David's posterous

Suck happens - like a bug on your windshield. #doodle

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:12:19 -0800

2012-02-24 #1288

Sucking vs. Thriving

The idea, of course, is for things to not suck. For work not to suck,
for life not to suck, for your products and services not to suck, for
your energy not to be sucked away into stress and frustration, or
worse, anger and depression. These are what we strive against. These
are "the good fight". We are diligent, and productive, and efficient
- sometimes relentlessly so - in a constant battle against the suck.
And yet, suck happens. Bosses are cranky, customers are unpredictable,
shipments are late, coffee is spilled, we oversleep, we
under-sleep.... We drop our guard. Whoops! There goes another little
bit of suck scampering out from our slippery grasp and no doubt
speeding straight toward the most inconvenient and prominent place it
can go to thumb its little sucky nose at us.

Suck stinks.

So why do we lean into the suck? We let the suck define our day and
measure our worth. Why is that? Taking on the suck, locking horns
with it, tip-toeing around it- what does it accomplish? Do we lead a
suck-free life? Do we run a suck-free business? No -They don't exist.
You can love your business (and I hope you do), but there will always
be some gremlin out there, some suck monster hiding around the corner,
waiting to jump up and say "boo!" Don't let that stop you from
thriving. The danger is letting the suck cloud our vision, obscure our
thrive, but that's exactly what it can do if we let it gobble all our
attention.

The suck is like a bug on your windshield. If you stare at it too long
you lose sight of the road. You make wrong turns, you swerve into
danger. Getting obsessed with the suck is like pulling to the side of
the highway every time a bug goes splat or a bird poops on the glass.
It is hard to make progress like that. Yes, sometimes a serious suck
comes along that has to be dealt with, but if you don't learn to look
past the little suck just like you look past that unfortunate bug on
your glass, you won't stay focused on where you're going.

Next time you find yourself obsessing over some bratty offspring of
the suck monster do a check-in with your thrive...

The Thrive is quiet. It doesn't shout for your attention like the suck
does. You have to watch for the thrive, be mindful of its needs, make
a space for it on your desk, in your office, your home, your mind and
your heart. The suck consumes your attention, always greedy for more
without one care for the limits of your resources or the ripple it can
cause with the people around you. The thrive, on the other hand, never
clamors, but always rewards you for the attention you feed it.

Feed your thrive.

Make a thrive list:
* Tasks that you thrive at.
* Situations you thrive in.
* Surroundings that replenish you, that energize you.
* People that share their thrive with you. The one's that know how to
find your smile and leave you feeling lifted.

Now the next time some suck-bug hits your windshield take a look at
where you are, where you're going. Glance at the map to your thrive
and then ask yourself if now is the right time to detour that trip to
Thrivesville just to clean up one little suck-bug?

Got a strategy for keeping the suck at bay? I'd love to hear it! Or
better yet, send me a drawing of your roadmap to Thrivesville. :)

David's posterous

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