Adam Kayce

Ever watch yourself at work? Probably not as much as you’d think — most of the time, your focus is on the task at hand. You’re focused on the job you’re doing, the call you’re making, the report you’re writing, or the nail you’re hammering.

It takes a shift in focus to be aware of what’s happening in you as you do that job, make that call, write that report, or hammer that nail.

When you make that shift, however, a world of possibilities opens up to you. Because when you’re aware of your modus operandi — the how you do the what — then you can be much more conscious of the patterns that are present in you as you work, so you can eliminate the ones slowing you down, and strengthen the ones that are creating your best results.

Let’s take a look at an example:

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Why should you not check email first thing in the morning?
Why is it a good idea to shut down your computer for the weekend?
Why ignore the phone, except when it’s best for you?

To preserve your state of mind.

I was in Washington D.C. this weekend, spending time with friends from California and doing the tourist thing. At the Natural History Museum, can you believe I saw over a dozen guys chatting away about work on their bluetooth headsets while herding their kids through the exhibits?

We also took a bus tour of the city, and the guy sitting in front of me missed at least half of it because he was on the phone. His girlfriend looked disgusted.

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Two complimentary ideas:

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown. — Carl Jung
The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. — Albert Einstein

Go beyond thinking of those ideas as just applying to societal conditions, and apply them to yourself.

And when you hit a stuck point today, or have a problem to solve in your work, reflect on these two statements… and now, where should you put your focus?

Images from Encarta and Dorfun.

And thanks to all those who commented on the previous post so far: Slade, Stuart Baker, Jean Browman, Tshombe

When your optimism clouds your ability to clearly see what’s happening, that’s called “wearing rose-colored glasses.” You know what wearing those glasses is going to do to you… the beliefs you bring to any situation are going to affect the way you show up, and cause you to see things differently from how they really are.

Rose-colored glasses are one thing. But what about when your glasses are a different color? Say, “sludge brown”, or “rotten-egg yellow”, or “toxic-waste green”?

Is that going to mess with your clarity? You betcha.

So there you are, hard at work, minding your own business, and frustration/procrastination/lack of motivation comes along. And once you realize that this feeling isn’t just going to blow over, you do your best to deal with it, whether you take a break, repeat affirmations, or do something to shift your state of being away from the negative and back towards the positive.

Self-healing techniques (for lack of a better term) are great for dealing with the immediate moment. And over time, they can change the way you live and work tremendously.

But this just wipes away a proverbial speck on your glasses, by handling the acute scenario. Important, yes, but different from addressing the chronic situation.

Cleaning the specks off of your glasses isn’t the same thing as taking the glasses off.

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If I asked you, “How do you spend your days?”, you could probably tell me about your appointments, your to-do’s, and your mounting list of priority tasks that need to be accomplished.

But I’d also be willing to bet that if you honestly looked at how you spend your time, you could find quite a few instances where you either fritter away your time doing meaningless tasks, or tackle what seems urgent, but really isn’t important. (yes, there’s a reason that “Twitter” rhymes with “fritter“…)

Hey, it’s nothing personal. Everyone I know does it. The point is, though, what is it costing you? And, ultimately, what can you do about it?

When you’re not spending your time engaged in what really matters to you, it usually comes down to either:

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I was going through my feed reader yesterday, and saw that I had let about 30 posts from Seth Godin build up… so I figured now was as good at time as any to knock them out.

The good thing is, with Seth, there are frequently a lot of gems to be found.

On June 24, he wrote in, “Reasons and excuses”:

Most organizations need a good reason to do something new.
All they need is a flimsy excuse to not do something for the first time.
And they often need a lawsuit to stop doing something they’re used to.

Right away, I thought, “What would a ‘monkish’ version of that be?” So I wrote:

Most people need an overwhelming proposition to try something new.
All they need is a twinge of fear to not do something for the first time.
And they often need a swift kick in the head to stop doing something they’re used to (even if it’s not working).

Then a few hours later, I was on a phone call with Dawud Miracle, talking about landing pages for offers (consulting, workshops, products, etc.), and how even though lots of people say, “Long copy sells,” I know of almost no one who actually reads them the whole way through. Most people I’ve talked to (myself included) scan the first few paragraphs (if not just the first few lines) and then jump to the bottom to find out the price.

Oh sure, they/we may go back then and read for the details we missed, the ones we need to make the final decision, but initially, we scan. And very, very few of us ever read the entire page.

So, bringing together my desire to avoid a “swift kick in the head” , and my preference of pleasing my readers rather than alienating them, I’ve got a question for you as I create my latest landing page (to be unveiled soon):

What are you looking for in a landing page?

Talk about length of copy, talk about graphics, talk about what info you need and don’t, talk about what helps you make a decision, talk about anything you want — I want to hear it all. (I can’t promise that my landing pages can adhere to all the points given (some may contradict others), but I’d like to give you the chance to shape your experience as much as possible.)

Please don’t tell me what works, based on someone else’s opinion (especially a marketing guru whose ebook you bought). I know what they think already. I want to hear what helps you when you’re looking for help. What you would see in a landing page and say, “Thank heavens! Someone who finally figured it out!”

Image by iStockphoto (I got it so long ago, I can’t remember who took it, though).

And thanks to all those who commented on the previous post so far: Joanna Young, Karin H., Stuart Baker, Dave Olson, Kathy

I’m stubborn, I’ll admit it. I’m so stubborn, not even the modern educational system could drive my love of learning out of me (although to be fair, I was lucky to have a handful of wonderful teachers over the years who fanned that flame, rather than dump water on it).

I’m always learning something — right now, I’ve got a stack of four books from the library on my desk, and two more in the living room, plus all the ChangeThis manifestos I still need to read, and the myriad of blogs in my Google Reader that are patiently awaiting my attention.

In fact, one of the aspects of the blogosphere that makes it really easy for me to spend way too much surfing is the amount of wonderful information and personal perspectives that are out there. New learnings are just a click away.

So, here’s my challenge to you, and my invitation:

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Think about this:

We in the music profession train young musicians with utmost care from early childhood, urging them to achieve extraordinary technical mastery and encouraging them to develop good practice habits and performance values. We support them to attend fine summer programs and travel abroad to gain firsthand experience of different cultures, and then, after all this, we throw them into a maelstrom of competition, survival, backbiting, subservience, and status seeking. And from this arena we expect them to perform the great works of the musical literature that call upon, among other things, warmth, nobility, playfulness, generosity, reverence, sensitivity, and love!

(excerpted from “The Art of Possibility” by Rosamund and Ben Zander)

And now, think about this: What kinds of thoughts fill your head as you work? How do you think about yourself, what you do, and the people you serve? What ‘attitude environment’ do you marinate in, day in and day out?

Isn’t that going to come across — somehow, someway?

Imagine what you can do to transform this, starting now. And, let’s talk; share ideas. You never know what your idea could do for someone (and vice versa).

Image by the Zanders, courtesy of Amazon.

And thanks to all who have commented on the previous post so far: Char, David Airey, Dawud Miracle

There’s a great discussion brewing over at Dave Schoof’s site, The Disquiet, about the places we go inside when life isn’t showing up the way we think it should. Namely, we blame ourselves.

I wrote an article about this a couple years ago, while living in Florida, and now that this discussion is going, it seemed perfectly timely to post it again (it’s a timeless topic, after all), with a few edits for clarity’s sake. It speaks to the feelings we have, and judge ourselves for…

The last few days in my office I had been feeling as if something was missing in my work. I took that feeling to mean that I was barking up the wrong tree, and that I should change my focus, my approach, or what I was teaching and to whom.

I assumed, given my feelings of discontent, that I was wrong about my course. “I must be making the wrong choice,” I surmised, “and I need to throw it away and find something new in order to be happy.”

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Around my house, one of those little jingles that always gets resurrected (at seemingly random moments) is from, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”, the Tina Turner biography, starring Angela Bassett. Little Tina is singing with the church choir, and to the obvious frustration of the director, she’s inserting all kinds of spunk in between the lines of “This Little Light of Mine…”

“Jesus… (‘you know mah Lord’) Jesus… (‘he come and tell me’) I’m gonna let it shine…” (‘oh whoa whoa whoa!’)

I love thinking about little Tina, giving it all she’s got, singing for the music inside of her.

For me, that’s inspiring. When people put themselves out there, without censoring themselves because of “what will they think?” voices, or because they might appear different, I find joy in that.

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