Tag: evaluation

My two-word formula for success at anything.

I have spent my whole life alphabetically advantaged. Adam Albrecht appears near the top of every list whether you decide to organize people by first name, last name, or the more rarely-used, 3rd letter of the first name.

I love my initials. AA. I sign my emails and notes with -AA. It’s symmetrical and primary. It would work well as a name for a ranch. (The kind with cattle, not the kind that Paul Newman makes.)

My favorite batteries are AA. My favorite company swag comes from American Airlines. And if I ever become ambitious enough to start drinking alcohol, and then ambitious enough to stop drinking alcohol, I am going to join AA, and wear all of their swag. I’ll be the most non-anonymous AA member of all time.

But AA is not just my initials. It is also shorthand for my formula for success.

That simple yet powerful formula is Action & Analysis.

To be successful you have to take Action. You have to verb. You have to do. You have to try. Action is the fuel that creates results.

But once you have taken Action, you have to perform an Analysis. You need to study the results. You need to evaluate the outcome. You need to learn what worked and what didn’t. You have to learn which jokes landed, and which ones were only funny in your head. (It was the 3rd- letter-of-the-first-name thing wasn’t it?)

Then you adjust your aim, reload, and fire more action at your target. Then analyze again. And repeat.

Action & Analysis is a simple formula for success. It has been proven in action, and through analysis. And it never fails.

Key Takeaway

To become the best version of yourself you need Action and Analysis. Do what you think you should do. Then analyze the outcome. Adjust according to your learnings. Then take action again. Success leaves clues. Failure steers us. Reflecting on experience leads to wisdom. Repeat the process over and over and over. All the way to success. -AA

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

Why your experience is worthless until you do this important activity.

There is tremendous value in experience. People with a great deal of experience are typically paid more and command greater respect and authority. I expect that’s why Jimi Hendrix kept asking about it.

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.

+For more of the best life lessons I have learned check out my book, What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.

How to get the most out of any experience.

Every experience in your life has the potential to be valuable. Every day, every meeting, every interaction. From major holidays to kickoff meetings to casual conversation, there is gold to be found everywhere. But too often the experience comes and goes without living up to the potential it promised. This is the deeper message behind the play Our Town and the movies The Sixth Sense and Weekend at Bernie’s.

The best way to get the most out of any experience is to imagine it is already over before it has begun.

Before the meeting starts imagine you are walking out of it. Before you get in the car with another person imagine the drive is over. Before your guests arrive imagine they are leaving. Before you try that pick-up line imagine what the other person looks like when you are sober.

Then ask yourself these 3 questions:

  1. What went right?
  2. What went wrong?
  3. What would I do better next time?

With this quick and easy pre-mortem evaluation you can ensure that you will:

  1. Make the right things happen.
  2. Fix what went wrong before it occurred.
  3. Do things better THIS time.

I use the simple evaluation technique all the time. And I use it on massively different types of experiences.

Before Christmas or a birthday, I imagine the perfect day, map it out and schedule the day to live up to my expectations. More detail is better. So is more eggnog and more smiling. Smiling’s my favorite.

But I also use this technique when I drive my kids to or from school. I think about the conversation I wish I had. I think about the opportunity to connect, encourage, or entertain as if it already slipped away. Then I make sure to connect, encourage or entertain while I still have a few minutes. And when the ride ends with my kids opening the door laughing I feel like we are winning at life. Especially if they remembered their backpacks.

Key Takeaway

Understand your opportunities before they are gone. Imagine the final outcomes before they are baked. Then adjust anything you can to align your actual experience with your ideal. Great events don’t just happen. You make them happen. And a little forethought provides the road map you need to a better ending.

*If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.

+For more ways to create better outcomes, check out my new book What Does Your Fortune Cookie Say? from Ripples Media.