There Can Be Joy in Inperfection

Good Morning,

 

Having Goals and Goal Setting, forming strategies and action plans have been a mainstay of our culture for some time. Goals are good, although there are times when our goals can cause us a lot of grief and disappointment.

 

Goals too easily achieved can cause a sense of invincibility or even boredom. Solution, make harder goals.

 

Goals too hard to achieve can cause a sense of inadequacy or even depression. Solution, make easier goals.

 

In making easier goals, we have to understand that we are not going to be perfect in everything we do. That not hitting our goals does not mean that we are bad or inadequate.

 

A runner, in their first week of running, who eyes the breaking the 4 minute mile will have a hard time achieving that goal. Facing those challenges, someone could assume that they will never be able to hit the mark and give up.

 

A better approach is to look at not achieving goals in a different light, such as an organization looking to improve itself by setting goals not to compete with local competitors, but with world class organizations.  While they may never get as good as the best, they will certainly get better than the local competition. In this case, not achieving the goal is a good thing as achieving the goal itself was never the goal, rather the improvements gained along the way.

 

Understanding that we are imperfect people (pause for effect), we can find greatness right where we are in our own imperfection.

 

That, though, does not mean that we stand still, rather we look to improve ourselves by working toward goals, even it if it only by reading a few pages a day, listening to a few minutes of a podcast or chatting with a mentor in passing.

 

When we learn and grow daily, we improve ourselves, and when we don’t place unobtainable goals in front of ourselves, we reduce our stress of attempting to achieve the impossible while we find joy in our imperfections.

 

We may never be the best in anything we do, and that is okay. Focus on what we can do, and take the next step up.  Then tomorrow, do it again.  

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.learnandgrowdaily.com

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

 

Click on the book to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336

 

 

 

Life Comes in Waves

Good Morning,

 

Yesterday, while shopping at Target for groceries and stuff, I was talking to the checkout clerk who had opened up her register because there was a back up of people checking out.

 

She mused that throughout the day, people will just show up in waves at the checkout.

 

There is no pattern, you see people coming in, but they checkout at different times, depending on how much stuff they bought, how long they looked for it, how long they reviewed and compared it, etc.

 

I shared working in a call center is the same way. We get spikes of calls coming from people which can see all but random. Sure if there is an outage, we will get a spike depending on how many people are impacted, but often there are spikes because people in different parts of the world, in different roles, doing different work, etc., just decided to call.

 

These waves seem to also impact our lives. That is, there are days that are just busy for no apparent reason, things just happen all around us and keep us moving from sun up to sun down. And there are days that it is just slow. I like those days.

 

Waves can last days, months, or years.

 

And like standing on the beach of an ocean, how we prepare or brace ourselves against the waves often determines who we stand up to them, or get knocked over.

 

Life is like that too.

 

The more we prepare for life, by learning and growing daily, the better we embrace ourselves to withstand the waves the come our way in life.

 

Through my years of reading, learning and doing, I have found that I have a greater ability to handle the waves that seems to come no matter how hard I try to slow down my life.

 

How are you doing when the waves come? 

 

What do you do to prepare?

 

What should you be doing if you keep finding yourself knocked over by the latest wave?

 

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

 

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

502-533-9336

 

Focusing on Teamwork and winning!

Good Morning,

 

Living in Louisville, at this time of year, especially this year, one cannot ignore the amazing and gut wrenching journey of the Louisville Cardinals Men’s Basketball Team as they enter the Final Four of the 2013 NCAA Championship for the second year in a row. Many things drove them to succeed in their match up with Duke on Sunday’s (Easter) game.  And for that matter, the Women’s Team which also beat the number one seed.

 

In a post game interview for the Men’s Competition, Peyton Siva shared one of the drivers that helped this team get to where they are now and hopeful for a championship win in the week to come.

 

He said that Pride was the issue in the 2012 season. That the team had to cast Pride out of the door and embrace humility.

 

He said the most important name on each of the team’s jersey’s wasn’t the one on the back (each players name), it’s the name on the front, the team name.

 

Each player focused on being a team, and winning for a single cause, for their injured player, Kevin Ware.

 

These two illustrate two elements for an unstoppable team.

 

·         Being a team, and not individual players.

·         Having a single focus.

 

Both are simple concepts, yet both are often difficult to accomplish. So many individuals out there, with their own goals, vision and focus.

 

Work toward being one.

 

And win.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://learnandgrowdaily.com

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