Ten Human Traits: Part 2

Sorry it took a while for Part 2. Have a read of trait 8 however and you'll understand why! Please leave your feedback in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

      6.   We use our imagination

Surely our greatest strength. The solutions and understandings that have come from our incredible ability to imagine is astounding. What a great ability we have to distract ourselves from reality of our day to day lives. Ever made a shopping list based around winning Tattslotto? Ever though about living on a tropical island? How about as a kid. What was your dream job? Ever want to be a rock star? Or kick the winning goal in a grand final? Damn I still dream about all that stuff. Then you wake up and some bugger tells you to get your head out of the clouds and get back to reality. Why can’t we have both? Why can’t we occasionally let our imagination run wild to inspire us and others to move on to bigger and better things? Why do our thoughts always need to be rational? Image this business proposal: I’m going to write an online computer program that allows people to publish what they are thinking in 140 characters or less. The first question asked surely was: What else will it do? Answer: Nothing. How much is Twitter worth these days. OR my favourite: How bout we stick someone on the moon? First question: Why? Answer: Because we can! Sure we need reality checks and balances. Sure we need our reality checks, but not at the expense of our greatest gift.

     

      7.
We are precious

It’s funny. My job(s) on a daily basis require me to ask lots and lots of questions of everyone I interact with. I need information to make decisions to help the very people I ask questions of. Sure my job is to identify problems and fix them which leads to many interactions being perceived as negative. But the response has changed significantly over time. More and more a grilling is returned as to the ulterior motives behind the question. Maybe I’m just trying to help. Getting grilled with questions, people analysing your work or performance, modes or feedback both positive and negative are all methods the vast majority of people use to help you produce higher quality. Isn’t it interesting though how in recent years, the trend in teaching has been to avoid negativity and to just positively reinforce success. Isn’t the success enforcement enough? If I sink a 60 foot put I don’t need someone to tell me it was a good shot. I know it was! Just like I don’t need my boss to say nice work when I get my paperwork in on time. It’s my job to get it in on time! So what if I missed that put? Well if someone had a better way for me to put, I would be mad not to listen. Or if my paper work wasn’t in on time and my boss called me out on it, well it’s an opportunity to find a better way of getting it out on time next time it was due. We call receive feedback from a variety of people on a daily basis, but we choose how we perceive it. Feedback is just more information for you to digest as an opportunity to get better. It’s not a criticism of you as a person unless you want it to be. People ride you about doing something better because they care. If they stop giving you feedback, trust me when I say it’s not because you’re doing it perfectly… It’s because they’ve given up on you. And how negative is that.

      8.
We get distracted

Hence the reason why this entry is in two parts… Is this a flaw? I’m not sure. It’s funny when I look at the juggling act of my own life. I have a lot on the go. I seem to have an endless list of projects that have been started, that never get finished… Or do they? I’ve actually noticed some of these projects that I haven’t touched for months have been completed within other tasks or projects. Maybe the reason the original concept was flawed in the thought process or structure, so it hit a wall. Or maybe it was of limited value so I lost interest only for it to reappear as an add on to another project. Maybe the timing was just wrong and it wasn’t a priority. Maybe you just identify a fundamental flaw in your thinking or process and it’s better to cut your losses. But if it refines your thinking and helps you prioritise your work, well I say bring on another thousand projects. Don’t get me wrong… There is a fundamental difference between juggling concepts and ideas versus sitting round the coffee machine talking crap… Or is there value in the crap conversation? How often does a irrelevant conversation turn into an ingenious brainstorming session? Will it ever evolve into anything? Maybe… Maybe not, but you never know where an idea is going to come from. Maybe the distraction comes from an unreasonable time. And I’m not talking about a short time line. Giving me a month to do a task that takes a day is as unreasonable as giving me an hour to do something that takes a day. We work best when we are focused on the task at hand. How many school or uni assignments did you start the day before it was due? How many times did you hear a teacher or your parents say to you “Just get it done as soon as you get it so it’s out the way” Everyone says it but I do not know one single person that has done it… Not one! Give a task the time it deserves. If you get distracted, you have either given it to much time or there was a flaw with the task.

      9. We fear change

Our fear of change directly relates to out OCD issues and our lack of self confidence. Many years ago I met a coach (funny how his coaching never really took off as he was labelled a trouble maker and a boat rocker) who had an interesting twist on the “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approached. He coined a phrase “If it ain’t broke, break it and fix it better.” Interesting approach. But when you look at some examples of some highly successful people, change has been a huge influence on their success. Tiger Woods swing changes over the years have been well documented, and the results have normally followed. Madonna appearing from the shadow of Cindi Lauper (yes their breakthrough albums appeared at the same time, but Madonna continued to evolve, Lauper kept producing the same.) Have a read of Richard Branson’s autobiography and will see the very definition of change. Why don’t we change? Risk. Most of us are in a constant state of risk management. We fear the unknown and it’s associated risks. But what if not changing was putting us at risk? What if the decisions or actions we made put us more at risk. Did you exercise today?... Or yesterday?... Or the day before?... Might be time for some change

     10.
We are a pessimistic lot

Well if you are reading part 2 and have gotten this far, you’re more open minded that most! I’m not sure where I fit. I’ve always called myself an optimistic realist. I keep an open mind to everything but don’t waste my time with crap. Why do we get so glum? Why do we look at the negative first? Why can’t we do what Monty Python suggested and always look on the bright side of life? Maybe we just bog ourselves down with the crap. So what’s the crap? “Devil is in the detail” Cool… Now I know that, I’ll avoid the detail. Try this tomorrow. Come up with a really abstract idea that will make the workplace/school/team and better place to work or play, then ask people for their thoughts. I guarantee the responses will consist of “It wont work because…” “We don’t have the money to…” Who’s going to take ownership of…” etc etc. Keep answering the pessimism with solutions until they run out of problems and see if they are now interested. Get through the pessimism and what the ideas evolve. You need to decide if you’re going to be a Tigger or an Eeyore.