Seth Godin's Blog, page 105

Corrosion

The things that break all at once aren’t really a problem. You note that they’ve broken, and then you fix them.

The challenge is corrosion. Things that slowly fade, that eventually become a hassle--it takes effort and judgment to decide when it’s time to refurbish them.

And yes, the same thing is true for relationships, customer service and all the 'soft' stuff that matters so much.

            

Your discomfort zone

Most of us need an external stimulus to do our best work.

It helps to have an alarm clock if you want to get out of bed before dawn.

A presentation. A deadline. A live performance. The threat of foreclosure, an upcoming review or some sort of crisis.

We can use these pressures to dig deeper, find new resources and overcome our self doubt.

The challenge is that sometimes, we pick the wrong stimulus. We choose a prompt to serve us, but we end up serving it, in a situation that hurts us (and others) instead of fueling the work.

It's essential to realize that our discomfort zone is a choice, there isn't a pre-ordained roster. If you need a deadline, for example, but have discovered that those deadlines are costing you money (because shortcuts are expensive), then it's worth doing the hard work to find a new form of discomfort.

The problem with a drop-dead deadline is that if you miss it, you're dead.

If you need to make huge promises and add all sorts of hype, but that hype is hurting your reputation, again, it's worth investing in a new way to poke yourself to dig deeper.

When we hear about divas, or dysfunctional managers, more often than not we see a situation where someone who should know better has chosen the wrong form of discomfort.

The argument can be made that the biggest difference between a professional, an amateur and someone who's not even participating is their choice of discomfort.

Give it a name, call it out. Your discomfort zone is a choice, and if it's not serving you, fix it.

Like all tools, the right one serves the professional.

            

Cutting through the clutter

You're trying to get through all the noise and the distraction and the clutter with your message.

Here's the thing: You are the noise and the distraction and the clutter.

Just because it's important to you doesn't mean it's important to us.

It is, of course, in the eye of the beholder.

Instead of creating an ad campaign that somehow cuts and invades, consider creating a product, a service and a story that we'd miss if we couldn't find it.

            

What would happen...

if we chose to:

Get better at setting and honoring deadlines

Help one more person, each day

Sit in the front row

Ask a hard question every time we go to a meeting

Give more and take less

Learn to master a new tool 

Ask why

All of these are choices, choices that require no one to choose us or give us permission.

Every time I find myself wishing for an external event, I realize that I'm way better off focusing on something I can control instead.

            

Cable news

What if the fear and malaise and anger isn't merely being reported by cable news...

What if it's being caused by cable news?

What if ubiquitous video accompanied by frightening and freaked out talking heads is actually, finally, changing our culture?

Which came first, the news or the news cycle?

We seem to accept the hegemony of bottom-feeding media as some natural outgrowth of the world we live in. In fact, it's more likely an artifact of the post-spectrum cable news complex in which bleeding and leading became business goals.

There's always front page news because there's always a front page.

The world is safer (per capita) than ever before in recorded history. And people are more frightened. The rise of the media matches the rise of our fear.

Cable news isn't shy about stating their goals. The real question is: what's our goal? Every time we hook ourselves up to a device that shocks us into a fear-based posture on a regular basis, we're making a choice about the world and how we experience it.

They want urgency more than importance. What do we want?

[I wrote this months ago, and every time I'm about to post it, I hesitate because recent events make it look like I'm writing it for that reason. Finally, I realized that it's never a quiet moment in the media cycle any more, is it?]

            

Now is never (but here comes tomorrow)

Everything you're working on is an investment in tomorrow.

While we can choose to enjoy the process, the end result is always at the end of an arc, always the result of many steps, of earning trust, of building a connection.

If you view any particular day without context, it is almost certain to be a failure. Because now never happens. The results always happen later.

Since later is just around the corner, today, right now, is the perfect time to begin.

Now is the moment we get to plant the seeds for later. 

            

FPO

When creating a layout, designers put low-resolution, imperfect, non-final images, all marked "for position only." They exist to help the client understand the gestalt of the piece and to give feedback.

They're temporary, parts of a whole ready to be replaced with the real thing once the big picture is locked down.

And the concept works in just about every project, every conceptual structure we seek to put together.

We act 'as if', then we worry about the polish at the end, not at the start.

            

Visualize the leaks

It's almost impossible to walk past a spewing faucet without stopping and trying to turn it off. We can't bear to see the waste.

But our organizations leak all the time. The talented people who don't stick with the job because they're not respected, the potential customers who bounce from a clumsy website or the assets that go unused and unnoticed as they waste away.

The first step is seeing it. 

And then refusing to go back to not seeing it.

            

"Here, I made this"

"I" as in me, you, us, the person who's on the line. This is the work of a human. The audience can make a direct connection between you and the thing you're offering.

"Made" because it took effort, originality and skill.

"This" is not a wishy-washy concept. It's concrete and finite. It didn't used to exist, and now it does.

and, "Here," because the idea is a gift, a connection transferred from person to person.

These four words carry generosity, intent, risk and intimacy with them.

The more we say them, and mean them, and deliver on them, the more art and connection we create.

            

The chance of a lifetime

That would be today.

And every day, if you're up for it.

The things that change our lives (and the lives of others) are rarely the long-scheduled events, the much-practiced speeches or the annual gala. No, it's almost certain that the next chance you have to leap will come out of nowhere in particular, and you'll discover it because you're ready for it.

Someone to inspire, to connect with, to lead. A system to transform. An idea to share. Responsibility is often just lying around, waiting for someone to take it.

Go.