Roll with it!
“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction” – John F. Kennedy
This quote perfectly embodies the type of mindset an everyday leader needs to cultivate. A leader is often not the person sitting on the sidelines waiting for the perfect opportunity to arise; they are often in the middle of everything grasping at whatever hand-holds and opportunities may come their way. But how did they get to be like this? Can it be taught?
Maybe and absolutely.
It usually starts with the realization that there is more out there. More to see and do. More to accomplish. More to experience. Once that realization comes, the next question is, “How do I get more?” Atomic Habits would suggest that a person starts by building upon already established habits. Think of habits like sidewalks or walking paths that already exist, instead of walking on the exact same path every day take a small (ever so small, one could even say atomic sized) detour off that path. Skip a single square of the sidewalk, maybe venture into the trees for a moment and come back. That’s really it. Like a child learning to ride a bike, the deviations from the sidewalk will get bigger and bigger until the difference between sidewalk and grass is negligible.
In life people find themselves in a daily path. Maybe it’s the commute to work, maybe it’s restaurants to eat. Maybe it’s the way hobby time is spent with family. None of them are wrong per-say, and all of them maybe the most optimal paths. Yet, if you’re reading this, there is a likelihood that you’re looking for more growth opportunities. Those don’t come by doing the same things over and over.
This, of course, has its inherent challenges, one of which chiefly being that this is going to be uncomfortable, even downright scary. It may also mean taking forward action when there is a feeling of incompleteness, or unpreparedness. A good way to overcome that incompleteness/unpreparedness feeling is to do the pre-work to Plant Your Feet.
A leader doesn’t fear failure, they fear inaction because even in a perceived failure there is always something gained and learned. Take JFKs quote from above about the costs of comfortable inaction. It does take a fair bit of optimism in order to cascade over into the action-taking side, but it could also just as easily take a little bit of apathy, or even just urge for something new.
All of this action vs inaction discussion comes with an added benefit of being able to adjust on the fly. A rolling ball is much easier to change direction than one that is unmoving. It’s basic physics of static friction versus kinetic friction. It is harder to get something moving than it is to adjust or change something that is already moving.
A project that hasn’t been started yet requires more work than one that has been. A building with one brick laid is one more brick forward than one without that brick.
Things to Implement:
Say yes to more things
This might seem pretty silly, yet consider that plans can always be cancelled; folders deleted; texts ignored, balls dropped when needed, and surprisingly life seems to go on. By saying yes it takes a first step towards getting something moving forward. It lays the first brick.
Trial by Fire
Learn by doing. If there is an opportunity to give something a trial run for a week or two, take that offer! There is no better experience than hands-on experience. Don’t let fear of failure stop something before it starts. Know, accept, that failure will happen in some sense, but a true failure is a shot not taken.
Organize and Track
Keep tabs on lessons learned or anything started/work done. Use a cloud service like iCloud, Google Drive, OneCloud, or whatever service to create folders, files, and notes of things experienced. Prepare to be surprised when things done 3-4 years ago become relevant when a new opportunity arises.
There is of course a caveat to all of this that the importance of one’s mental health. “Say Yes to More Things” but of course remember that there are only so many hours in a day, so schedule, plan, and prioritize accordingly. An exhausted person feeds garbage into a system, and as we know Garbage in = Garbage out.