The M.A.P. Maker

Success is a numbers game

Do you ever get so caught up in trying to create the perfect outcome that you end up not really moving forward?

When I show people my travel photography, they often make some comment about how much better my pictures are than their vacation photos. What they don't see is the fact that the pictures they're looking at only represent a fraction of the total number of pictures I took.

Going through my shots when I got back from a trip, I'm often struck by how completely underwhelming many of the pictures are. Sometimes it's because what I was trying to capture just didn't quite work. Other times it's because I'm exploring various facets of the same subject, looking for the most interesting and visually appealing approach.

So while I am pleased with the pictures that I end up showing to people, many of the pictures I take end up "on the cutting room floor," so to speak.

When it comes to photography, National Geographic has always been the gold standard in my mind. A few years ago I went to a presentation by a National Geographic photographer, and one of the things that stuck in my mind was the sheer volume of pictures he took for a story - 400 rolls of film (14,400 pictures).

See a trend here? If you're getting caught up in trying achieve the perfect result, you're probably limiting what you can realistically achieve. The more things you try and the more attempts you make, a) the more chances you have to learn and improve and, b) the more chances you are creating to align your luck and skill with opportunity.

Is there anywhere in your life where you're limiting yourself by not letting yourself be imperfect? Is there anywhere you need to take a high volume approach? What could that look like?

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Need simple steps to re-energize your career?
Get started with 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work!

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Crossroads: How to achieve your dreams one choice at a time

Lately I've been working on some aspects of my life that haven't been working for me. Habits, ways of thinking, etc. that simply haven't been leading me in the direction I want to go.

I haven't been making big sweeping changes. I've been working on creating a better path one choice at a time. As so often happens, I started thinking of an analogy for what I've been doing.

It occurred to me that every time I was confronted with the choice of whether to pursue the old mode that wasn't taking me where I want to go, or the new mode, I was in essence at a crossroads. And depending on the choice I made, I was taking a step toward the life I want or a step away from it.

After I started thinking about that, it wasn't long before I hit the whiteboard to sketch out a visual. I scribbled something like this:

For me, it was helpful to see a visual of the idea. Every point along the way has the potential to lead me toward what I want (the green) or away from it (the brown). But not only that, the visual reinforced the notion that, even if I slip, movement towards where I want to go is only one choice away. In fact, every crossroad is the potential beginning for an endless series of positive choices.

It's unrealistic to think that every step and every choice is going to lead you in the right direction. But keeping this crossroads concept in mind can make it easier to consciously take a path that leads to the life you want. You end up with something a little like this.

 The beauty of this approach is that it really focuses your attention on the question of, "What choice am I making right now? Which direction am I choosing right now?"And it's the cumulative effect of those individual choices that takes you where you want to go.

You can apply this at any level, from the macro (would taking this job lead me in a direction I really want to go?) to the micro (e.g., creating a new habit). 

Where are the crossroads in your life? What choices are you making?

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

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by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

The power of "Just one more"

I have a simple three-step plan for turning your dreams into reality. Want to hear it? Here you go:

1) Work your ass off.
2) Keep working your ass off.
3) Work your ass off just a little bit more.

A positive mindset is a great way to maximize the potential for manifesting the life you want, but if you want to maximize the likelihood, your best bet is to pair that up with some good old-fashioned hard work and persistence.

When it comes to hard work and persistence, this post on about the "just one more" solution (always making one more effort) got me thinking about how powerful a just-one-more-attempt approach can be.

Why do I love the idea? Two reasons. First, it keeps you in the present. Just one more isn't about the ten attempts you made in the past or the ten more you might have to make in the future. It's about focusing your effort on the here and now.

When you stay in the present, you can focus all your energy on your immediate efforts without having it drained off by the frustration of past and potential future efforts.

Second, just one more is always doable. It's simply one more step, and that's how your dreams are likely to unfold - step-by-step.

What about your life? Is there anyplace where you can say, "Just one more?"

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

How to get traction from your action

One of the joys of self-employment is that I get to do whatever I choose. That's also one of the perils. It's too easy to get caught up doing things that have the flavor of work, but are really just ways to chase my own tail. They might be fun and interesting, but aren't actually taking me anywhere.

One of the questions I have started asking regularly when choosing how to spend my time is, "Is this moving me forward? How?"

Asking that question forces me to be honest about what I'm doing. I don't even want to think about how many hours/days/weeks I have spent taking action that amounted to little more than fun busy work when I shine the light of that question on it.

Asking how ties my activity directly to what it is I say I want to accomplish. It takes away the wiggle room and ensures that how I'm choosing to spend my time really is moving me towards what I want to achieve.

That's not to say I have to be rigid about it. I can still choose to spend my time in ways that aren't directly moving me forward, but when I do it should be a conscious choice and not a way to fool myself into thinking I'm doing something productive.

Try this: For a week, do an end-of-day review each day. Look at how you have spent your time and ask yourself, "Is this moving me forward? How?"

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Taking action: What's on your next-up list?

When it comes to getting traction on creating the life you want, I'm a big fan of baby steps. Don't get me wrong, big dramatic leaps have the place, but most of the significant, lasting change we experience in life tends to come from persistent, consistent movement in that direction.

Here's an article with a simple idea to help you stay focused on taking those small steps. It's called creating a Next-Up List. What's that? As the article describes it...

It's the small actions or goals that are up next on your list of things to do and accomplish. Not a major dream or ambition, but something you can do within the next few days to improve the quality of your life.

The basic idea is to make a Next-Up List for a variety of areas in your life - personal development, finances, career, relationships, etc.

The nice thing about this idea is that it gives you a clear where-to-from-here. If you have defined bite-sized steps, it's a lot easier to just pick from the list and run with it than if you have to keep saying, "OK, what do I need to do now?" It removes a barrier to motion.

Try making it a part of your weekly ritual. Maybe every Sunday night or Monday morning you sit down and take stock of the different areas of your life that you want to see progress on and ask yourself, "What's next?"

So what's next for you?

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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

You can't do it all (right now).

Do you ever find yourself trying to accomplish so much that life leaves you feeling a little dizzy? You're spinning madly, trying to do more and more and more, all the while stretching ever thinner.

It's tempting to try to cram as much as we can into our bucket o' life, but the reality is, when it's full, something has to give. Something is going to spill over the side. That might be our relationships, our health, the quality of our work, some other adverse effect (or a combination of all of the above).

Over on Self-Help Daily, a post on accomplishing more by doing less got me thinking about a time in my own life when I was addicted to the high-energy pace of the 70-hour work week lifestyle. I wanted to think the volume of my bucket was bigger than most, but the truth was that it was sloshing over the sides at every turn.

One day a friend sat me down and said, "Curt, you're trying to do everything, and you're not doing anything well." Not what I wanted to hear, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was true.

I ended up making a list of all the things I had on my plate and forced myself to prioritize them. I divided my life into two-week segments and assigned tasks to the current segment, then the next, and so on.

Then, when I was tempted to try to do this, and this, and this, oh, and THIS TOO, I could say, "That would be nice, but it's not time for that yet." I was able to focus on a smaller range of tasks and do them better.

How could your life benefit by prioritizing and living it one chunk at a time?

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Need to re-energize your career?
Get started with 101 Ways to Get Wild About Work!

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

The "M.A.P. Maker Teleforum" experiment (join me!)

Do you ever find a need to get things “just right” preventing you from actually doing anything? I sure do.

 

Like anybody else, I have a bazillion ways to get in my own way. One of those is a need to feel like I know what I’m doing. When I don’t feel confident in that, it can shut me down and block my progress. I’ve been the midst of one of those blockages for too long.

 

I want to create a forum where I can connect with you, share my ideas and insights on creating a career (and a life) that energizes and inspires, and learn from you as well.

 

With that in mind, I’m throwing my hat over the fence for a new experiment. Starting on Monday, September 15^th at 9 a.m. Pacific time, I’m going to do a series of phone calls to discuss the ideas, philosophies, tips and tricks of being a M.A.P. Maker. To give the experiment some parameters, I’m going to start with a series of four, taking place on successive Mondays.

 

Want to be part of experimentation-in-action, and get some valuable insights to boot? E-mail me to register for the free call and I will send you the details (phone number, etc.).

 

Here is what I have in mind for the first call: 

 

Time: 9:00 a.m. Pacific time (I’m in Seattle)

 

Duration: One hour

 

Format: 20- to 30-minute talk from me, and then the remainder of the time focused on Q&A, your experiences, etc.

 

Topic: Personal Energy Management Using the Gain to Drain Ratio.

 

This is a broad topic that creates an overarching framework for how to create a life that energizes and inspires. It’s a simple idea – to maximize your energy, build more of what energizes you into your life, and jettison what drains you. In essence, this is a practical framework you can use to super-charge your life.

 

After I outline the basic principles, we’ll get interactive and turn the discussion over to some of you to explore how that applies to your own lives, careers, etc. We’ll also turn the floor over to your collective expertise to get your insights and ideas.

 

Preparation needed: Just show up. If you have specific questions , e-mail them ahead of time and I’ll try to work them into the interactive discussion space.

 

I’m honestly not sure where it will go, or what it will become. And I guess that’s part of the beauty of it. I’m going to experiment, see what works and what doesn’t, build on that, and find what it wants to become.

 

I hope you'll join me!

--

Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams

--

by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst

Unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dreams!

This morning Making the Impossible Possible by Bill Strickland found its way into my morning reading rotation. After only a few pages, I found myself inspired to jump up and blog.

As I described in a previous post sparked by Lisa Haneberg's podcast interview with him, "Bill grew up in what he describes as a very bad inner city community. Today, he is the President and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, an organization that blends business and social change."

In the book, he describes one of the underlying keys to his transformation from "just another aimless kid, coasting through school, bored, and disengaged" to CEO of an organization that has been the subject of multiple Harvard Business School case studies and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation genius grant:

...one of the greatest obstacles blocking us from realizing that potential is that we believe, or are told, the things we want most passionately are impractical, unrealistic, or somehow beyond our reach. The story I have to share with you is the pursuit of one unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dream after another, and the remarkable consistency with which those dreams have come true. That didn't happen by magic. It happened because I refused to be limited by what conventional wisdom, or other people, or the cautious little voice we all have in our heads told me I couldn't do.

I love the idea of serial unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dreaming. Turning one dream after another into reality. It recognizes that, as we get closer to one dream, there's something else that seems way out there. Something else to make us stretch and inspire us.

And it always starts with where we are right now. Sometimes pursuing a dream means jumping in and starting to build it right away. Other times we first have to start filling in the hole we're standing in so we can stand up and scan the horizon. Sometimes the dream comes rushing up to meet us. Other times we have to diligently chip away at it to make it happen. Whatever the situation, it starts by taking steps.

What's your unrealistic, impractical, outrageous dream? What dreams are you saying no to because you don't see an obvious, readily attained path to get there?

What one step could you take in that direction today? What one step could you take this week? This month?

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Want positive change? Apply the 30% rule

Everything I talk about in this blog, and everything I focus on in my work, is ultimately aimed at one thing - catalyzing positive change. For me, that positive change starts at the individual level and ripples out.

An awareness of the issues is important, but too often the quest for awareness turns into little more than "bad news porn." This is wrong, and that is screwed up, and those people over there are doing such stupid things! We can get so caught up in what's wrong that we never focus our attention to what's really important - how to take the steps to create what's right.

I spent yesterday at the GreenFestival in Seattle. One of the speakers I caught was Sharif Abdullah, author of The Power of One and Creating a World That Works for All. In his talk, he described what he called the 30% rule.

In a nutshell, the 30% rule says we should spend no more than 30% of our time talking about what's wrong, and focus the remaining 70% on exploring, strategizing, and taking action.

On his blog recently, he described how it plays out in his own life:

• I only spend 30% of my time talking about problems – any more than that is disempowering (which is not my intention). The other 70% of my time I focus on visions and solutions.

• I refuse to pay attention to sources that spend 100% of their time talking about problems (the negative energy stream). This includes highly credible, well researched, fact-filled sources like Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. We simply don’t have the time to bathe in a constant stream of negativity.

• I am encouraging others to follow the “30% Rule”. WE SIMPLY DON’T HAVE TIME TO RUN AROUND TALKING ABOUT PROBLEMS INSTEAD OF SOLUTIONS. It’s like running into a crowded theater yelling “Fire!”. Instead of showing people to the exits, instead of coming in with a fire hose or a fire extinguisher, you just keep yelling “Fire!”. Very quickly, that becomes counterproductive. Someone said, “You don’t get points for just predicting rain; you get points for building an ark.”

I love this mindset, whether we are thinking about positive change that needs to be made in the world around us, or changes we need to make in our own lives. Nothing happens by focusing entirely on the problem. Positive change happens when we ask ourselves, OK, so what do I do about it? And then start taking action.

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Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM

Dare to drop your flaming hula hoop

What could you learn from a flaming hula hooper? When it comes to getting the most out of your potential, plenty. 

I went to a winter solstice celebration at Seattle Center yesterday, which featured a group of fire spinning performers around the main fountain.

Flaming hula hoops played a featured role in the performance. As I watched, one performer in particular captivated my attention. They were all impressive, but her performance seemed to have been taken up a notch. She brought an energy, intensity, and skill to it that felt like watching a fireworks display.

And here's the funny thing. While I was absorbed in the intensity of her performance, I saw her drop her hoop twice. Rather than looking flustered, she just picked up and jumped right back into it with abandon.

The experience got me thinking about why, of all the obviously skilled fire spinners there, she was my favorite. And I realized that the intensity I was so drawn to and the hoop drops were two sides of the same coin.

She probably could have toned down her performance to make sure that she didn't drop the hoop. But I have a feeling I wouldn't have been as captivated by what she was doing. She allowed herself to go to the edge of what she had to give.

In short, she went to the edge of "failure." She clearly had the skill so it wasn't reckless, but she didn't hold back and play it overly safe. And when she had a momentary lapse, she didn't let it stop her, but jumped in with the same zeal as before.

All of which leads me to the point of this post. Where is the flaming hula hoop in your life? What do you feel called to do that you're holding back on? What skill are you not fully using because you don't want to fail? What risk are you not taking because the outcome might not be perfect.

Watching that performer, the perfection wasn't in the flawless performance. The perfection was in the energy and intensity that she was able to share with everyone watching.

The most juicy, meaningful, amazing performances of your life aren't going to come because you played it safe enough to have a perfect performance. They're going to come because you risked enough imperfection to let you soar.

Check out The Occupational Adventure Guide

Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst ^TM