Tag Archives: Change

Are You an Eagle or a Duck?

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I am coach and mentor. Like most small companies, I’m self-employed, one issue is to make potential clients find me. Another issue is how to stand out in the crowd. There are lots of coaches and mentors, how can I be different and make a difference?

I have two questions that I work with:
• What can I do differently?
• What can I do that my competitors don’t?
I don’t think there’s a final answer to any of those. It’s about Kaizen, gradual improvement, and keeping an eye on what my competitors do.

Eagle or Duck?

Yesterday I came across Be an Eagle, not a Duck, a great story posted by Keith Stoeckeler that’s on a related topic. The story is about Wally the Cab Driver and how he changed his business. As Keith said: “Small changes can make a large impact.” Wally got his inspiration from a quote by Wayne Dyer:

Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.

Wally the Cab Driver made a choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles. He put in a few changes at a time, gradually improving his business.

I intend to soar with the eagles. What about you?

Mission statement

Wally the cab driver in the Eagle or Duck story above had this Mission Statement:

To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

That mission statement is short and to the point, easy to understand and also fairly easy to measure. It reminds me of this quote:

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupe

Twitter connects

@Amy Stark recommended that I should take a look at Convince & Convert. I liked it, subscribed and decided to follow @Jay Baer. Then Jay tweeted about @Keith Stoeckeler and the story above.

The Shadow Effect

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During the weekend I have read The Shadow Effect – Illuminating the Hidden Power of Your True Self by Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford and Marianne Williamson. It’s a very interesting book and I recommend it.

The shadow exists within all of us. It is a part of us and yet we spend most of our life running from it. But far from being scary, our dark side holds the promise of a better, more fulfilling life. Our shadow makes itself known every day. It is the reason we get furious over a friend showing up ten minutes late, yell at our parents or kids when they have done nothing wrong, and sabotage our own success at the worst possible time. Until we are able to embrace our dualistic nature, we will continue to hurt ourselves and those closest to us and fall short of our potential.

Combining the wisdom of three experts, The Shadow Effect is a practical and profound guide to discovering the gifts of our shadow.

I saw the book at The Power of Slow, ordered it and then read it as soon as I got it.

The Shadow Effect has an official site. I like the text on the front page, it hits home with me:

Make peace with yourself, others and the world.

Find the courage to let go of all that holds you back.

Reconnect with the life you were meant to live and the person you were meant to be.

The book made me realize that I do kick myself too much. Instead I should focus more on the good things in life, self-love and self-respect is key to progress.

Marianne Williamson is the author of Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate which goes well with this book.

This quote by Mary Anne Radmacher will help me stay in (or bounce back into) the light:

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.”

The only thing you can change

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mnmlist has a post about the only thing you can change, a great reminder that even a long journey begins with a small step. Here is what resonates most with me right now:

You can’t change your entire life. You can only change your next action.

You can’t declutter your entire life. You can only choose to get rid of one thing, right now.

You can’t change the past, or control the future. You can only change what you’re doing right now.

You can’t change everything. You can only change one, small thing. And that’s all it takes.

I’m currently decluttering big style, I am leaving an office and storage where I’ve been for 12,5 years. By end of April I’m out of there and have a lot less stuff to care for.

Reflect to see

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Jenn Shallvey, @JennShallvey posts her Reflect comments at @reflect2see. It’s a great collection of thoughts and things to reflect on. Here are some of them, go check the Twitter profile for more. And while you’re there, follow it so you get the new ones.

Reflect: What pushes your buttons? Ever wonder why?

Reflect: Building a tribe is not about building your ego. If you can’t separate the two then you have false followers.

Reflect: Changing the outside appearance of what is on offer does not change the source. Always go to the source and be true.

Reflect: What you really truly desire in your life will come to you, but not necessarily in the way you think. Pay attention.

Reflect: On what terms are your relationships with others? Conditional or unconditional? Free or at a price?

Reflect: The places you go may be the same but you change each time you go there.

Reflect: How do you get in your own way?

Reflect: How many times do you need a life lesson before you get it?

Reflect: Many wise and wonderful souls may help you on your journey but ultimately the choice to heal is yours.

Reflect: What matters most in your life right now? How much attention and time go to this priority?

The last one goes nicely with the following two quotes that I have in front of me.

What’s the No. 1 thing you KNOW you should be doing that you’re not currently doing? Plant the seeds. Now.

Is the way you’re living your life today a foundation for the future you hope to build?

Jenn runs Reflect 2 See which is reclections with photos, very nice.

Seth Godin and Linchpin

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Seth Godin launches his latest book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to Drive Your Career and Create a Remarkable Future in an unusual way. Today he is interviewed or guest post around the blogosphere, a good starting point is his own post The 2.0 media tour. I have followed some of the links and this piece of text from Escape From Cubicle Nation: You are not a cog is great.

if you’re a freelancer and you’re doing what everyone else in your market is doing, why on earth is someone going to hire you? Why will you be able to charge more? Where will your freedom come from?

The need to stand out and be different makes a lot of sense and it’s something I am working on for my own business as coach and mentor.

I have ordered the Linchpin book, it sounds very interesting, but it’s not delivered yet. A linchpin is defined like this:

linchpin = a pin inserted through holes at the end of an axle, so as to secure a wheel; a central cohesive source of stability and security; a person or thing that is critical to a system or organisation

Is it really a good thing to become indispensable? If employed, will your boss let you move on or try to keep you?

What Impact Do You Want To Have?

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I am reading “The Tao of Motivation” by Max Landsberg, a great book that makes you think. (See also The Tao of Coaching, another great book by Max Landsberg.) The motivation book made me think about what motivates me and how to keep myself motivated. As selfemployed you need to be able to keep your own fire burning.

Then I came across A Question of Impact by Jonathan Fields. It raises these important questions:

What impact do you want to have? And, on whom?

Making an impact,as in making a difference, is something that motivates me. Seeing things change or ideas spread is motivating for me.

Jonathan Fields writes that:

I’m not yet convinced there is a single, quantifiable group of people I want or need to choose between. But, I’m also not convinced I can have the depth of impact I want when I’m playing too many games at once.

I think there is a risk of spreading oneself too thin (trying to cover too many) and because of that reducing the impact one makes. But I also see another risk, making your focus too narrow and missing out on chances to make an impact. At present I am balancing somewhere in between, I see the horizon of opportunity as 360 degrees and will see what turns up.

A Bigger Game?
In A Bigger Game Jonathan Fields also brings up the topic of making an impact:

It made me want to play a bigger game. Not a bigger money game…a bigger impact game. A bigger footprint game. A bigger life game.

I’m not that into ‘bigger’, I’m more into sustainable games, making impacts that last. My thought is that small scale works too, good changes create ripple effects. Talking about sustainable, I like The Seven Generations Perspective since it makes us consider long term conseqeunces and effects.

Three Key Words.
In Ready for 2010 I mention my three key words (Trust, Connect, Grow). These key words work well in connection with me making an impact. I have to be trusted in order to be able to make an impact. I need to connect with people in order to be able to make an impact. I need to grow (including learn and share) in order to be able to make an impact.

What’s My Own Answers?
My overarching vision is to help make this world a better place. That’s done on different levels, on a one-to-one level through my work as coach and mentor. On a global level it’s done through supporting organizations such as The Hunger Project and WWF. For the more ‘medium’ level I intend to write more. I would also like to make more presentations, both writing and speeches are ways to influence more people.

And You?
What’s YOUR answers to these questions?

What impact do you want to have? And, on whom?

The cracked pot

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I got this classic story from a friend, it’s great and makes us see cracks and flaws in a different way.

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One pot had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”

The bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side? That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day while we walk back, you’ve watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.”

Moral:
Each of us has our own unique flaws. We’re all cracked pots. But it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

This was originally posted at Forty Plus Two, another blog of mine.

The Seven Generations Perspective

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Vattenfall has been awarded the Climate Greenwash Awards 2009, probably not an award they desired.

Swedish energy company Vattenfall is a master of spin when it comes to climate change, portraying itself as a climate champion while lobbying to continue business as usual, using coal, nuclear power, and pseudo-solutions such as agrofuels and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

For more information about why they got the award, read Vattenfall – Nominated for branding problems as solutions.

The prize reminded me of a post in my Swedish blog, Vattenfall och indianfilosofi from May 22, 2008. The managing director of Vattenfall said that “According to Indian philosophy you should look six generations ahead.” It’s safe to say that if Vattenfall had fully understood that concept and had walked that talk they would not have recieved this award.

Newspapers questioned the six generation concept and I could not find anything about it either. But I did find several sources that mention seven generations ahead.

The Six Nations: Oldest Living Participatory Democracy on Earth says that:

In making any law our chiefs must always consider three things: the effect of their decision on peace; the effect on the natural world; and the effect on seven generations in the future.

Oneida Indian Nation writes that:

Tradition also requires both the Nation’s leaders and its Members to consider the impact on the next seven generations when making decisions.

In the book The Manifestation Wheel it says that:

The elders of the Iroquois Confederacy councils taught that in our every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.

I especially like the Six Nations version. What would happen if our decisionmakers did consider these three things:

  • the effect of their decision on peace
  • the effect on the natural world
  • the effect on seven generations in the future

Credit: Photo by Thiru Murugan.

This was originally posted at Forty Plus Two, another blog of mine.