This is a horribly backlit photo, but it is President Obama addressing the AP Annual Luncheon in DC, and I am in the front row.  If you Google “Obama April 3, 2012,” you’ll find video of his presentation that day and coverage of it, with plenty of juicy adjectives and verbs, such as “bitter,” “slammed,” “social Darwinism,” “trashes,” and, surprisingly, “marvelous,” which I’ll let you research on your own. But here’s what I know after listening to our President: there were convolutions in the data he presented that did not add up.  Timeframes and numbers were not necessarily equal, but were presented as such.  Of course, this happens constantly, from politicians across the board and others pressing their cases, but it made me realize: I do not want to be a person who resorts to that.  That’s not my definition of success.  But further, after reading a letter to the editor in the Augusta Chronicle today on gas prices, I most emphatically do not want to be a person who accepts positions on face value and does not do my own due diligence on the facts.  

People: The President of the United States is not responsible for gas prices.  Gas prices are driven by a variety of economic factors that primarily include supply and demand and speculation in the market, and no individual politician (or even a slew of them) can control that. Check your facts.  Don’t buy in to the general position without having the facts to back it up.  Be willing to do the research and confidently state your case, whether it’s to your boss, the executive committee, or your dad, and especially if it’s contratrian.  Don’t be a sheeple.  Be willing to have a separate opinion from those around you and those you watch on TV and listen to on the radio. What I was reminded of in DC is that discernment and self-reliance are key to personal, professional and global success.

In Athens, Greece, the night before we arrived, a 77-year-old pensioner shot himself in front of Parliament declaring that he could not afford to live, and he would not burden his family with debt. The city exploded in riots.  The next night, we bravely attended the vigil. (My husband was a journalist in his past life, and I love a good adventure. No way were we going to not check this out!)  A sign written in English posted to a large tree around which were laid flowers, notes, pictures and other memorials stated the position of (some of) the Greek people:   “Proud Figher Mr. Dimitri: Pigs of parliament will feel the message of your great sacrifice very soon and very very hard.  Be sure…..”

Our tour guide of the Acropolis, Maria, approached us boldly to solicit our business as we arrived. She is intelligent and eloquent, and she wove us a picture of the Greece of the past intermingled with the Greece of the present.  The Greeks know, she told us, that they “hold the bottom of the basket.”  Meaning, if Greece fails economically, it will take the European union with it.  We felt from the Greeks a deep bitterness and anger, but also a keen sense of entitlement.  Here in America, we can’t even relate to a 23% unemployment rate, and the loss of benefits we’ve been trained to expect for many years.  But we may one day know what it feels like.  Will we, too, react in bitterness or anger and riot in the streets?  Or could we possibly take responsibility for what we as a country and people have created, and figure out how to fix it together?  Accountability is critical to success.

In Turkey, I was reminded that I have to let go of what I think I know.  Turkey is not the country I thought it was.  Being willing to open up to new possibilities is critical to success.  Here’s our guide Jan (pronounced John), admonishing us on that very thing.  Drop your preconceived notions.  Everything is just made up, anyhow.

Lastly, in Paris, we celebrated that persistence prevails!  When we arrived at the Eiffel Tower to discover a 3 hour waiting line (one of the lower lifts had been broken for months), we decided to come back at night and climb the stairs.  Hours and 600 or so stairs later, we arrived at the second tier of the tower, and were then able to take the elevator to top.  Looking out over the City of Lights with glasses of champagne in our hands (another lesson: if you don’t want plastic champagne glasses left all over the place, don’t put any bottoms on them), the 600 stairs faded from memory.  Of course, the memory quickly returned when we had to go back down.  But that was a piece of cake.

Discernment, self reliance, accountability, openness and persistence.  Characteristics that, if we practice them personally, professionally and as Americans, will propel all us to the solutions and success we so desperately crave.  Wishing us ALL those possibilities in 2012.  Cheers!

In 2011, Japan suffered an earthquake and tsunami which killed tens of thousands and cause a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  The British newspaper The Guardian reported the following: “The report criticised the use of the term soteigai, meaning unforeseeable, which it said implied authorities were shirking responsibility for what had happened. It said by labeling the events as beyond what could have been expected, officials had invited public distrust.”

Unfortunately, it seems the world in general has adopted what I call an Idea Horizon™ which is “good enough.”  We allow ourselves to operate inside what we believe to be foreseeable.  We often reject that which we think is outrageous, or out of the ballpark, or impossible.  Yet time and time again, the world shows us that we can and will experience these things, despite our inability to imagine them.  This applies to experiences and results that we would term both negative and positive.   We suffer the inconceivable, but we also achieve the inconceivable.  And just like in the movie The Princess Bride, today I’d like to suggest that this word “inconceivable” does not mean what you think it means.

When I work with business owners and professionals that are struggling with a dilemma—cash flow problems, employee problems, growth problems—they’ve generally been searching for an answer for some time. They’ve engaged me as a business coach or consultant because they’ve come to the realization that the solution is soteigai, outside of their grasp, and they have no tools by which to access it.

They may already have tried brainstorming a solution; alone, with a significant other, a business partner or team. They may have tried painting a picture of what the company or department will look like once everything is working perfectly. They might even have held strategy sessions, pulled all-nighters, talked to their peers…a million things.  And still, the answer is not forthcoming.

What do you do when you’re mentally stuck, and even your imagination can’t provide the answer?

First, don’t brainstorm.  That wisdom is most recently put forward by Jonah Lehrer in Imagine: How Creativity Works, and I totally agree. The lack of conflict in the design of a brainstorming session immediately puts to death a plethora of possibilities that otherwise would have been voiced. Conflict is necessary.  The dissenting voice is necessary.  Take them away or shut them down, and you’ve got the space shuttle Challenger o-ring tragedy.

Second, check your questions.  Are you seeking the answer to a truly unlimited question, or a limited one?  For example, if you’re struggling to successfully complete a large technology project on budget but have failed to consider that the budget is wholly unreasonable, it’s likely you won’t solve the problem in any reasonable amount of time.    Examine your questions carefully to see how you are limiting the ideas that might come to you.

Third, seek outside counsel.  Talk to as many people as you can about the issue, including peers, team members, mentors, a business coach, your significant other, friends.  The more people you educate and engage on the issue, the more brains you’ll have seeking answers and the more color, variety and usefulness will infuse your thoughts on solutions.

Fourth, take a nap.  While you’re stressed out, under rested, and generally trying to master the universe, you’re creating a bodily chemistry that does not serve your most creative self.  Close your eyes.  Take ten minutes or a half hour.  While you’re resting, your brain is able to congeal, categorize and organize everything that you’ve thought, remembered and experienced.  Sleeping hits the refresh button.  It’s truly the pause that refreshes.

Fifth, stop trying to find the answer.  The longer you stay in the mode of seeking, the less likely you are to enter the mode of finding.  Let it go.  In fact, turn the dilemma over to the universe or the deity of your choice, and know that soon the solution will be presented to you.  (Even if it wasn’t exactly what you imagined.)  While you are hanging on to your preconceived notion of how you will solve this, millions of possibilities are passing you by.  Just as in catch and release fishing, you can’t catch any more fish until you first release the one fish hanging on your hook.

Sixth, Amp It Up!  This is my little pet phrase which means: take your idea or dilemma and amplify it by orders of magnitude.  (More about this in Chapter 2 of my book, The Science of Making Things Happen.)  When you’re imagining generating $1,000 of income, imagine what it would take to generate $10,000.  Write those possible solutions down.  Then imagine what it would take to generate $100,000.  The answers will be completely different, and will open up some ideas that may not have occurred to you before.

Seventh, set a deadline to find a solution.  The longer you wade in confusion and despair, the less able you’ll be to solve the problem or create the opportunity.  Based on your deadline, apply as many of the above solutions as you can, simultaneously, if necessary, in order to achieve it.

Soteigai—that which lies beyond the imagination—is an opportunity.  With these tips you can begin to explore it.  For more aggressive expansion of your Idea Horizon, drop me an email to set up a chat about the tools in my coaching and consulting programs.

A 507-page interim report on the Japanese nuclear disaster arising from the March 11, 2011 tsunami found much to criticize in the response of both utility workers and government officials.

Possibility Institute faculty member and coach Laura Luykx is on sabbatical this year to take a journey of her own.  What she shared with me about what she was learning was fascinating, so I thought I would share it with you. In this post, Laura explains shamanism to us, and what she’s been learning about self-trust.  Enjoy!

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For the past seven months I’ve been studying in a shamanic apprenticeship, learning how to put my rational mind aside to find deeper wisdom and guidance in the world of the spirits.  This has been an awesome and humbling experience. Typically, I like to know how things work, what the parameters are, and to have a certain amount of control over my life.  Over the past few years I have been learning how to let this go, and particularly during this apprenticeship I’ve been finding out just how much value there is in the non-analytical.  When you venture out into the universe in a shamanic journey (a kind of meditative state that allows access to alternate realities), you quickly realize that you are just a speck of dust in the cosmos.  There’s no way to map all the terrain, and you are most certainly not in control.    It’s a place full of wonder and possibility, but your left brain isn’t much use to you here.

Shamanism is the oldest spiritual tradition in the world, found in every indigenous culture in every corner of the globe, from Ireland, to Africa, to Siberia.  It is not a religion, but a way of interacting with the forces of the natural world on the deepest levels.  Shamanic practitioners receive counsel and information from the spirit guides they encounter in order to bring help and healing to people in this world.  Some cultures refer to shamans as “spirit lawyers” because they petition the spirit world on behalf of their clients.

You may also hear shamans referred to as medicine men or women.  In this context “medicine” refers to the wisdom or insight that comes from a particular guide.  For instance, Coyote is generally known as a trickster – that is a large part of his medicine.  He likes to throw a little wrench into your plans and force you to think in different ways, but this is just an archetype for the energy of coyotes as a whole.  If you meet Coyote in a journey or crossing your path in this world, he may have an entirely different message for you.  A goose that flies directly in your line of vision for an extended period of time may indicate that it’s time to heed the call of a new quest, or something else entirely. The idea is to be open and listening for that message, not just slipping into a prefab interpretation.  If you rely too heavily on books like “Animal Speak” to tell you the meaning of every potent animal encounter, you may be missing a large part of the medicine from that guide.  Leaning too heavily on the expertise and wisdom of other people may cause you to overlook valuable insights that you already have from within yourself.

Even for those who don’t commune with spirit guides, inner guidance is still available.  Popular author, Malcolm Gladwell, wrote an entire book about this concept in 2005 called Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.  His premise is that we all have an abundance of useful information stored in our unconscious minds, which comes from years of experience.  It communicates with our conscious mind in the form of a gut reaction or a strong first impression, and although things like personal bias can lead us in the wrong direction, for the most part intuition will direct you to make the best decisions.

I’ve known many wonderful healers and teachers who have amazing sight and sensitivity.  It’s easy to turn to them for answers and to think that they have access to wisdom that I don’t have.  But the more I learn to trust myself, the more I see that even if I never become as adept as they are, I still have access to wisdom about what is best for me that no-one else will ever top.  I am the world-wide expert on myself and although I still value the input of others who perhaps have more training or years of experience in certain areas, I always filter what they have to say through my own instincts.  My doctor has much more training about the workings of the human body in general than I do, but I still know my own body best.  Fortunately, I have a doctor who values my input as well and together we make a pretty effective team.  Having experts that you trust is a valuable thing, but learning to trust yourself is truly priceless.

Something else that I’ve learned from shamanism is that guidance can’t be rushed.  I must take time to slow down and stop my mind from swirling before I can hear what is being offered to me.  I’ve become a regular meditator, even if it’s just for 10 minutes a day and I try to journey outdoors as often as possible.  Slowing down and connecting with the natural world, even if only the one in my suburban neighborhood, allows me to go inward to listen for guidance, from my spirit guides and from my own intuition.  The world rushes by at 90 miles a minute and it would be pretty easy to get to the end of life and wonder what happened and how you ended up where you did.  In order to be intentional, you have to have a plan.  In order to have a plan, you have to know what you want.  To get in touch with that it is imperative to stop analyzing and talking long enough to experience yourself and the guidance available to you.  You have many more internal resources than you ever imagined, if you take the time to be still and quiet and let them be heard.

After moving from New York City to Chicago and getting married, Rachel Bertsche realized that her new life was missing one crucially important thing: a local best friend. So she decided to go on one friend date every week for a year, and she documented her quest on a WordPress.com blog at MWFseekingBFF.com.

But before Rachel even started the blog, the 27-year-old writer put together a book proposal based on her search for a local BFF, and successfully pitched it to agents, and then editors. She says, “After I sold the proposal, I decided to start a blog so that I could have a place to document my journey and some of the research I was finding. I also wanted to start building a community and to engage with readers.”

It’s now been over two years since Rachel first launched MWFseekingBFF.com. So did she accomplish her blogging goals? “Absolutely!” Rachel says, “When my book,MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend, came out, I had a whole audience for the memoir that wouldn’t have existed without my blog.”

Read more….

Teeny tiny progress.  Maybe invisible progress.  Maybe even backward progress, by certain measures.  Are you experiencing that?

Welcome to the world of decoherence.

Decoherence, if you have not heard me define it before, is the universe’s method for turning quantum possibility into reality. It’s also the method you use to turn your desired possibilities into reality, whether you’re aware of the science, or not.

So.  If you have a goal, and it seems to be taking forever to get there…what’s the deal?

Well, let me tell you about an experience I recently had with the power of decoherence, and perhaps more will come to light.  I am approaching my 50th birthday.  I would like to be a bit lighter, weight-wise.  I set the intention that “the weight is just melting off me, effortlessly.”

You know what happened.  Nasty stomach flu.  Three days.  Five pounds gone.  My husband is going on about water weight lost, abstinence from bad eating and drinking habits, etc., etc., while I am still trying to figure out how to keep the water in, rather than spending all night in the bathroom.  I remember sitting on the toilet telling him that I do not consider sickness a weight loss program.  It’s not healthy.  That’s why they call it sickness. And it’s temporary.

Anyway.  So I have these pretty aggressive business goals, and for three days solid, I am a vegetable.  For the next two days, I am somewhat functional.  For the weekend, I am remembering the words of a local friend who also had it, and who told me, “…And you’ll experience a mild upset that will go on for a few days.”  Seriously?  Well, yeah.  Great.  A week’s worth of malaise.  A week totally gone.  A week of not just neutral progress, but backward progress.  Because while I was sick, I wasn’t billable.  And if I’m not billable, I miss my goals.  (We’ll discuss that flaw in my business plan (and life plan, and possibly yours) soon enough, but meanwhile…) And I wasn’t creative.  And I wasn’t blogging.  And…

Because I’m so far behind in my print reading, this column by Dan and Chip Heath, the Duct Tape marketing guys, ended up being something I caught up on in the last week in my vegetative state.  It’s about grit, a trait my mother has always claimed, and one she apparently inherited from my grandmother, Gwendolyn.

Gwendolyn was a woman I never knew. She died of a brain aneurism while my mom was pregnant with me.  But before that happened, she had suffered through cervical cancer and so much more than I or my mom probably even know about.  Even though she sometimes took out her anger and despair by breaking dishes against the walls of the basement, or was often snappy and controlling with my mom and her brother, she slogged on.  She got up.  She dressed.  She met her obligations.  She tried to be a good mom, even though she didn’t agree with what my mom was doing.  Until the day she collapsed on the porch stairs of my father’s parents’ house.

My mom, living far away with my dad at an air force base at the time her mother was stricken, didn’t have the chance to say good-bye, though she traveled hard to get there.  Still, my mom slogged on, being young and pregnant and poor, because I was in her womb, and because for her there weren’t that many alternatives.  She loved me.  She treasured me.  And she was going to be my mom, no matter what.

I obviously have benefited from my mother’s grit.  I’d like to think that I have it, too. You may or may not relate to the concept of “having grit.”  But if you are slogging…if you know where you’re going and the road has been hard or seemingly impassable…if you’re not getting the results you want, but know the answer is out there somewhere…Even if you’re in a state of confusion, but are determined to get past that…and you just—keep—pushing…Then you have grit.

Congratulations.  Because, if you read Dan and Chip Heath’s column linked above, you’ll know: sometimes progress is teensy-weensy, uphill, and even seemingly upside down.  And yet…huge accomplishments have been reaped via slogging—day after day, year after year—through the bogs of uncertainty and adversity.  Slogging is not glamorous.  It’s not a pathway to instant stardom.  It takes grit.  But if you stay the course—if you consistently put information into your environment that says your goal is inevitable (decoherence)—your outcome is inevitable.

Here’s to slogging.  And perhaps there should be a drink to it, but…given the current definitions on the Internet, I can’t imagine it would taste good.  Let’s just clink glasses containing whatever we choose, and go back to decohering our totally…inevitable…outcomes.  Cheers! –Kim

P.S., share your slogging tale below, and I will enter you to win an audio book of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!

At one point in my career, I became the leader of a department of 150 people, many of whom I had known prior to my appointment to the position.  I like to be accessible, so I had an open door policy: you could come to my office and talk to me when you needed to.

Having at least eight direct reports who managed everyone else, I was somewhat surprised when staff members began to show up at my door asking, “Got a minute, Kim?” And not just one or two staff members, but lots of them.  Regularly.

Because I knew many of them personally, at first I said, “sure!” and invited them in, but I realized pretty quickly that I needed to get a handle on this, or my days would be filled with the priorities of my visitors and my nights would be filled with what I was supposed to be getting done during the day.

But also, the fact that these employees were coming to me for solutions instead of their direct supervisors gave me a bad feeling. It was pretty clear that there was some dysfunction going on, and I needed to track it down.

You may be feeling like you’re in a similar situation, giving yourself away in little pieces, prioritizing everyone else’s priorities but your own.  I figured out these time management and forensic analysis techniques to solve my problem.  Perhaps they’ll help you, too.

1.  Schedule the minute.  When people show up at your door and ask, “Got a minute?” answer, “Yes, I do, but not right now.  Can we get back together say, at three this afternoon, or ten tomorrow morning?” By letting them know that you’re engaged at the moment but still want to meet, you’ve accomplished two things: 1), you’re now meeting them when it’s convenient for you, and 2), you’ve acknowledged their importance and your willingness to listen to their issue or concern.

2.  Meet at their desk, not your office.  This doesn’t always work, because the issue may be sensitive in nature, but it’s worth suggesting their desk as your meeting location.  I’ve also suggested the cafeteria, conference rooms and other neutral spaces. In this way, you can control how long the meeting is by getting up and leaving when you must, rather than glancing repeatedly at your watch and ending up 10 minutes late to your next meeting, or not being able to return to the work sitting on your desk that you must complete before the end of the day.

3.  Set a specific amount of time for the meeting.  Let your meeting partners know that you only have 15 minutes or a half hour to spend with them.  By setting their expectations in advance, they will have the opportunity to crystalize their thoughts, boil it down to the essentials, and communicate concisely, versus venting or rambling on with stories demonstrating the issue.  This is good communications coaching for them, and good time management for you. Compassionate and deep listening is possible in even a minute of conversation.  By giving your complete and focused attention in that 15 or 30 minutes, you will clearly hear what the issue is, and be present emotionally for the other as well.

4.  Keep track of the visits.  Are most of your “Got a minute?” visitors coming from one particular department?  If so, that’s a pretty good indicator that you have a leadership issue there.  When employees feel that they’re being unheard or disrespected by their director supervisor, it eventually leaks out, up, down, sideways and into the HR department.  If the leader can’t be coached to be more responsive and engaged, and in a relatively short period of time, a change in leadership will be required.  The truth is you don’t “got a minute” to take up the slack for one of your direct reports.

5.  Keep track of the issues.  Are your “Got a minute?” visitors all complaining about the same basic thing, but coming from different departments?  If so, you’re dealing with a pervasive systemic issue that will not go away without direct attention.  This, I’m afraid, will become a project, but when it’s finally defined as such, there will be great relief felt by the team, who will feel heard, who will jump in to help and lead, and who will, if you give them the space, solve the problem by themselves.

6.  Close the door.  Sometimes, you just need to concentrate.  You’re entitled to—and in fact require—some uninterrupted time to do the big things your position demands.  This is true if you run a large group of people or are a solopreneur.  Quit your email application, silence your phone, and close the door to interruptions.  Your best and most strategic work will be done when you give yourself space for it.

Do you have a tip for how to stay focused while still respecting the requests of those around you?  If so, I would love to hear them.  Please comment below!

Although I am most definitely an early adopter of technology, I admit that I hesitated before buying my first iPad.  At first, my excuse was, “I already have an iPhone and a Mac…what do I need this middle-sized form factor for?” Because I travel a lot for business and need to be fully functional when I do, I could never see myself leaving my laptop at home, so that would mean I would be carrying around even more weight by bringing the iPad.  After watching my husband adore his for a few months, I thought, “Well, I bet I would really have fun with it, but $700?? Outrageous!”  Finally, I got down to my last and final objection: books.  I love books.  I love the way they feel, I love the way they smell, I love meandering in bookstores…And I knew that when I bought that iPad, given how much my husband was reading on his iPad and how much he was loving it, that I would never pick up a print book again.  Or very rarely.  And this made me sad.

But I bought it anyway.  And my prediction has come true.  At a recent simulcast event, I was given a hard copy of one of the presenter’s books as part of my entrance fee.  I didn’t want it.  It’s sitting right over there on my bookshelf.  I already know that, if I’m ever to read that book, I will buy it again in digital form on my iPad.  (That’s a bit of cheery news for book publishers: Yes!  We may buy our favorite books twice to get them on our iPads!)

This morning I read a prediction from a futurist that the last newspaper and books will be printed in 2030.  Magazines might be in there, too.  Here are my predictions for what the post-print world might look like.

1.  It will be much harder to prove to visitors to your home that you’re smart.  Everyone knows that smart people have bookshelves stacked with tomes.  If they’re really smart, they not only have every shelf lined with books, but those books have other books stacked on top of them sideways, have books stacked in front of them…it’s doubtful, if books are gone, that you’ll even have a basket of bathroom reading material for people to observe and see how smart you are.

2.  Bookmarks.  Gone.  I will not miss the tassels.

3.  The consumer magnifying glass industry, having for at least a decade been expecting a bubble based on the huge aging baby boomer generation, will become focused primarily on children.  A new Saturday cartoon featuring a magnifying glass-like alien that burns people by focusing the sun will create a small market resurgence before the industry fades into oblivion.

4.  Reading glasses: being mostly no longer necessary, they will become fashion items.  The reading glass lanyard business will experience a boom.

5.  Doctor’s offices will offer free WiFi, and pharmaceutical companies will advertise on the login page.

6.  More wine bar/book exchange stores like the Battery Park Book Exchange & Champagne Bar in Asheville, NC will open around the world.

7.  More trees will grow unmolested. (Naaaah.  Just kidding on this one.  The world will find some other reason to cut them down.)

8.  Obvious: there will be paper mill closures. Some laid off workers will open small speciality paper making companies.

9.  Newspaper will actually start charging for their content online!  Brilliant!

10.  Students will suffer less back and shoulder damage from carrying 50 lb. backpacks.  All of their textbooks will be online.

These are just a few of the changes that I can see, and some of them are tongue in cheek, of course. What changes do YOU see coming down the pike as we become a more and more digital society? Please leave me a comment below!

My Mom told me that dark colas have phosphoric acid in them, and phosphoric acid leeches calcium from your bones.  The older I get, the closer I get to osteoporosis, and so phosphoric acid is probably not something that I want to pour into my system on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, I’m not a coffee drinker (which also has phosphoric acid, btw).  Hate it.  Also hate real tea.  They just taste bitter to me.  But, I do like a bit of a caffeine jolt to get me and keep me going.  So long, long ago, as a teenager, probably, working at Burger King, Coke became my breakfast beverage of choice.  This despite the fact that in sixth grade I did actually watch some teeth totally disintegrate in a jar of said beverage.

Later, when weight became an issue, I switched to Diet Coke, which tastes like crap, but I got used to it.  I drank it for years and years and years for breakfast (and sometimes lunch!), and when I stop in for breakfast at a McDonald’s or BK, I still order it, because they don’t carry Diet Pepsi.

Which I switched to just a couple of years ago, shocking my entire family, because Pepsi seemed to be just a little bit gentler on the system, and…surprisingly…tastes better.  Took me a long time to de-brand myself of Coke.

But after Mom told me about the phosphoric acid thing, and the fact that she herself imbibed a Mountain Dew (no phosphoric acid, being a light soda) in the middle of the day to power through the afternoon, I thought, Ah.  Okay.  I’ll have a Diet Pepsi in the morning, and then, if I want a second caffeine jolt, I’ll have a Mountain Dew.

Finally, I said, hey: I don’t need this dark cola at all.  I’ll just switch to Mountain Dew in the morning.  My bones will be so happy!

After a few weeks of my new routine, I started to realize that I was grinding my teeth at about 10 am.  And having an enormous amount of anxiety.  And having a lot of trouble concentrating.  I attributed it to feeling like I had too much to do.  That I have big goals to accomplish for this year.  That after sitting at my desk going through a bunch of useless email junk, I was worried that I was wasting time. Part of that may be true.  But this morning I did some research, and it all clicked. Here’s the deal:

Mountain Dew has a HUUUUGE amount of caffeine.  Way more than Diet Coke.  Which has more than Diet Pepsi.  Without realizing it, I had actually stepped myself down on the caffeine thing, and then jacked myself way back up, even higher than before!  My goal all along has been to one day get off caffeine and the battery acid that is diet soft drinks (really, they’re not food), and now I’ll have to start all over again.

In life, it seems we’re always running.  Running, running, running, away from one consequence only to accrue another.  What this experience taught me is that if it feels like I’m zig zagging, it’s probably worth my time to pause for a moment and look more deeply at what’s really going on.

(There’s only 3/4 of a 12-pack left in my fridge.  Then I REALLY have to quit drinking it.)

Oh, and btw again, I just read a study that says that diet soda drinkers have thicker middles than non-diet soda drinkers!  Seriously??? Could this be (one of my) problems?  Are you experiencing this?  Comment below and let me know!  Thanks!

When I wrote The Science of Making Things Happen, I was really focused on what today’s cutting edge science tells us about how the universe really works and how we fit into that picture, individually.  While working with this material and my clients for the past few years, I’ve realized the power that this science has to impact our ability to lead others, as well.  Let’s take a look at just at three specific ways this science can be applied to improving the performance of teams.

1.  You get what you measure for.  Quantum physics tells us that they way we measure will either slow down or accelerate a process, chemical or otherwise.  This bears out at the macro level of the universe—our everyday world—as well.  As individuals, we have the tendency to take measurements of ourselves that don’t serve us.  We are incredibly judgmental of ourselves, and when our brains are busy figuring out what’s wrong with us (or berating us for it), opportunities are passing us by because we don’t have enough capacity to see them, too.  This slows down our progress toward our goals.

Whether we mean to or not, we pass this judgment along to those we lead.  We measure them according to our own measures of success for ourselves.  Because we’re all so different, that makes no sense.  But we still do it, anyway.  And the problem is, while we’re busy judging, we’re not seeing the opportunities we have to lead our people into the light.  And our poorly targeted measurements of our team members slow them down, too.  These measurements can be about goal achievement (“You didn’t make your sales goals!  You know, I put you in this position because I thought  you were a star…”), behavior (“Tommy, you’ve really gotta get out of your cubicle more.  Nobody knows who you are!”), personal traits (“You’ve gotta stop staring at everybody, Steve (Jobs).  You’re freaking people out.”), and more.

If we were to turn those measurements around…and start measuring our team members as if they already had everything they needed to create success…here’s what we might say instead: “You didn’t make your sales goals, but you did make some good sales.  What can we learn from those?” Or, “Tommy, when you’re spending hours at a time in your cubicle, I know you’re getting a lot done.  How can I help you to communicate that success better?” Or, “Steve, I’ve noticed that when you stare at people, they do what you want them to do.  Don’t ever change that.”

I threw that last one in because I’m reading Steve Jobs’ bio.  If you haven’t read it, you’ll be astounded by what he got away with, as far as being outside cultural norms. But ya know…he always seemed to be aware of the fact that he didn’t have very much time on the planet.  Isn’t that interesting?  Maybe if we all stopped worrying so much about what other people thought of us, and instead focused on what we truly value, our contributions—like Steve’s—would be world changing.

2.  You’ll end up where you plan to go.  Quantum physics tells us that our conscious observation modifies outcomes.  We apply the power of our observation in many ways: via the creation of a vision; applying our attention, focus or awareness; and by visualizing our desired outcome.  The creation of a vision is the first step.  Why?  Because defining a mental, verbal and written vision of the future creates a destination.  When we know where we’re going, we can apply our attention, focus, awareness and visualization abilities to get us there.  In other words, everyone is on the bus.  Everyone knows there is a bus. And everyone knows where the bus is going.  Doesn’t that make you feel better just thinking about it?

Here’s how it helps you: if there’s someone on your team that doesn’t know there’s a bus, you have to introduce them to the bus, and you now know that you have a Bus Introduction problem. (That is, an employee onboarding problem.) If they know there’s a bus but won’t get on, then you know you have an employee performance problem.  And if they get on the bus, but keep saying that the bus will never get there, then you know you not only have a performance problem, you have a team performance problem, and the best way to deal with that is to kick the offending team member off the bus. Poor cultural fits do not go away. Every moment the team spends in the company of a team member who isn’t committed to the team or who doesn’t believe in the destination is a moment in the Twilight Zone. The bus will seem to be moving, but it isn’t; and if it is, it’s won’t be headed where you thought it was headed.  Danger, danger, Will Robinson!  Get that person off the bus!  Now!

3.  The only way to create a new future is to shake up the present.  Decoherence is the universe’s method of turning quantum possibility into reality.  It basically introduces new information in such a way that current patterns are broken and new ones emerge.  If you really want to make tomorrow different from today, you’ll have to do the same thing.  They keys are 1), a lot of new information, and 2), delivering it consistently over time.

You may find yourself slipping back into old patterns yourself.  So it’s very important to work out a support system that will help you stay accountable to the change you’ve committed to make.  There’s a whole host of mechanisms by which to do this: regular reminders on your Outlook calendar, weekly lunch meetings with peers who share your vision, empowered supervisors and managers who carry your torch, and accountability partners, such as coaches and mentors.

Helping your team members craft their own personal visions, measure their own progress in accelerating ways, and break their definitions of the present in order to make room for a new future are three major tasks of today’s Possibility Leader™.  What other tools do you think today’s Possibility Leaders need in their toolkit?  Would love to hear your thoughts!