Tara Rodden Robinson :: The Productivity Maven

Productivity Maven’s Tip of the Week: Know what will try to get in your way

No matter what you’re taking on, there will be obstacles to overcome. There is no substitute for knowing what those obstacles might be and how you’ll overcome them when the show up. As you begin any project, take time to make three lists:

• Assets you need to complete the project successfully but don’t have yet. How will you get these? What are the intermediate goals you need to set--goals that can be achieved with the assets you have now?
• Known obstacles. Do you have a tendency to lose momentum, lose your cool, or lose your keys? Got a pattern that repeats itself time and time again? Start planning now for how you’ll leverage strengths--the things you’re good at--to get past these stumbling blocks later on.
• Limitations, expectations, or assumptions you’re making about what’s possible. These are subtle and require some digging into your mindset but are all important to your success. In the recent bestseller, The Three Laws of Performance, the authors talk about a “default future.” It’s what you’ve convinced yourself that the future holds for you. Your default future is based on your attitude, hope, optimism, and much more. If your imagined future is pessimistic, it will most certainly get in the way of your success.

Today's Tip of the Week is drawn from Tara’s forthcoming book, 40-Days Forward.

40-Days Forward 2009, Day Forty: You Made It!

Congratulations! Today marks the end of 40-Days Forward. If you started at the beginning, you’ve had 40 days to reflect, plan, let go, and give. You’ve taken a look at yourself, practiced observing, listening and gathering feedback. You’ve inventoried your strengths and realized some of your non-negotiables. After exploring your passion, purpose, and energy sources, you combined your knowledge to create a wheelhouse for yourself. In letting go, you’ve considered outcomes and limitations, having your way and needing to be right, pretending not to know and taking things personally. Giving rounded out the 40-Days experience: attention, thanks, acknowledgement, and credit have been given and (hopefully) received.

From your emails and our conversations, I know that you’ve had some big ah-hah’s and insights. Your journey has unfolded in unexpected ways: some joyous, others difficult. Through it all, we’ve been companions on the way: I’ve walked the 40-Days Forward path with you. This is the third year I’ve done 40-Days Forward. Last year, letting go challenged me. This year—perhaps it’s a sign of our times—giving was the steeper slope. My most important lesson came in giving myself credit, learning to celebrate and own achievements and milestones rather than rushing past them, discounting their significance, failing to take in the meaning of what I’ve done.

As you arrive at the end of this period of learning, take a moment to enjoy the view. Look back and review what you’ve experienced and learned. What will you take with you into the next 40 days? What will you leave behind?

Reflection, planning, letting go, and giving are activities that can form the backbone of your daily practice no matter what your circumstances may bring. If you use these tools wisely and well, you will find a greater freedom in yourself, a deep confidence, and a stronger center—your fabulous wheelhouse—from which to direct your actions and move toward your dreams.

40-Days Forward 2009, Day Thirty-nine: What You Give

Giving, like all activities, has a dark side. Generosity can be misused as an attempt to buy influence or affection, manipulating someone’s emotions, boosting the ego, or assuaging guilt. What you give may also come back to you, transformed, as when you give out gossip and get back distrust and fractured friendships. It seems to be an almost universal law: whatever you give, you get back. Thus, soured generosity doesn’t yield sweet relationships and instead comes back to haunt the giver in unexpected ways.

As you experience this last day of 40-Days Forward, take a moment to inventory all that you’ve been giving. What’s behind your generosity? Is it about you or about the recipient? What do you expect your gift to bring back to you?

40-Days Forward 2009, Day Thirty-eight: Generosity of spirit

Generosity of spirit comes, in part, from the deep knowledge that happiness is abundant and inexhaustible, success of another is good news for all, joy is an infinite resource. Today, spend a moment celebrating someone else’s accomplishment. Give them your full attention and drink in the pleasure of their achievement. Listen and offer hearty congratulations—say it like you mean it, say with the certainty that the rising tide lifts all boats.

40-Days Forward 2009, Day Thirty-seven: Giving yourself credit

One thing I’ve noticed about high achievers is that they often rush right past accomplishments and milestones. These incredibly talented and gifted folks work relentlessly toward their goals, taking on big projects, tackling huge goals. And when their metaphorical mountaintop is summitted, high-gear achievers immediately start scouting for the next challenge without ever breaking stride to take in the view. Every higher they go, never fully appreciating the altitude. I call this phenomenon “achievement disease,” and like altitude sickness, getting up to those dizzy heights without getting properly acclimated can be hard on your health. Worse, scaling mountain after mountain without a break can skew your perspective.

Today, you’re invited to stop and celebrate yourself. Give yourself credit for your latest accomplishment. Yes, engage in some good old fashioned chest-thumping. Say your accomplishment aloud, say it proud. Own your fabulousness! Can’t think of an achievement? Celebrate 37 days of 40-Days Forward! You’ve been reflective, you’ve taken time to consider your dreams, you’ve let go of something that was weighing you down, you’ve given yourself time—your most precious currency—spent on your own, beautiful self. Celebrate you. Breathe deep. Enjoy your mountain top view, appreciate where you started, acknowledge the work you did to climb the heights.