Simple Is Powerful – Especially When It Impacts Your Life and Career!
I want to share a “simple” insight that created real learning for me, hoping it does the same for you!
Last week, I spoke to an executive I work with. We were finishing some details for an upcoming visit. While it had nothing to do with our conversation, just before we hung up he said, “Hey Chip, did I tell you my new life mantra?” I smiled over the phone as I waited to hear it. “It’s simple,” he said. “It goes like this:”
“Shed the things that no longer serve you…”
I remember complimenting him and reinforcing his effort as we said our goodbyes. I went about my day, plowing through my to-do lists and trying to get it all done. Interestingly, the “life mantra” stayed with me. I found myself thinking about it often. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more it took shape and significance in my mind. Better yet, I am now deliberately deploying this pearl of wisdom for myself.
See if my learning can benefit you. Here are my two significant takeaways and some ideas for applying them:
The phrase ‘Serve you’: At first, this sounds selfish and self-centered. However, if you think about it, it’s the exact opposite. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of others. Every time you fly, they tell you to “put your mask on first before trying to help others.” As a leader, you must take care of yourself – the organization relies on it. Covey referred to it as “sharpening your saw” – it’s a deliberate effort to rejuvenate, rest, learn, and grow. Using the wisdom of the life mantra, your job is to shed the things that no longer serve you. What are you doing that isn’t helping you learn, grow, rest, rejuvenate, and flourish? Identify it, target it, shed it. Here’s a list to start with:
- Not getting enough sleep
- Drinking wine late at night (and then eating poorly)
- Agreeing to do things you don’t want to do (thus wasting valuable time)
- Tolerating (and keeping) toxic relationships in your life
- Passing up opportunities to exercise (even simple walks around the block)
The concept of a ‘Best version of you’: I believe there is a best version of you. It’s the version where you’re happy, challenged, engaged, and loving your life. It isn’t easy to find – I wrote about how to do so here. However, when found, it’s even harder to maintain! Every day you make choices. Some support the ‘best version of you’ and some don’t. When you waver from your best version, you begin to fade. It’s subtle at first, but over time you can get lost. When you accumulate too many compromises, you lose your best version under all the clutter. Your shine tarnishes and gets replaced with a ho-hum existence.
The answer – shed the things that no longer serve [the best version of] you. Once again, the life mantra is on point! The compromises to your ‘best version’ may vary – here’s a list to consider:
- Staying in a job that sucks the life out of you and has no future
- Working for a boss who doesn’t inspire, teach, or mentor you
- Avoiding continuing education or learning opportunities
- Settling for known compromises and second bests
- Failing to change or modify your bad attitudes or habits
Do the Work: I challenge you to better focus your choices and refine your decisions. Use this simple yet powerful life mantra – Shed the things that no longer serve you.
- Start by listing all the choices, behaviors, and decisions that don’t serve you well
- Follow up with a list of all that compromises the best version of yourself
- With a list in hand – start shedding! Take deliberate and consistent action to shed all that distracts and deters
- Proactively manage future choices and decisions; reduce the tendency to compromise and your list of ‘to be shed’ will simply disappear!