In what is becoming a weekly thing, here’s a thought about handling life and work these days: claim as many wins as you can right now. Any wins. No matter how big or small.
Here’s why I’ve been thinking about this.
A couple of weeks ago, a client called. She was almost apologizing that her company had put its innovation and technology initiatives on hold temporarily. The reason? They had needed to stand up multiple cloud applications for the first time in order to remotely run its business. I reminded her that the company's work (and hers) on innovation and technology strategies the last few years was vital to making these significant changes in just weeks. I suggested that she should take credit for this big win since they were implementing on and activating the innovative culture they’d cultivated.
Another client called and reported changes her organization made the past month. They worked through the checklists in Jumpstarting Your Business Continuity Planning and rethought many aspects of how they do business. She was owning every single win along the way with her team. They were celebrating innovating better during this crisis better than ever had previously.
When things are challenging, you can't imagine how valuable it is for yourself and those around you to redefine success so it's easier and more frequent to attain. Lowering the bar for what you call a success can help create a positive feeling during days when you're otherwise struggling to make sense of the big things in your life and society.
What has that meant for me the past month?
Here are things that I'm calling successes to make sure I have some daily wins:
- Reaching 10,000 steps - and maybe reaching the goal earlier in the day
- Running a Facebook Live at church where the live feed didn’t drop out
- Finding out how someone is doing and offering an idea or two if they want them
- Having a positive call with a client that suggests a hint of opportunity
- Having a live conversation with someone
- An email response from an individual who had previously been elusive
- Completing a difficult task - even if I wanted to get it done last week or the week before
- Sticking pretty closely to a planned schedule for the day
Yes, those are all wins in my world right now. Not that I'm not pushing like crazy (as are others on the Brainzooming team) to try as many new things as possible. Those aspirations and the potential wins they offer are vitally important. They aren't, however, going to develop as quickly or with the same frequency as the things on the list above.
Have you tried lowering the bar on successes for yourself?
If not, it's worth trying.
And, have you been diverted from doing what you thought was important this year to do what's important right now?
If so, take a few minutes. Look for the connections with the work you've done previously that are allowing you to successfully pivot. Take credit for all those that. Those are wins! – Mike Brown
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