Leaping or Lagging?

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Leaping is my theme for 2016.

It was partially inspired by Tara Sophia Mohr from her book Playing Big.

What’s a leap?

It’s something that “has you playing bigger right now, is simple, and can be completed in one to two weeks, gets your adrenaline flowing, and puts you in contact with the people/audience/customers/stakeholders you want to reach through your playing bigger.”

So when I finished my April adventure yesterday, I wrote a blog post about what I’ve learned from blogging every day for the last month. I knew I needed to share it more broadly than my usual tweet, sometimes supplemented by a status update in LinkedIn.

Yet I didn’t want to do it. The tweet was easier. Been there, done that. The LinkedUp update was fine. Then it was time to try out InstaQuote for an Instagram post of the post’s image and title. Okay. Easy enough.

The bar got harder with Facebook. I’ve only shared a blog post among friends once before. I don’t want to be “that person” in social media. The one that people get tired of hearing from and quietly put on mute. To spare your feelings and theirs.

And then I remembered a great post about in Inc. by Chris Winfield. In writing about how to stop procrastination, he got to the root cause. Why do we procrastinate?

Because “we believe that taking action will cause us a certain amount of pain.

Yep. I was trying to avoid pain. Of potential ridicule. Of being ignored.

Chris recommends a powerful way to move beyond it. Ask yourself, “What can you do in the next three minutes that will move something forward? What’s one small action that you can take right now?”

It’s very similar to David Allen‘s system for getting things done. It’s all about clarity on the next action.

For me, it was a Facebook post. What’s the next action for you?

Small Steps, Significant Progress

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Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge this week got me thinking about how small steps add up to big things over time.

Was it really true that the bridge has to be painted 365 days a year? Turns out the answer is no. It’s an urban legend.

Of course, touch ups are required. Just as they are in our own lives.

And spending a few minutes each day on important goals can make it easier to achieve them. That’s what I’m attempting with my Spanish studies. If I can’t consistently devote a half hour every day, how about 10 minutes?

Technology makes this even easier than when I made my first attempt to learn Spanish a few years ago. Now I have a Rosetta Stone app on my phone and my tablet. It’s available anytime and anywhere. The only start-up time required is plugging in my earbuds and tapping on the app. Easy and effortless.

My daughter was amused last night at the airport when I squeezed in my 10 minutes of Spanish. But if I keep this up for a year, it will equal 60 hours of study. That’s better than zero. And perhaps as the days and months go by I’ll find that I can double and triple the time.

After all, it’s easier to ramp up the momentum on something already underway.

 

The photo above was taken in spring 2014 when my sister, Katie, and I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge and back from Marin County. Small steps added up to a beautiful and invigorating 3-mile walk that morning.