A bad mood suits this time of year. It’s the dead of winter in Central Pennsylvania.
Pursuing happiness leads to misery.* But ignoring it doesn’t help.
Your bad mood kills productivity, destroys retention, and dilutes engagement.
Unhappy leaders lead unhappy teams.
A bad mood spreads faster than the flu.
A leader with ideals always strives but never arrives.
Anne Frank wrote, “It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical.”
Ideals are unreachable perfections. Excellence is always a pursuit.
Ideals make demands.
Ideals expose inadequacy.
Ideals show the way.
7 Leadership Ideals…
Effort isn’t your problem. You stall when pressure zones hijack behavior.
Breakthroughs need a catalyst.
Name the zone.
Shift your perspective.
Reclaim the future.
Learn 3 pressure zones.
Discover 5 steps to your breakthrough.
Comfort is a warning. Don’t wait for failure to change. Abandon what’s working before it fails.
Your Brain at Ease
Stops scanning for issues.
Stops challenging the process.
Stops questioning methods.
Starts protecting the past.
Comfort is unquestioned repetition.
Ease makes the pursuit of better impossible.
When you’re comfortable you’re sinking.
Winning is dangerous.
Katie Ledecky won her first Olympic gold medal when she was 15 years old (a freshman in high school). At 28 she’s the most decorated female Olympian in history. She has 14 Olympic medals. Nine gold.
Success hasn’t hardened into nostalgia for Ledecky.
Don’t make winning your primary focus.
A hawk took a mouse in our front yard. The mouse dined in the cornfield. On its way home, the hawk dined on the mouse.
There’s no cosmic conspiracy. No malice. No mercy. It’s beautiful carnage. Everything is as it should be.
Nature is amoral. Humans are responsible.
