One thing I loved about working in corporate is the videos that float around to keep us focused on the goal and inspired especially in the last few weeks of a year. There are 8 weeks left till we reach the end of 2023. These weeks can be draining, feel slow yet fast at the same time. These 3- 6 minute videos can be watched alone or with your team, showcased in meetings or company townhalls to encourage you and your audience as a pick ‘us’ up, to keep you going till the festive season.
- The danger of a single story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- What will your verse be, Dead Poets society
- Four skillsets that make good leaders, Brene Brown
- Believe in yourself, Serena Williams
- Protect your dreams
- The only thing you need to wear is your confidence, Priya Chopra
- Coach Carter – a better life
- Dream – motivational video
- And in case you begin to believe that a disappointment or failure means you will never reach your potential, check out these Famous Failures
- What do you want to be remembered for
Takeaways:
- There are benefits in observation, data collecting and taking a systems approach to complex situations instead of reacting or making fast decisions, first. How will your decisions have long term impact to your goals and if you are to make this quick decision, what are you trading it in for? What will be the loss?
- In life and work, there are losses and wins. Enjoy both. One cannot be achieved without the other.
- Be about it. Reach your goals/dreams will take hard work, effort, discipline, focus and determination. Masters in their trade/ game / profession, will tell you that cutting corners eventually catches up. You must do the hard work first for it to become easy. That is true in work and relationships. I get annoyed when I hear: work smart, not hard. That is not true for masters. They work hard to work smart. The smart comes in the ease after they have done the grunt work. Made the mistakes. Had many failures and learned from them.
- Accept your failures. They have a place in your overall journey. You cannot win without many, many failures especially if you want to be a master or a G.O.A.T.
- Know your why. Why are you doing what you are doing because if you don’t know why you are doing it, you’re not going to do it with passion and determination. And those that interact with you will feel the undercurrent of your lack of belief in reaching the goals especially when trouble arrives. This is especially important for leaders because it is in essence a reflection of your character. Your why is also a testament of your value code. Are you doing it for 15 mins of fame or are you doing it for sustainable societal impact? Are you contributing to your community in small or large ways? Those whose lives have continued to live on after their death, have almost always contributed to a larger cause outside of their own.
- Choose who you spend your time with wisely. It is said in management practice circles that we are directly and indirectly influenced by the 5 closest people that we interact with. Do they reflect your values, dreams, and direction? I like to remind myself often, if I am the smartest person in the room, I’m in the wrong room. My extremely intellectual and intelligent friends, keep me on my toes, help me process my emotions (as I happen to process them intellectually), inspire me creatively, tell me when I’m off course or have lost focus (no drama and gossiping allowed), remind me who I am (especially when the world is trying to convince me otherwise) and reflect my most honored and prized personal values. This keeps me going.
- Comparison is the thief of your potential and distracts you from reaching your goals. I’ve seen so many naturally talented people who after they have made it, start to see competitors in everyone. They start to become insecure. Yes, business school does teach us to use our friends as a benchmark but if you keep looking at what someone else is doing, you lose focus of your own goals and compete with another instead of celebrating what makes you unique.Instead, you discredit the thing that you bring to the world that is uniquely you. Your gift. And when you look again, you begin to wonder how you ended up in a place that does not feel so good anymore. Run your own race.
- The loss/setback/disappointment is as important as the win. It prepares and educates you for the win.
- Believe in yourself. The greatest have broken their own self-limiting beliefs. They have gotten out of their boxes and the boxes that others have built for them. This can be hard especially with the fake social media lives many live. It always looks great, but we never share the setbacks or disappointments. The reality of life. To run the race, you must believe in yourself. Show up for yourself first. Others will follow.
- Get out of their boxes. Never allow any person, system, or group of people, determine who you are or the life that you live or your success because they cannot answer for the life that you live. We are all accountable for our own direction and choices. We have no one else to blame. The weight of accountability is always on the shoulders of the leader but in fact, it is everyone’s reality for themselves too. Blaming another is like giving the key to your car away and then expecting to get to your destination with a car that you cannot start. There will always be repercussions.
What have you learned or drawn from this list?
