First things first, since I don’t think anyone ever minds a bit of good news, here’s an update on last week:
It’s back.
The Sign.
It’s back.
🙌🏼 🙌🏼 🙌🏼
It wasn’t there when I walked by on Sunday but since Easter is all about rising and resurrection it should not have surprised me when Monday’s walk gave me this:
It’s a little bit worse for the wear, but still…same message, received loud and clear!
I am awesome. You are awesome. WE ARE AWESOME!
The power of words! Affirmation! Manifestation!
Whoop.
Anyway…moving right along to today’s installment.
My favorite weekly newsletter (from James Clear, available here) always ends with a question for consideration. This past week’s question was this one, from business coach Jeanne Torre:
"Is that assumed or confirmed?"
It took a second, then…
…wow.
Five words that seemed so innocent…until I realized how heavy the question is.
There’s a big difference between the two, and I immediately wondered whether we really understand and embrace that difference when we’re about to act, right before we subconsciously assume something or actively confirm it, particularly as those things become inputs into our “what next”?
How often do we operate under an assumption that we’ve managed to disguise as confirmation? And how does that influence the course of action that we do (or don’t) take?
Sometimes we jump into action almost desperately, figuring that doing something is better than nothing, and hoping or believing that eventually something will stick. We may get lucky and that may happen. But when we act quickly like that, without thinking deliberately, we fail to set ourselves up for the best possible outcome(s).
As I thought more broadly about action and inaction, the speed with which we do or don’t act, and what informs our own activity, I thought about the flip side of that…when we overanalyze, over plan, and seek consensus to such an extent that we don’t move at all.
And this quote came to mind:
When we rush to act, it’s often because we (mistakenly) equate movement with progress (though there are times when we do have only a split-second to decide before acting). When we spend so much time thinking about acting and so little time actually acting, we attribute that to us being deliberate and thoughtful planners.
But if we don’t move, we’ll never move.
Many studies suggest that fear of failure is the root thing stops us in our tracks, and that we tend find acceptable (to ourselves) other reasons that excuse it away, like “I don’t have the time.” (Who are you calling a scaredy cat? 😉)
Long story short, we need to make informed moves with purpose and intent.
I think back to two lessons I learned a long time ago, back when I worked for a company that was working hard to improve operationally, to consistently deliver an outstanding customer experience, to develop cutting-edge solutions, and to be an employer of choice. The level of commitment they had to these efforts, and the employee engagement it generated, resulted in many game-changing improvements that provided (for me) an unparalleled employee experience. I guess that’s a long-winded way of saying that because of that I ask myself these two questions on the regular and the answers inform how I think and act to this day:
Would you rather be roughly right or precisely wrong? Precision and accuracy are substantively different just as assumptions and commitments are.
Is your activity “directionally” accurate? If so, don’t stop.
Unless you’re in a field where precision and accuracy are required 100% of the time, you can move the needle in the gray area. But you need to remember that the gray area is in the middle, between a knee-jerk reaction and an endless cycle of questions that must be answered satisfactorily before anything can happen.
We must move away from the ends of the spectrum and walk more toward the middle. It’s not a matter of either “rushing to judgment” or “analysis paralysis.” True progress happens in the middle—it’s a little bit slow and a little bit fast.
Keeping the right pace at the right time will allow us to stay strong and to go the distance.
We’re not always going to get it right, but the more we remember that life is a delicate balancing act, perhaps we’ll be less inclined to channel our inner bull in a china shop and more inclined to walk before we run…and to grab a map before we do.
The balance between planning and acting is the secret.
Have a great week.
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