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success

Why New Year’s Resolutions Suck (But Why You Should Make Them Anyway)

by Drew on December 28, 2009 in Learn with Humor

photo by biewoef

Every year, over 100 million Americans make a New Year’s Resolution; only 18% of those people will actually keep it. If less than 1/5th of the people that make a resolution actually keep them, why even bother coming up with a new goal to start working on the first of year? We’ll get to that, but first…

Why New Year’s Resolutions Suck

New Year’s Resolutions have a number of things working against them, but it comes down to three main reasons of Suck.

Reason of Suck #1 – Procrastination

The big problem with New Year’s Resolutions is that we wait until the “magical” date of the first of the year to start them. You might think in October, “you know, I should start exercising,” but then think, “oh, well I’ll just wait till the New Year and start off fresh.”

This is just a way of procrastinating. Why not start working on the new goal when you first start thinking about it? January 1st is just another day on the calendar, yet we wait for it to come to do things we could start doing today.

Reason of Suck #2 – Lack of Preparation

The second reason New Year’s Resolutions suck is that we push off even starting on our resolution till the first of the year. The problem is that if you want to actually succeed at your goal, you’ll need to do some planning. Research tips on your new goal, read about success stories of other people, find like-minded people that can keep you committed.

Waiting until the day you want to make a change to even create a plan on how to make the change is what lands you in the 82% of people who don’t make it.

Reason of Suck #3 – Intimidation/De-motivation

The final reason New Year’s Resolutions suck is that they are too intimidating. Generally, when we set a goal at the beginning of the year, it’s for the entire year. We assume that we can go from behaving one way (such as smoking) on one day, to then behaving another way (not smoking) the next. And we think we will behave the new way forever.

Thinking about making a change for the rest of your life is intimidating; it’s daunting and scary. Plus when we mess up, it becomes de-motivating (“I’ll never learn to eat the right number of fruits and vegetables every day.”) Instead, think in smaller chunks. First try to work on your resolution for just a week, or 30 days. Then link those weeks together and you’ll eventually get to that full year with the new behavior.

Why You Should Make Them Anyway

So if New Year’s Resolutions suck, why even make them? Because they’re better than nothing. They’re better than sitting around and accepting the status quo. If the change of the new year is what motivates you to do something, then take advantage of it and do it.

Because even if you don’t succeed at never hitting snooze again in your life, you’ll do better than if you never set the goal to begin with. And that’s why you make a New Year’s Resolution.

How to Improve Your Chances of Success

So now that you know some of the pitfalls of New Year’s Resolutions, but why you should make them anyway, you may want to get some help so you can be one of the successful ones. For some articles with helpful tips, check out:

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5 Tips to Get Promoted

by Drew on September 29, 2009 in Learn with Humor

photo by rore_d

Want to get promoted? Being successful in the corporate world isn’t rocket science (unless you work for NASA), but it is hard work.

Assuming you meet the minimum criteria of delivering what you are hired to do–and it is the minimum for success–the below 5 tips will help you stand out, become a superstar employee, and get promoted.

How to Get Promoted

1. Learn to Ask for Forgiveness, not Permission

The first thing I was told by my manager when I left college and entered the corporate world was that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than to wait around for permission.

The idea is simple–take action. You are hired to fill a certain role, and it is your job to do what is best for the company. You may will make mistakes, but any manager (and company) worth working for will recognize your potential and help you become a better employee that continues to take action.

You can make an omelette without cracking a few eggs, but it’s going to be a terrible omelette full of shells. Be willing take a risk and prove you’re ready to take action and responsibility.

2. Think Like Your Manager

A regular employee does only the work assigned to him. The promoted employee anticipates what is needed and does it.

How do you anticipate what will be needed? Think like your manager. Put yourself in her position and think about what you would want from a direct report–”What would make your life easier? What would help you excel in your job?”

Now do those things, because you are that direct report.

3. Do the Work Above You

What’s the easiest way to prove you’re ready for promotion? Do the same quality of work as someone at the next level. Talk with your manager to take on similar responsibilities as the next level and prove you can deliver.

Then, when it comes time to evaluate your readiness, there will be no question of if you can do the work, because you’ve already proven you can.

4. Improve the Organization

To be a Rockstar employee (and managers promote Rockstars), it’s not enough to just deliver projects for the business. You can only do so much as a single employee, but if you can contribute to improving your co-workers as well, you’ll be delivering real value to the entire company.

In addition to your day-to-day work, find ways you can uniquely improve your organization. This can include becoming a trainer for a skill like Project Management, organizing team-building activities for your team, or just creating humor in the workplace.

5. Work on your Personal Life

To excel at any company, people have to know who you are. You can do great work, but if management can’t tell you apart from a stranger on the street, then there’s no one way they can make an informed decision about your ability to succeed at the next level.

But if you make a point to meet people, and have something interesting to share, they’ll remember your name when it comes time to decide on things like assignments and promotions. “Who’s this Drew person? Oh that’s right, he does stand-up comedy and led an improv workshop last month” is much better than “Who’s this Drew person? I see he’s working with the sales group, but I don’t really know who he is.”

Managers hire people, not robots. Be interesting. Be memorable. Be fun.

Got your own tips for promotion? Share them in the comments.

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Life Lessons from Improv Wisdom

by Drew on August 17, 2009 in What I Learned From

Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up, by Patricia Ryan Madson, is a great read that translates the powerful concepts of improv into life lessons from which everyone can benefit.

At only 159 pages, Patricia is able to concisely cover the 12 Maxims of Improv and how they can improve your life and career. Rather than regurgitate the points below, I thought I’d share some of the most compelling insights learned from Improv Wisdom. I highly recommend you pick up a copy for yourself–the personal experiments (dubbed “Try This”) are worth the small price alone (less $12 on Amazon.com)

Life Lessons from Improv Wisdom

1. The only real failure is not doing anything. (page 17)

No matter the circumstance, whether in improv or life, you can only succeed if you take action. When you attempt something and don’t succeed, it’s not that you failed but that you’ve learned. And when you try again, you’ll have a better chance of succeeding. Failure is not even trying.

2. [Improvisation] is a method of working. (page 22)

Improv is certainly an art, and a science in many respects, but it is also a way of working. The method of improvising in life doesn’t mean never planning or just going with the flow–it means being able to do what’s necessary given the right circumstances.

3. The mind that is occupied is missing the present. (page 35)

Humans are amazing creatures with incredible talents, but multitasking isn’t one of them. If we are preoccupied with something else, we’re missing the now.

We are at our best when we work in the now. Actors refer to it as being “in the moment.” For athletes, they are “in the zone.” For everyone, it’s really about just being “in the now”–paying attention to and focusing on the present.

4. Motivation is not a prerequisite for showing up. (page 52)

Motivation, or lack thereof, is often the scapegoat for not getting things done. “I would clean the garage but I’m just not motivated.” “I would go running but I don’t have any motivation.” “I would start that project that I’ve put off for 2 years but…” Just show up and see what happens. 9 times out of 10, you’ll actually accomplish something.

5. Try thinking inside the box. Look more carefully. (page 63)

A common misconception about creativity is that you have to change your thinking; in reality, you only have to change how you think. And not drastically, just specifically. The common cliche that “everyone is different” is true because we are the sum of all our experiences, and no two people grow up with the same exact experiences.

That uniqueness alone provides the skills to “think differently”–if we pay attention to our thoughts and trust our instincts, our ideas will be different and creative, even if they seem obvious to us.

6. Life is all about balancing, not about being balanced. (page 81)

Peter Drucker talks about a well-run factory/business as being boring because nothing exciting happens–everything runs as expected and contingencies are in place for any possibly issues. Life isn’t (and shouldn’t be) like that.

Instead, life is about the daily balancing act of taking the good with the bad, the necessary with the unnecessary, and the planned with the improvised.

7. Ask yourself, what would not get done if I were not here? (page 87)

When trying to determine the best use of your time, look at what unique contributions you can bring to the situation. If someone else can do the job better than you, enable them to–focus on what only your set of skills and experience can accomplish.

8. See the gift in it. (page 90)

Patricia explains there are three ways to look at any event in life: to see what’s wrong with it, to see it objectively, or to see the gift in it. The improvisers learn to see the gift, and this attitude can change how you perceive and experience the world. Problems become opportunities and failure becomes our greatest teacher.

Of course this is not to say bad things don’t or won’t happen. James K. Feibleman said it best “That some good can be derived from every event is a better proposition than that everything happens for the best, which it assuredly does not.”

9. There are no Olympic judges watching our lives. (page 103)

Take chances, make mistakes, look silly. We will always be our own harshest critic and it’s time to realize that we don’t live in a world that requires perfection. Learn to accept good enough because it is better than nothing.

10. The essence of improvisation is action. (page 114)

Beginning improvisers often get caught up in talking about what would be cool or interesting or funny instead of putting it into action. Life demands action.

Patricia put it best: “Motivation is not required. Good intentions, beliefs, resolutions, even promises don’t matter. Action does.” (page 116)

Improv Wisdom

These are just 10 insights I learned from Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson, but there are a number of other great lessons within the pages. If you liked the ideas here or want to see them explored further, pick up Improv Wisdom on Amazon.

Have you read Improv Wisdom? What did you learn from the book.

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Using Improv Methods to Overcome the Fear Factor

by Drew on April 30, 2009 in Humor Benefits

Fear is not something that should be feared. At least that’s the idea presented in the article Using Improv Methods to Overcome the Fear Factor by Tom Yorton, president of Second City Communications (available for purchase at Wiley InterScience).

The article discusses how and why improv can be effectively used in the workplace to overcome fear, and the value of overcoming fear is. Some of my key take-aways included:

“You’ll be surprised at how well improv techniques transfer to the corporate stage to help organizations improve productivity, become more innovative, and dramatically increase employee job satisfaction.” (page 7)
“Our ability to succeed is directly related to our willingness to fail.” (page 8)
“…fear is worth exploring. The tension and discomfort we feel is usually an indication that something big and important is at stake.” (page 10)
“Seemingly small contributions matter a great deal to the whole…” because “… the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” (page 11)
“The message underlying all the lessons of improvisation is to be courageous, to go out there and take risks–to use the natural fear of failure as the fuel for success.” (page 12)

Source: Using Improv Methods to Overcome the Fear Factor by Tom Yorton. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 2005.

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Life Lessons Learned from Watchmen

March 8, 2009

With the release of Watchmen this weekend comes a lot of hype and anticipation for the graphic novel turned movie. The graphic novel, originally published as a series in 1986-87, has long been heralded as the best novel of its kind. Time Magazine even listed it as one of the 100 Best Novels. I recently [...]

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