it for others.

Analogies, simple vocabulary, and standard language

will deliver magic.

Specialist Knowledge

How many topics do you know well?

How deep is your knowledge?

How deep does it need to be?

Do you have specialist partners?

No matter what you do,

There is a huge amount to know.

Information, experience, laws, rules, etc.

If you are not a specialist, find one.

Knowledge is power and essential,

Using it correctly makes things happen.

Sharing is caring?

How much do you share?

When is the right momen to share?

What to share with whom?

What, how much, when with whom?

We want to connect to others.

We connect through sharing.

Vulnerability, emotions, experiences and so on.

The key is picking the right people,

at the right moment with the right depth.

Connection takes time, grace and skill.

Forgive your past self

How easily can you forgive yourself?

How many past decisions do you regret?

Which consequences did they have?

How do you feel about it now?

We need to learn to forgive our past selves.

There is no need to forgive your current self.

Yesterday you were a different person.

Many years ago even more so.

Today you can decide your tomorrow.

Outpacing the past is your recipe.

Rejection

How do you react to rejection?

Why do you react this way?

How can you leverage rejection?

How could you react differently?

Rejection can be difficult to take.

Some of us receive more than others.

Some of us can take it better others worse.

Our experiences in life directly affect this.

Rejection is feedback - so we can improve.

Rejection does not define you.

Will the rejection matter in five years?