Happy 2021

 At 12:01 am January 1^st, all Hindsight is truly 2020 😀

(lost who to credit for this)

 

First let us acknowledge parts of 2020 were horrible – pandemic, economic, layoffs, illnesses, politics, weather, earthquakes, volcanos and deaths. There is an emotional toll for isolation and canceling events and vacations.

 

However there were good parts to 2020 to recognize – adapting, resilience and recovery. Give yourself and people around you credit for what went right.

 

We set goals for each year for many reasons. The people who recognize and write down why this is a goal are much more likely to persist through hardships and learning events to succeed. Worthwhile goals like learning new skills take several years to accomplish.

 

Losing 10 pounds was a goal one year, but the reason is wanted good health for rest of life. Hitting 192 lbs. left me feeling lousy for no easy to see reason, and could see myself on path to adult onset diabetes which affected my dad. That motivated me to make permanent changes which led to weight loss. Lost 15 lbs. over 18 months and have kept it off about 15 years now. How? Cut portions, carbs, sweets and started tracking weight and steps daily. Have simple 10 year old spreadsheet. Could see the results of my weekly efforts and adjust actions. 

 

Determine why you want that goal. What are the benefits? Emergency savings has made unexpected expenses a minor inconvenience instead of a major financial challenge to be overcome. 

 

One goal that has remained constant for 30 years is to earn more. Forces me to learn new skills and take more responsibilities every year. Being more valuable has improved my work and given me more options for employment or self employment. 

 

The world changes every year, so do you. Give yourself credit for your successes. Celebrate them. Then create more. Understand why to make your goals happen.

Wishing everyone a happy, blessed and healthy new year 

Eating Like a Kid

I eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a minimum of peanut butter and ‘no such thing as too much jelly’. It is the way I like them, health benefits lost be dammed.

You might not think I am a kid being 6’ 3”, gray haired, glasses and well past 50. But that is how I chose to bring my daily lunch.

You wouldn’t know my choice from my sister likes triple peanut butter. She would have liked the way my wife who made them for me putting peanut butter on both sides, which I hated.

My dad loved open-faced peanut and butter sandwiches he grew up with in NJ. His open-faced sandwiches had a normal amount of peanut butter and jelly on one slice of bread.

The point you don’t know what any customer will want. Which peanut and butter mix are you going to offer? Typically we offer others what we like. Instead be prepared to adjust.

Understand your customer’s needs, desires, and fears as well as you can. Listen for complaints and idea. Offer great products and services.  Find customers who want what you do well.

To succeed, really LOVE your customers. Find people who want what you offer and take great care of them. Leads to much more success than being $.01 cheaper.

Try More, Worry Less

Simple formula for success. Try more things, fail a lot and succeed at a few. Then succeed more and more often, until you have built a winning team and product/service.

How can you live with failure? Worry less about the results. Expect to have to do iterations. Failure is how we learn and get better. Failure is uncomfortable, but we can learn something every time. Get use to being uncomfortable.

Concentrate about doing the right things very well, and the results will lead to your team’s success.

Resolution Follow Thru

Have you failed yet? (How about not even started?) You are not alone. Over 9 of 10 diets have had a cheat day, set back, or even just a “I gained weight” by 2 weeks into the new year. (Was trying to hold my gains, but currently up 2 pounds.)

America financial success is known for the Scientific Method, which translates to trial & error & error & error & …

Failure is not a bad thing. We learn from our failures and our successes.

To really achieve your success this year try measuring and tracking your goal.

Have a spreadsheet where have recorded my steps and weight since 2010. Know now that temporary weight jumps come and go. That 2 pound spike will be gone in a day or two of sticking to my diet. The two pounds to lose will take 2 months more most likely to be permanent. This I have learned from a simple tracking sheet filled out mostly daily.

Fill out a post it with data to take it to the office. Then recorded every day or so. But can go back now to see where have successfully lost before and stay motivated to succeed. Learning is the benefit of actually writing down your results.

To get your resolutions done, start tracking results and be grateful you wrote them down. Time will show you succeeded despite the failures.

Pre-Mortems How to Prepare for Stress

No one thinks well under stress. Flight or Fright = Cortisol which shuts down deep thinking. Survival takes precedence.

So how do you handle stressful situations? You think about, discuss and prepare for difficult decisions.

The Army prepares soldiers for ambushes as an example. Trains soldiers to attack the ambushers rather than to sit helplessly and be slaughtered.

Drivers Ed taught us what to do when common emergencies happened. Brake and Steer out of danger. Recover from a skid. How to change a flat tire.

Daniel Levitin: “How to stay calm when you know you'll be stressed” is a great primer in preparing. He gives an example of a medical decision, and how to prepare not to lose something important.

There is a good likelihood something stressful will happen in your life. Do pre-mortems on likely stressful events to make better decisions.

http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_levitin_how_to_stay_calm_when_you_know_you_ll_be_stressed

Are You Expecting Perfection?

Signs of this include beating yourself up for taking too long, not learning something on the first try, or horrors you make a mistake. These expectations of perfection are flawed perspectives you have chosen. Studies have shown people make more mistakes than they realize, yet we learn, survive and thrive.

Was working as an appraiser, visiting different properties and getting lost occasionally. Have an excellent sense of direction, so was really bothering me. The loss of time and daylight (to take pictures) were adding stress. Took a little time to think it through. Realized I was being unreasonable. Was always going somewhere new, and maps were not perfect. Of course I was going to get loss.

Based on that insight, realized I was getting Paid to be Lost. Still got lost occasionally, but no longer bothered me. My expectations had changed.

 “Give yourself a break, humans make mistakes and are often wrong.” – Steve Amos

Real life will be messy, customers & bosses will be demanding, spouses will not understand, and children will be children. Demanding perfection of yourself  (or worse others) will drive you crazy and make people avoid you. It is a way to be miserable.

Look around. Central bankers do not manage the economy. Leaders of nations react to events they can’t foresee. Predictions of the future are notoriously wrong. Why should you be perfect?

 “The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.” ― Tom Bodett