Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.

– Christopher Parker

Eventually I knew I’d get started on this blog. It was just a matter of time … or was it?

I revisited one of my favorite gurus on overcoming procrastination, Neil Fiores, and used a few of his strategies to get this blog written. Here’s my take on his ideas …

1. Focus on starting. Don’t worry about finishing. Just get started, if even for a few minutes. When I’m avoiding a project or task, I take stock and agree to start one small task for 20-30 minutes only. Often I work longer than that, but sometimes I just work the minimum. And that’s okay. Better to start small than not at all. It’s how you build momentum.

2. Think small. Break a big project down into a collection of smaller tasks. It’s easier to start your taxes by starting out with the goal of downloading tax preparation software rather than by setting out to complete your 1040.

3. Keep starting. Don’t worry about finishing. Simply focus on the next thing you can start. Keep starting and finishing takes care of itself.

4. Never end down. Do your best to end on a high note. If you get stuck, that’s not the best place to quit. Work through the block so you can end on a high note. Then it’ll be easier to start the next time.

5. Slip in 15-30 minutes of work before engaging in an enjoyable activity. So the big game is in a half hour? This is the best time to start a tough project. You only have to work for a half hour, then you get a big reward. This will help reinforce the “just get started” behavior.

Get going. Get started. Get rewarded.

– rick

If there are flaws they are in ourselves, and our task therefore must be one not of redesign but of renewal and reaffirmation, especially of the standards in which all of us believe.

– Elliot Richardson

We all know people who appear to us to have an easily identifiable character flaw, but don’t seem to recognize it.

“That guy is so obnoxious,” we say to ourselves. “Why doesn’t he have a clue?”

Or perhaps you’ve thought: “Jeez. She’s so controlling. You’d think she’d figure out why no one wants to work for her.”

They’re not called blind spots for nothing. People sometimes can’t see some or all of their flaws.

Last year, I discovered how to find your blind spot. I learned that the flaws you don’t see in yourself are usually highly visible in other people (you know, the people you wonder about).

Next time you meet someone who is too rigid, too wishy-washy, too controlling, too self-absorbed, too this or too that, and you find that this flaw really rubs you the wrong way, well, guess what? You might have just identified a personal flaw that YOU’RE blind to.

We often see our worst flaws in other people before we recognize them in ourselves

The world is a mirror, and it’s showing us the things we can’t see in ourselves.

– rick

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

– Plutarch

How to think better

Remember an earlier blog, when I said, “Having thoughts isn’t the same as thinking”?

Do you even consider the difference between intelligence and thinking? I know a lot of people who are more intelligent than I am, but I often question their thinking. And vice versa.

Here’s a thought: Intelligence can be defined as everything you know and can know. Thinking is what you do with that knowledge.

We all know intelligent people who can’t think their way out of a paper bag. Then there are those who know so little it can fit on the head of a pin. Yet they sometimes blow us away with insight.

To be a better thinker, avoid the trap of using your smarts to defend an emotional reaction or an attachment to an erroneous belief or bias. Respond to the facts of a situation or argument, not the emotion.

Also remember that thinking without action leads to nothing more than empty thoughts.

Balance your intelligence with your thinking. Then put your ideas into action.

– rick

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

– Viktor E. Frankl

10 thoughts to help you make a difference in 2011 …

1. Action cures fear, precedes motivation, trumps thinking, planning, and talking.

2. Decision-making is all about action. Look for the reason why you procrastinate. It’s probably due to a decision that hasn’t been made.

3. Ask for what you want. People don’t take hints well.

4. First impressions last, but they are not permanent.

5. In the absence of clear alternatives, it is best to do nothing. When faced with two seemingly equal alternatives, do the easiest.

6. People can’t see beyond their biases. Give them vision.

7. Most people will tell you what they think you want to hear. Few are able to be open and honest. And when they are, you’ll have difficulty receiving the information.

8. Pay attention to what has your attention.

9. People hold others to a higher standard than they hold themselves. Do the opposite.

10. Respond to the facts of the situation, not the emotion or rhetoric.

– rick

Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.

– Robert Orben

He’s making a list and checking it twice …

I admit that I have a list of all the lists I have: Goals list. Movies to rent list. Things to do today list. Things I might want to do one day list. And so on.

So it’s no surprise that when the Checklist Manifesto made the bestseller list, I quickly put it on my list of books to read.

A couple of years later, I actually read it.

Here’s the scoop. The first half of the book gives you everything you need to know about the value of a checklist and how to use it to improve your life.

I soon realized that while I had lots of to-do type lists, I had no checklists.

A checklist is different from a to-do list. A checklist is used to remember important (but possibly easily overlooked) steps in a process. A checklist saves you from making the same mistake twice.

Here’s just a few tips on writing a checklist:

1. Use active verbs in your checklist (or at least parallel structure).

2. Keep each item brief and concise.

3. Limit your list to the most important steps in a process or project.

4. Keep order to your lists: alphabetical, by time, sequence, etc.

5. Make the list as simple as possible, but not simpler.

6. Approach the checklist as an iterative process. Revise it as you use it and learn from it.

Most importantly, remember to actually use the checklist.

– rick

Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.

– Francois de La Rochefoucauld

The critical need for constructive criticism

These days, everybody’s a critic. From the 12-year old middle schooler assessing his teacher’s performance to your 82-year old grandmother assessing yours.

There’s no escape.

So how do you deal with all the criticism dealt your way? If you’re like most people, you either brush it off or obsess over it. Or maybe you just become defensive and tell them to take a hike?

But you’re not like most people, are you? (After all, you are reading this blog, which puts you in a minority … a rather small minority, but an important one.)

The key to dealing with criticism is to decide for yourself whether it’s valid and, if so, how to learn from it.

First, analyze your own reaction to the criticism. If it doesn’t emote any kind of reaction in you, it probably has no merit.

But if it hit a nerve, take some time to reflect.

Look at the person dishing it out. Are they qualified or knowledgeable enough about you, your skills, or your know-how to criticize you? Or are they just projecting their issues on to you? Someone who is defensive, for example, may accuse you of the same, even when you’re not.

Finally, ask for specifics. This will help you ascertain whether you’re on the wrong end of global venting (such as, “You’re a lousy writer”) or receiving valid criticism: “You misspelled three words in your article”).

If the criticism has some merit, frame it as important feedback to help you learn or grow.

Nobody likes a critic, but we all need one.

– rick

All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.

– James Allen

The wisdom of “thank you for reminding me dear”

I remember Randy’s advice, word for word, over 20 years later.

The key to a successful marriage, he said, can be found in these few words: Thank you for reminding me, dear.

When she says, You’re home late … you reply, Thank you for reminding me, dear. The trash needs taking out? Thank you for reminding me, dear.

Get it?

Now here’s the real nugget of wisdom, the pearl I just learned this week. The only person more likely to nag you than your significant other is your own mind.

Think of it.

Who frequently replays recent unpleasant interactions with your boss, or dumb moves you’ve recently made, or keeps replaying a potentially stressful interaction with your worst enemy?

Your inner voice, that’s who. Your subconscious alter ego.

Next time your ego nags you, just say, “Thank you for reminding me, ego. Now let’s move on…”

Quiet the negative thoughts in your mind to make room for the positive ones.

– rick

The strength of your ego is inversely proportional to its size.

– Rick Jameson

How to strengthen your ego and improve your leadership

I thought of a number of points to make on this topic, but really, the quote says it all.

So what concrete steps can you take to strengthen your ego? First, admit you have a big ego. Accept that, sometimes, it really is all about you. Sometimes (often?), you care enough about what others think of you, you’re not true to yourself.

Admit you’re human. Accept you’re fallible.

Become aware of when you hold others to a higher standard than you hold yourself.

Instead of becoming defensive, look for the truth that is presented to you. Defend-less. Accept-more.

Remember when Luke Skywalker is training to be a Jedi, and he goes into the cave to face his worst enemy? He engages Darth Vader, slices Vader’s head off, and watches it roll to the ground. Turns out, it wasn’t Vader he was facing. It was himself.

The lesson? The bigger your ego, the more likely you’re your own worst enemy.

– rick

You may delay, but time will not.

– Benjamin Franklin

If you have trouble managing all the unfinished business in your life, I recommend giving Getting Things Done (GTD) a try (http://www.davidco.com).

Here’s the simple overview of getting things out of your head and into your “completed” column:

When a potential task, project, or to-do item crosses your path, take one of these options:

1. Do it. If you’ve the time and inclination, adopt the Nike way, especially if it takes less than 2 minutes (why 2 minutes? That’s how long it’ll take you to write the item on your to-do list and review it at a later time).

2. Defer it. Don’t have the time or energy? Write it on your to-do list and take care of it later. Just make sure you make time for it later.

3. Delegate it. Give it to someone else to do. Be creative. Taking your car to the car wash is a form of delegation. Paying someone to clean your house is too. So is having your secretary or subordinate return a phone call. See my previous blog on delegating (The Fine Art of Delegation: posted August 23, 2010).

4. Dump it. Remember my blog on front-end decision making? In honor of Red Ribbon Week, “Just Say No” to at least one useless demand on your time next week.

5. Deposit it in a reference file. Keep it forever or toss it out if you don’t refer to it for X number of days, weeks, or months. You decide.

To get things done, you just gotta get with it.

– rick

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own.

– Susan Sontag

All of us at mushed peas would like to thank those who attended the fall 2010 Brewery ArtWalk this past weekend. It was a resounding success, due in large part to your continued support.

The weather was great, and the art was even better. The Pez On Earth photography exhibit generated hundreds of smiles, which made the project an extremely worthwhile endeavor.

If you didn’t have the chance to attend the ArtWalk, and would like to see some images from the exhibit, send us an e-mail to receive a sample pdf.

Thanks again. We look forward to seeing you at the spring 2011 show.

– rob