Leading Ideas: Firestarting

"You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart." --- Bruce Springsteen (1949- ) American singer/songwriter, lyrics from "Dancing in the Dark"

Richard Branson, the often outrageous Chairman of the Virgin Group has made a career of starting fires by flying in the face of failure. In a recent Fortune magazine article he recalled the 2 most important things he did to make Virgin Atlantic Airways a success. (1) He sued British Airways and (2) He made a fool of himself promoting the airline. Both could have easily burned him. But neither did. Instead, they got him over seemingly insurmountable hurdles.

Something to consider:

You can't build anything great in life if you're worried about failure. When you worry about failure, you put your energy in the wrong place. You end up focusing on escape routes and contingency plans instead of success. And you kill the passion and drive you need to bring your creative ideas to life.

Something to try:

1. In your mind, paint a clear picture of something big you'd like to make happen.
2. Describe the details. Where are you? Who's there? What are you all doing?
3. Continue to fill in the picture with more and more detail.
4. Notice how fears of failure slowly dissipate and courses of action start to emerge.
5. Take a risk and follow one or more of those courses.

Question: How has risk started a fire for you?

Leading Ideas: Wherever You are... Be There

"My life has been a series of wonderful experiences. It's a pity I wasn't there for most of them." -- Portia Nelson (1920-2001) American actress

Currently, one of my clients is dealing with a series of tough issues all at once. Last week he looked like he might explode. As we chatted, it became clear that his anxiety about the future and frustration about the past were robbing him of his ability to be effective NOW. And they were blinding him to a unique opportunity the challenges presented - the chance to strengthen a key customer relationship. By the end of the meeting he laughed at himself as he realized, "The costs of anxiety and frustration are staggering!" I couldn't have said it better myself.

Something to consider:

Right now is all you've got. If you miss it, it's gone. The good news is that there's always another "right now" around the corner. The bad news is that it's easy to miss that one too. In fact, it's easy to arrive at the end of your life having spent very little time "right now." That's because it's easy to obsess about the past or the future (two places that don't even exist!) Recognize something: you've never been in the past and you'll never be in the future. You'll only ever be right now.

Something to try:

1. Think of an area of your business or life where things aren't working.
2. Consider that you're probably stuck thinking about the past or future where that issue is concerned.
3. Jot down what you can control right now.
4. Get creative with what you can control right now.
5. Do something right now.

Question: What do you do to keep yourself in the moment?

Posted by Doug Sundheim at March 28, 2005 02:05 PM