Archive for March, 2010

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about decision-making. Make good decisions, take small but persistent steps in the right direction, and you can achieve amazing things. Make poor decisions, and your mountains seem to grow taller and more insurmountable each day.

Since the start of the year, I’ve been making poor decisions. Actually it’s more accurate to say I’ve been postponing decisions. But making no decision is really making a decision to do nothing—and that’s usually a poor choice. So my mountains have begun to seem … immovable.

Fortunately, those mountains are uniquely mine, and the only person my idleness has hurt is me. Now that I’ve chosen to do something, I can simply move forward with no real harm done.

But what if other lives were in the balance? What if your failure to act could cause irreparable harm?

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Are you smarter than a fifth grader? Scratch that. Are you as smart as a preschooler?

What’s the one thing most preschoolers do that may give them an intellectual boost? They take long afternoon naps.

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Make a mark.

It’s what we all want to do, in our own way, isn’t it? Whether it’s by achieving some sort of fame, becoming successful in business, saving lives, saving souls, serving our country, or raising the next generation, we want to leave some imprint of ourselves on the world.

But how? How do we make a difference?

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A lot of my friends are unhappy with their jobs, and statistics show that probably means they’re unhappy with their bosses or coworkers. So the mountains they’d like to move are the nuisances at work.

Guess that’s why many people tell me they’d give anything to trade places with me, be their own bosses, and—best of all—work out of their homes!

But the mood isn’t always merrier in the home office.

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Did you ever stop to think that success and failure are all in your head? No, that doesn’t mean the Olympic medals Apolo Anton Ohno added to his collection at the 2010 Winter Games are a figment of his imagination. It means the champion short-track speed-skater had to make the decision to succeed or fail long before he took the ice in Vancouver.

It’s simple. If, in your mind, you believe success is possible, it is. And if, in your mind, you believe failure is inevitable, it is. You can’t necessarily ensure your success by believing in success, but at least you give yourself a fighting chance. You can, however, ensure your failure by believing in failure. If you believe failure is inevitable, your preparation will be half-hearted. Or you may stop preparing. You may stop trying. You may neglect to show up at all. Why bother? You can’t win.

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Not long ago, I heard the song “Live Like We’re Dying” by 2009 American Idol winner Kris Allen. As the title implies, it’s a message song about making the most of the time we have, which the chorus tells us is “eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds in a day to turn it all around or throw it all away.”

Did you know that? I didn’t either. Sure, the math is easy, but who bothers to find out that there are 86,400 seconds in a 24-hour day? Makes you think, doesn’t it?

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Rush hour. Great. The road I had to take home from the airport was crowded during light-traffic hours. At rush hour, it was a six-lane nightmare. Add to that a light drizzle, and the last 45-minute leg of my business trip promised to be the least pleasant of a long journey.

Seeing police cars near the traffic light about 100 yards ahead, I lightly tapped my brake. Though I was only going 30, it wouldn’t hurt to slow down well in advance of whatever commotion awaited. My car started to skid just a fraction and in a surreal instant slipped into the median, bounced once on the grass, and came hurtling up into traffic on the other side of the highway.

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