Great opportunities are created through your interactions with other people. This means that your engagement with other humans is core to your experience on the planet, and presumably on the international space station.
However, before you can develop new friends, partners, collaborators, employers, employees or supporters you need to be discoverable. Like a Bluetooth device. And the easier you are to be found the easier it is for opportunities to find you.
The best way to be found is to do the opposite of what you would do if you were on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. Or Sasquatch. Or Olivia Newton John’s ex-husband. Because to be discovered by others, you must do things that raise your profile so that you ping on other people’s radars.
You can be discovered in a few simple ways.
Show up. Be visible in the real world. Go to events. Be seen in public. Meeting people for meals or beverages isn’t just about showing up for the person you are meeting with. It is also about raising your visibility to everyone else at those establishments. This creates both a higher level of awareness and chance encounters. It increases your level of familiarity with others. That is where real relationships start. It’s also why the Loch Ness Monster never gets invited to birthday parties.
2. Share messages. Create and share your messages with the world. Make them easy to find. This includes blog posts, columns, letters to the editor, news releases, message board posts, podcasts, and video content. You can share social posts on any and all social media. Comments in those same places too. This makes it easier for people to see your name, your ideas and your personality. By sharing your messages you are reaching many people at the same time. This could be dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people simultaneously. Which is much easier and more scaleable than sharing your message one-on-one, like Hall and Oates.
3. Talk Value. This happens when you do something good, interesting, surprising, or noteworthy, and others start to talk about you when you are not around. This means that others are amplifying your message for you. When others share messages about you, recommend you, promote you, wonder about you, ask about you, or admire you aloud, your message spreads far beyond your ability to share on your own. This is how people like the Kardashians, Mother Teresa, and Santa got famous.
Key Takeaway
Great things happen as a result of awareness. Make sure you are being seen, heard, and talked about for the good things you do. That’s how great people and great opportunities discover you.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
But the true value of experience does not come from the experience itself. After all, Elizabeth Taylor had a great deal of marriage experience thanks to her 8 trips down the aisle. And Nick Cannon has a great deal of parenting experience thanks to the 11 kids he’s sired with 6 different women. But few of us would turn to either of them for quality advice on marriage or parenting.
The true value comes not from the experience itself, but from the time we spend reflecting on the experience. It comes from the evaluation of what did and didn’t work. It comes from considering the constants, the variables, and through reflection, the results. (Although I have also found True Value in those cute neighborhood hardware stores.)
It’s your reflection that creates learning and understanding. That’s when the value is gained. You don’t need to have a good experience to learn and grow. In fact, you will often learn more from a bad experience. Because it is the evaluation process that alchemizes both good and bad experiences into valuable experiences. Which means the only experience your won’t profit from is the one you don’t examine.
My friend Anne Norman once called me a master of self-reflection. I was surprised to hear her evaluation. Although, once I reflected on her comment I recognized that I do indeed make self-reflection a priority. It is the engine that drives my self-improvement journey. It is my greatest entrepreneurial asset. It inspires my writing. And it helps me recognize when I have a bat in the cave.
Key Takeaway
Experience is not inherently valuable. Your evaluation of the experience creates the long-lasting value. Take time to reflect on your experiences to understand why you got the results you did. Repeat the actions and behaviors that contributed to good outcomes. Eliminate those that contributed to bad outcomes. That’s how you convert experience into wisdom. And applied wisdom creates the greatest value of all.
If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
If you want to get better at anything it is important to understand the self-improvement process. Like a week, and a house full of dwarfs, it is made of 7 parts.
1. Desire is the root of all self-improvement.
If you have no desires you have no life force pushing you to improve or achieve. Or reproduce. So make sure you have a desire. Like U2. Or that streetcar in New Orleans.
2. Your desire leads to goals.
Goals are your wants clearly stated. This gives you a target. Which provides focus and direction. Or obsession. Like Calvin Klein.
3. Goals lead to plans.
Plans define a course of action to bridge the gap between you and your goals. The plan declares how you will get to your goal. It determines how you will change yourself or the world to obtain your goal. So make sure you plan, Stan.
4. Plans drive your calendar.
Your calendar determines what you need to do and when. The when, or the time you carve out to act, is critical. Time is the stage for change. You must first find and protect the time needed to act. Just like an Under Armor athlete must protect this house.
5. Your calendar drives your actions.
Action is the key ingredient of progress. It is the doing. Action is the step on the 1000-mile journey. Repeated actions create habits. Habits create more action. And more action and more action, Jackson.
6. Your actions drive your results.
Your actions create progress and momentum. Actions build the bridge. As you build the bridge you reduce the gap between you and your desire.
7. Your results deliver your desires.
Performing the right actions for long enough will create the results needed to attain the things you desire. Keep going. And keep investing your time until you get what you want.
Key Takeaway
Desire –> Goal –> Plan –> Calendar –> Action –> Result –> Attainment
Remember, the process is simple. Not easy.
If you know someone who could benefit from this formula, please share it with them.
The end of the school year is award season. There are awards for academics, music, sports, volunteering, spirit, and my personal favorite, attendance. I love rewarding great achievement, attitude, and general showing-upness.
But we can present the awards in a better way.
There is a common practice of awarding Nancy Drew-style. In this practice, we present the person without a name, and everyone in attendance has to guess who the mystery achiever is. The Nancy Drew-style presentation goes something like this:
This year’s recipient is an exceptional kid who has worked extremely hard. They are funny like Kevin Hart, caring like Mother Theresa, and more importantly, have had perfect attendance. They are one of my favorite kids ever. They will probably become the President of the United States, win a Nobel Prize, or even better, become a You-Tuber.
In this practice, we don’t reveal the name of the winner until after we have said all the great things about them. Then, after all the praise and credentials are announced, the mystery is revealed, and we clap for a few seconds as they walk up and receive their certificate.
Let’s flip this practice.
Let’s announce the award recipient first. Let’s get them in front of the audience right away. Let’s share all of the accolades and appreciation while they are basking in the spotlight. This way, all of the good things we say shine on the winner in real-time. Which means you can also film the moment and share it on the socials. Then you can enjoy watching the moment over and over. Or at least until the format you captured the video on is no longer supported by Apple devices.
My son Johann just won his Wisconsin state piano competition. That dude can really play!
This practice serves as an amazing way to introduce the award winner to people they haven’t met. It enhances the winner’s personal brand. And it provides a praise experience they will never forget. Which, in the long run, is more valuable than the award itself.
Key Takeaway
When you present an award, announce the winner first. Shine the spotlight on them as you share their successes. Connect a name and face with the achievement. Because that time in the adoration spotlight is the greatest gift of all.
If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
It’s graduation season! Students across the country are thrilled to finally be done with classes, done with books and done with teachers’ dirty looks. But what they will soon find out is that the real life lessons start now. Because suddenly your life becomes one big multiple-choice test. And if you thought you were done with all that writing, here comes the big surprise:
Now you have to write the story of your own life!
Looking back, I can see that I have learned far more since graduating from Hanover High School in Hanover, New Hampshire and The University of Wisconsin than I did in school. In fact, I read more now than I did in school. I ask more questions. I study people and events. I analyze cause and effect. And I know far more now than I did when I thought I knew it all. (Which may also be lyrics to a country song.)
If you are a new graduate, congratulations! Welcome to the club! Here are a few things that will help you in your exciting next chapter of life. They have been a huge help for me. Which is why I shared them in my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say?
12 Important Life Lessons For New Graduates.
Kickstart your day with a smile. The first thing you should do every day, while still lying in bed, is put a big smile on your face. Science has proven that not only do we smile when we feel good, we actually feel good when we smile. Smiling is the easiest positive thing you’ll do all day. Yet it has the power to propel and protect you until you crawl back into bed at night. (So, if you haven’t smiled yet today, do it now, brown cow.)
2. Fill your attitude with helium. Life is unpredictable. One moment you feel like you are on top of the world. the next moment you feel like the world is on top of you. But a helium attitude rises anyway. Don’t let setbacks, curveballs, and negative people drag you down. Do what helium does, and just keep rising. Your attitude is everything in life. Make sure you fill it with the right fuel. (And if you ever need a good laugh, suck in some real helium and say ‘Luke, I am your Father.’)
3. Your Success Is Directly Related to Your Contribution. Success is easy to understand. If you want more, contribute more. If you want to earn more money, add more value. If you want more social capital, add more value. If you want more political capital, add more value. It is the value you bring to the world that determines what the world offers you in return, Jedi.
4. The best way to live a great life is to start at the end. By viewing your life from the end you can clearly see what you could have done and what you should have done. Do this now, while you can do something about it. And you will be able to turn your life into an epic story as big as your imagination. (And go to funerals. They will teach you more about life than death. Plus, there are always free ham sandwiches.)
5. It’s the first step that matters most. Far too many people dream about the things they want to do but never take a single step towards making it happen. Your dreams start with that first step. Take it. Make it happen. (And watch Hamilton. That dude did not throw away his shot.)
6. Let envy be your guide. Don’t get fooled into thinking envy is a deadly sin and try to squash it. Envy offers insight. Note the things you envy and truly want and add them to your life list. Then create a plan to make them yours. And get to work. (Sloth, however, is a deadly sin. Don’t mess with sloths, Sid.)
7. Nothing will happen unless you make it so. JFK said, ‘Things do not happen. They are made to happen.’ Remember that action is everything. It is the difference between dreaming and doing. If you want something to happen you have to force it and will it to happen through your vision, action, and energy. This wisdom applies to friendship, entrepreneurship, and every other ship in between.
8. Always bet on yourself. Don’t buy lottery tickets. Don’t bet on sports or horses. Instead, bet on yourself. Bet on your ideas. But on your intuition. Bet on your determination. And on your willingness to affect the outcome. Stack the odds in your favor. It is the easiest way to mitigate risk and set yourself up for an epic payout. (And add Take A Chance On Me by ABBA to your life soundtrack. It’s a real toe-tapper.)
9. Find your Sliver Mentors. Everyone will offer you advice. But only take advice from people who are already doing what you want to do be doing. And rather than have one mentor for everything it is useful to have many mentors for slivers of your life. Learn the tips and tricks of the people who behave the way you want to behave. Don’t listen to every voice in the wind. Instead, carefully curate the advice you accept from those who offer great examples. (And keep a good tweezer around for regular slivers.)
10. Ask For What You Want. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. A closed door will often open when you show just how much you want to go inside. Remember, someone holds the key to unlock every locked door. (Don’t simply take what you want. Unless you look great in an orange jumpsuit.)
11.Constantly Upgrade Your Thinking: You may have graduated, but you are not done growing. Never stop improving yourself. You are like an iPhone. You should constantly be creating better versions of yourself. Each one is smarter, stronger and more capable than the one before. (And now that you will start paying for your own phone you’ll want to put a screen shield and protective case on that thang. Because phones are freak’n expensive.)
12. Don’t Build A Network. Build Friendships. Throughout your career, people will tell you that you should network. This essentially means you should meet people who can help further your career. This is bad advice. Don’t network. Instead, befriend as many people as you can. Prioritize developing genuine relationships. When you make great friends you will have a great network. Because when you make people the most important thing in your life, everything else magically falls into place. (And keep eating Lucky Charms. They’re magically delicious.)
Key Takeaway:
Commit to a lifetime of learning and growing. Get a little better every day. Read. Think. Make friends. Find people who can teach you. And always bet on yourself. The best is yet to come. But it’s up to you to make it happen.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
+If a $16 graduation gift fits into your budget, consider grabbing a copy of What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? for yourself or the graduate in your life. You’ll get 70 more important life lessons.
Adam Albrecht Blog 