Closing the computer, turning off the noise, and going to sleep. It’s a ritual I look forward to every day. It’s sometimes a ritual I wish I could repeat multiple times a day. Who’s to say I can’t? There’s always something refreshing about waking up.
We made it. You made it.Rest. Everything will be there in the morning.
I blogged about Bob Knight yesterday. I wrote about seeing life as it is; and not seeing it through the lens of hope and idealism. Is that negative? No. My simple way of thinking about being a realist (as opposed to a cynic or an optimist): I give myself space and time to interpret what I see by staying behind life's pace. I argue I get the best of both worlds ;-)
Late (im)famous Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight passed away. I’m not much of a basketball fan; therefore, I can’t fully appreciate his legacy on the court. I do read, and I appreciate his thoughts on leadership. Have you read, The Power of Negative Thinking yet? “Being alert to the possible negatives in any situation is the very best way to bring about positive results. And the reverse is true, too -- ignoring or failing to spot potential hazards in advance makes failure all the more likely.” — Bob Knight, The Power of Negative Thinking.I also love this quote from Bob’s “10 Commandments of Leadership.”“Never stop looking for new ideas. Be self-critical of your beliefs when others offer possible alternatives. Remember, you're not the inventor of the wheel or the Internet. Learn from the wisdom of others - listen to people who came before, like the playwright George Bernard Shaw: ‘Some see things as they are and ask, 'Why?' I see things as they could be and ask, 'Why not?'‘“ - Bob Knight, The Power of Negative ThinkingAs much as I appreciate optimism; life is simply not that way. Life is life — a balance between hot and cold, order and chaos, and life and death. People who see through the rose colored glasses at the effectual truth of life are often considered cynical or negative. I see us as being realistic. I think Bob was like that too.
I work in a firm that runs advertising campaigns for clients — paid search. A way to paid search is to launch Google Ads. Google charges you, the advertiser, a fee every time someone clicks on your ad. This is called “Cost per Click” or CPC. Every word you type into Google has a value. That value is based on how much intent Google thinks you have to buy a service or a product. “Where can I find cheap legal service” is high intent versus “legal services.”If I want to buy clicks from high-intent buyers, I must spend lots of money. The next best type of click you can get is an organic click. That’s a click that doesn’t come from any form of paid-search. It’s an 18+ month slog of creating content, optimization, testing, re-testing… you don’t know want to know. If you want to high intent organic buyers, you must invest time.You now have two things. A basic understanding of digital advertising; andA deep principle of what it means to attract the people who care — you have to invest in them, you have to show up for them. There are no shortcuts.
I’ve been using this nifty device to advocate for myself. Try it.Situation: Moment when I interpret the events of something in a negative way. Perhaps someone said something to me that I didn’t like. Maybe I didn’t like the result of something I tried.ActionsReflect: Determine the story that I’m telling myself about what just happened.Declare: “Hey, the story that I’m telling myself now is that ____”Ask: “Is this story accurate? What am I missing? How do I make this a more complete story?”Listen. Incorporate what you learned back into your story. Ask yourself: What would it mean for me to believe this new story? Start telling yourself that new story. EnjoyTry it out!
Because vomiting requires the use of your core muscles.And if your core muscles aren’t strong enough, vomits will be painful. There’s always a silver lining… (I’m sick… that’s why I’m vomiting…)
I am contemplating rethinking the idea of failure. I want to have a less toxic relationship with the term; but, I don’t want to celebrate the term and make it more than it is. I think of a failure as a “swing and a miss” — to use a baseball concept. After you swing and miss, you re-orientate yourself, learn, and swing again. I think of failure like I think of baseball… and there’s no crying in baseball.
Work requires us to engage with and apply a force upon the world. Work is active, stressful, and demands focus. You can’t be that way all the time. You need to stop, breathe, and contemplate.The actions I did today, who were they for? what were they for? Did my work make change happen? Was it the change those I seek to serve hoped for? What must I do tomorrow to serve more?Sleep. Wake.Apply force.
I know many people who ask ChatGPT to write and analyze things for them. Prompts that look like: “Write an email to my customers…”What if we pretended we were the customer? The one being served by our message. I started using prompts like: “I’m an attorney, I care about growing my business. I don’t know much about marketing, and I don’t want to spend time focusing on x, y, and z. I recently started with {insert business name here) to solve my marketing problems. What should I expect in my first meeting from them? How will I know they know what they’re talking about and looking after my investment?”It takes a bit more time. Then again, empathy of any kind takes time. Always worth the result.