Mindset

stormsI started my day off nice and early at Caffe Nero so I could keep my reading list under some semblance of control and so that I had time for a long walking meeting with @MattMJH which we’d decided to do around Rivington, as usual. As my legs were far from pain free that restricted us to the lakeside walk, avoiding any significant hills but this also had the spin off benefit of avoiding the ankle deep mud that’s marring many of the routes at the moment.

We started at the Barn and walked along the lake shore heading west until we got close to the end of the reservoir.  It was a good walk which I enjoyed a lot after the first 10 minutes (once the endorphins got flowing) and we had a good conversation as well, again confirming my belief that a lot of meetings are better on the move.  It’s interesting to see the idea of walking meetings spreading, almost every day I see another article spreading the word, including this one today describing the benefits of even a short 10 minute walk.

On one of our projects at the moment the topic of motivating a very large team of people is foremost in our minds and this is a topic that’s of great interest to us both.  I like Dan Pink’s simple Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose framework that he develops in his book Drive, but I like to also add the need for eliminating frustrations, which can undermine progress in the other areas.

Mindset imageAs part of our discussion on motivation I got onto the topic of attitude, and here I like the work of Carol Dweck who wrote Mindset.  Although I found the book repetitive and as a result boring I liked the key message which is summarised nicely by this graphic.  It’s a very simple but powerful shift in thinking.  I recommend reading this review rather than the book, and in fact subscribing to the blog as it’s a daily source of inspiration.

Today also reminded me of the importance of knowing the difference between urgent and important.  All too often we neglect the long informal discussions that it’s so important to have (walking) a few times a year because the pressures of today are too urgent.  Whilst it would be foolish to actively neglect the urgent all the time, this quote continues to make me smile:

“The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.” Steven Pressfield,The War of Art

This one makes me laugh out loud:

You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour

Easy to say, hard to do!

Anyway back to my day, after finishing walking I popped into the Barn Cafe for a Bacon Barm and more reading and email before heading back into the office for a 3 hour planning session, which ‘unfortunately’ ended up with me at the whiteboard again challenging my sore arms and enjoying myself way too much.  Hopefully the team got a little out of it, I’ll find out when I see how much progress they’ve made when I get back from next weeks holiday.

Rounded the day off with a meal out with Debbie and The Blacklist on TV.

Another great day, thanks to a great bunch of guys at work and a great bunch of girls at home.  Marred only by a bit of pain, the prospect of more storms this weekend, but mostly by my Lenovo Twist laptop/tablet that has suddenly taken to changing it’s screen orientation every 2-3 minutes which is incredibly annoying.

Steve Richards

I'm retired from work as a business and IT strategist. now I'm travelling, hiking, cycling, swimming, reading, gardening, learning, writing this blog and generally enjoying good times with friends and family

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