Message of the Day - Make It Your Moonbase

Good Morning,

 

 I find that some of my best ideas come by sharing my initial thoughts with others. Today, chatting with a friend and mentor, Hope Zoeller, was one such occasion.

 

As we go through life, trying to improve ourselves, we often find role models who embody what we aspire to become. Anthony Robbins teaches us to surround ourselves with those people who are the embodiment of what we wish to be.

 

One challenge is that while we surround ourselves with others and strive to be like them we start trying to become them. For example, I am working to improve my public speaking and speech writing skills. I look at Winston Churchill as a role model. While I have studied his life and learned many of his techniques, I have not tried to act like him, or be like him, rather, I take elements from his repertoire and make them my own.

 

A good analogy of this are Legos.

 

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of different Lego sets in existence.

 

Imagine that at our core, we are a single Lego. Then what we learn, experience and make our own in our lives are additional Lego pieces which snap onto core and become extensions of ourselves.

 

So, where do we get those other pieces?

 

From the many, many different Lego sets which can represent life experiences and knowledge. We could get a Pirate set, and get a few ship pieces to add to our core. We could get an Olympic Games set, or we can get the Moonbase Set.

 

When we learn from others and take a little bit of their habits, knowledge and teaching and make it our own, we take a few pieces from that Lego set.

 

What we shouldn’t do is to try and become any one entire set (no matter how cool the set is). We may want to be like the Moonbase set, but we shouldn’t be Moonbase exclusively.

 

We should make it our own with all the other Lego pieces we have accumulated over the years.

 

And as we can almost always add more Legos to any creation, we can and should keep finding new ways to learn and grow and daily, adding on new pieces of Legos from the different places we go, people we meet, things we learn, or in other words, different sets of Legos.

 

In the end, we can make it our own Moonbase, starting with the core set and adding in all the different Lego pieces we have accumulated throughout our lives.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

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Message of the Day - Pre-Planned Failure

Good Morning,

 

Being a bit of a perfectionist, I find it frustrating to watch people go about some project and task, just winging it and more often than not, just failing, or with an outcome a lot less ambitious than they originally planned.

 

I remember times where folks make the mistake of seeing someone perform some task and deciding that they too could do the task from just what they have seen. And when they get it going, more often than not it turns out poorly if not outright fails.

 

Without having an intimate knowledge of what is required to complete a task or project, those taking it on are creating multiple obstacles, many they have no clue even exist, create an uphill battle to succeed.  

 

We can blame those folks who make what we want to do look easy. The Rubik’s Cube or Yo-Yo masters who make the toys look so very simple to use, that we can’t wait to open our wallets and purses to get one. And before even the torn open package has time to settle on the counter, we are already frustrated that we can’t solve the puzzle or use the Yo-Yo like the master in the store. 

 

They made it look so easy.

 

How many projects have we all started where we have actually got started, only to stop midway through because we ran into some un-foreseen obstacles.  The number I can remember is painful to remember.

 

It seems that we are planning not so much to accomplish something, rather, we are planning to fail.

 

Without knowing a reasonable amount about what we wish to accomplish, we make it harder and harder on us to achieve our goals.

 

The Rubiks and Yo-Yo masters have been practicing for weeks, months or years. We don’t see that part, and assume it was not necessary or even happened.

 

As part of taking on any project or goal, we need to seek out what it will take to get it done. The answer is not ‘I saw this guy do it and it was easy’. More often than not, most tasks are never that easy.

 

And if you get lucky and achieve your goal on the first outing, it is really important to figure out why, because your second attempt may not be so successful and you will wonder why you failed.

 

Without understanding what is involved in any undertaking, we may be planning to fail, rather than accomplishing the goal at hand.

 

Something to think about.

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

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Message of the Day - Blindly Pushing our Luck

Good Morning,

 

This past Saturday I manned the Scottish Society of Louisville’s information table. There we help people find out if they have Scottish Ancestry. For some folks it is a passing fancy, while for others it is an answer to lifelong questions.  One lady who came to the table had me look up four names, the last names of her grandparents and four for four they were all of Scottish decent. Then after thinking for a moment, she asked if she could look up another name. A name of a great grandparent. I suggested that she is already more Scottish than most people, but she decided to look further and went from a 100% hit to 80% when her fifth ancestor was found to not be of Scottish descent.

 

While this, in itself, is of little consequence, it does illustrate a point about knowing when enough is enough and when we are taking something too far.  It is these times when we have what we need and get a little greedy, looking for something more that we can enter ourselves in to world of confusion and hurt. Like gambling, where we enter a winning streak and bet it all just one more time and lose it all, we have to be careful when things go our way.  We can get caught up in the moment and not think everything through as we should.

 

Looking a bit deeper, there is another concept of success we often overlook. This is understanding what we have done to succeed in the first place. When we fail, we find it easy to stop and reflect on ‘how did I mess up in the first place?’ Seldom do we do the same reflection when we succeed, much less then we have a winning streak fueling our egos.

 

This lack of understanding of how we succeeded can act to blind us to the pitfalls in continuing forward full speed ahead. It is like pushing the pedal to the metal down a foggy road at night when we can’t see beyond the edge of our car’s hood just because we have successfully navigated the last few roads the same way in the same conditions.

 

Eventually our luck runs out.

 

The ironic part is that there is little to do with luck. If we take the time to understand how we succeeded and reinforce it, as well as research our failures and correct our mistakes and update our knowledge, our ‘luck’ increases mightily. In reality, skill and experience are more powerful than luck. Without them though, all we have is luck.

 

As Kenny Rogers once sang, “You’ve got to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them..”

 

Knowledge is power when applied correctly. Without this knowledge, we take silly chances and push our luck, and we all know how that often ends up.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

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Message of the Day - Survival Mode

Good Morning,

 

While at a board meeting last week, I heard someone say that they were having problems working with other organizations because they had gone into survival mode.

 

Survival Mode: you know the putting 110% focus on keeping a group alive. All attention is moved to NOW or tomorrow. Opportunities which lay beyond tomorrow are often ignored because they do not contribute to survival today. In a personal sense, the survival mode is akin to a ‘Last Ditch Effort’ a ‘Hail Mary’ Pass, all or nothing.

 

The changing of all focus from doing what is smart and long term to doing whatever can be done on the short term. It is like a flailing of arms and a flurry of activity which have little effect other than to keep an organization from being pulled into a growing whirlpool. Sadly, survival mode is mostly a trap, in and of itself. Taking a cue from Jim Collin’s “How the Mighty Fall” this last rally to save the organization is often too little too late.

 

Like the Hail Mary Pass, the amount of risk increases when caution is thrown to the wind and all energies are pumped into the saving of the organization. This can be seen as an extension of the one-shot get rich quick scheme. Instead of diligently working hard to build up the organization, people look for the faster gain, quickest win they can find and throw resources in on getting it. If most of those ‘get rich quick schemes’ fail on an average day, why would anyone think they are the solution in a desperate situation where the ship is going down?

 

Instead of looking at Survival mode where all attention diverts to what can save us now, we have to strengthen our resolve and work smarter and faster than before.

 

Working smart is always the best choice. This means using the tools at our disposal, goal setting, quality monitoring, strategy planning, risk assessments, etc. More focus needs to be placed on smart, step by step plans and activities, than grabbing at straws.

 

Part of the challenge is the anxiety and fear that fills the air as plans are tossed about and leadership tries to navigate the rough waters.

 

By keeping calm, and carefully, albeit quickly, putting together sound plans and then enacting them, changing course when necessary as the landscape changes, an organization in trouble will have more success in rectifying their situation than frantic scrambling to get something, anything, done and done now.

 

Survival Mode is a bad place to be. If you are forced there, remember that the managed and leadership tools which help strengthen organizations can still work to save a struggling organization.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

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Message of the Day - From Average to Outstanding

Good Morning,

 

I walked into the book storage room and saw piles upon piles of books in boxes, tossed on shelves, and on the floor and all over. There must have been thousands of books all around and it was nearly impossible to walk from one end of the room to another. I was asked to organize it, and I as I made my way through the storage room, I could see the end state in my mind. I could see the neat piles of boxes, and loose books neatly stacked on shelves with all books organized alphabetically by subject. It would make the room functional again give the organization a real feel for where its assets in this room truly were.

 

Then I got started and within a few hours I had moved a bunch of boxes around and basically changed the mess from where I found it to a new mess that was probably more organized, but not nearly where I pictured myself to be when I visualized the end state of an organized room.

 

It was at that point that I started to feel defeated and considered giving up. That the task was too much.

 

The steps I needed to take from the beginning to the end were simply much more than I had anticipated.

 

This happens a lot to many of us. We come into an average situation, or a mediocre operation and visual plans to take it to best ever production. We can plan the steps and we can find out what we are missing and ultimately set the strategy, tactics and teams to accomplish the goals. When those plans and actions, though, take more than three or four steps, we lose momentum and often quit.

 

Moving from average to outstanding is not something we can do like the owl and the tootsie roll pop, and get to the center in three licks. We have to do it the human way and work it through each and every step to get to the goal.

 

Here are some tips to keep in mind when facing the task of moving a group, team, project, etc., from average to outstanding:

 

1.       The task is usually larger than first anticipated.

2.       There is usually opposition waiting to ambush you and the process.

3.       Lack of planning is almost a guarantee of failure. Winging it is NOT an option.

4.       Just because you did it before does NOT mean that you can do it again. If you blindly use what you know to embrace a new situation without finding out if it even applies, you are in for an arduous journey.

5.       The task is usually more complex than first anticipated.

 

Going from Average to Outstanding is a worthy goal, but seldom does it happen in three or less steps. Even the most skilled people have to take the same number of steps as you, they just have more skill and can do them faster and more efficiently. This gives the illusion they are doing in less steps than the rest of us. For example, the person who solves the Rubic’s Cube in 30 seconds or less is going to make just as many moves as the person who opens up an instruction book and makes each move one at a time. It may take 10 minutes, but it is the same number of steps as the expert who solves it in under 30 seconds.

 

So it makes sense to give ourselves a little leeway when we take on new projects and tasks knowing what we know from above.

 

We can go from Average to Outstanding, and we can enjoy the scenic route getting there.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

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Message of the Day - We Cannot Be What We are Not...or Can We?

Good Morning,

 

This morning while driving to work and listening to the radio (traffic, weather, etc.) I heard the DJ say something about someone trying to be something that they are not and how they failed.  Since I am in the business of helping people be something better than they are, it caused me to ponder.

 

·         If we don’t have the knowledge and or experience on how to perform a task, then we most likely will fail when we try to perform it.

·         If we try to fulfill a role or position when we do not know what the duties and responsibilities of that role are, then we will most likely fail when we try to fulfill our duties.

·         If we try to get into an organization, or achieve an award when we have not completed the preliminary requirements (certification, training, etc.) then we will fail when we try to get in.

 

After pondering this, I had to accept that we truly could not be what we are not.

 

But, is this the end?

 

Are we up against a barrier or wall?

 

No, not at all.

 

While we cannot be what we are not, we can learn, train and practice being what we want to be.

 

That is:

 

·         We can get the knowledge or gain the experience to perform a task, is pretty much every field, and succeed.

·         We can learn how perform a function, to shadow someone who knows and performs the role, and learn to perform successfully ourselves.

·         We can get training, earn certifications and meet the entry requirements to successfully join the organizations we wish to join and earn the award we seek.

 

When we learn and grow daily, we can become what we are not. We can achieve what we thought impossible before.

 

When we do not try, we truly cannot be what we are not.

 

The choice is our own.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

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Message of the Day - The In-Between Time

Good Morning,

 

Have you ever noticed that when we take a step away from what we are comfortable with and move to something new that we find most of our challenges? This past week I changed from a laptop back to a desktop computer. The three year old laptop was running slowly and the number of USB items needing to be connected to the PC exceeded the number of available ports making it seem like a game of musical chairs for peripherals. The happy computer relationship was having its issues.

 

Anyway, there was a time when I stopped using the laptop and still could not use the desktop for most of my normal activities. This in-between time was a bit stressful. I am no stranger to setting up PC’s and am often the Tech Support rep of choice for my family and friends. Yet, in this in-between time, a lot of normal every day activities were not being completed, and those that were being done had to be done differently than what I was used to, making the production a bit less than efficient than normal.

 

It was only when I got the new desktop up to running a majority of my necessary programs, all the peripherals found an open and willing port, the necessary drivers were installed and tested, that I passed out of the in-between time and started to get back on with my normal daily routines. Although moving from a 15 inch laptop monitor to a 20 inch LCD screen with 70,000:1 contrast ratio has seen an increase in visits to YouTube to watch Skillet and Fireflight videos (I am listening to one now as I edit this message).

 

This in-between time is found in everyone’s lives. Some folks are old pro’s and embrace those uneasy times knowing it will all work out, and yet others forego any changes whatsoever to avoid even entering the in-between time. You know them, they are the ones who are still trying to find ways to get their Office 95 products to work on Windows 7.

 

The in-between can be between two different events, or two different courses of action, or even between two decisions. Whenever we look back and forth between two or more different courses of action or thoughts, we have entered the in-between. It is also during this in-between time where we make the most mistakes and act the most unlike ourselves. Because we enter this gray area of the being in-between what we know and are familiar with, we try to move quickly to get back to a comfort zone, and often do so with knee-jerk decisions.

 

Some folks love pushing people into the in-between area during negotiations, arguments and discussions entirely due to the weakened state we operate in when we moving from our comfort zones. In fact, the computer I purchased came at a discounted price due to a manager of the store I purchased it at being pushing into the in-between. It was closing time, actually, I walked into the store 3 minutes to closing with a price-match request, complete with competitor flier in hand. The model was very close, with one different sub-letter. The Manager had to decide if he was going to invest the time to explain to me that even though all the model numbers in the ad, and on the box in his store matched there was a difference in models, or if he was going to move on with his normal daily shutdown routines. Being in that in-between area, he decided not to argue and gave me the price match price, and got on with his store closing procedures.

 

Knowing that we are more vulnerable and apt to make mistakes or less than optimum decisions during the in-between times, it only makes sense that prepare ourselves to resist the knee-jerk reactions and be able to act in a manner according to our nature and values.  A good way to do this is to understand how we do react during those in-between times. When I get into these transitions, or in-between times, my mind picks up pace to prepare the greater range of decisions I may have to make.  This status sometimes looks like I am acting ‘hyper’, and if I do not stay on top of it, I do get a bit hyper. Years ago, when I did not know this about myself, I would inevitably end up being hyper and doing silly and at times, stupid things.

 

Getting to know myself better, has allowed me to be better prepared during the in-between times that happen to us on a weekly, daily and sometimes hourly basis.

 

How do you respond to moving into the in-between times in your day to day life?

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336