Do you ever feel like you’re going insane? Do you do the same things over and over again expecting a different result? Is your business becoming more and more like Groundhog’s day? That’s the real definition of insanity. How do you avoid going insane? Here are some of my free-wheeling thoughts.
1. Understand your motivation. What is driving you to do what you do each and every day? Are you someone who always seeks comfort and predictability? Do you value work/life balance? If you don’t know why you are going to work each day, you’ll be doing the same things over and over again with the same results. By understanding your motivation, you’ll have a clear idea of what you need to change in order to generate real results. For example, I’m motivated by competition and playing the game right, I enjoy winning which drives me to constantly evaluate strategy and execution. At times though, I’ll get in a rut and realize that I’m not driven by winning, rather I’m driven by “playing not to lose” - which in my mind is the dumbest way to play. For me, understanding which way I’m playing helps me stay focused on results.
2. Challenge yourself everyday with something uncomfortable. Now, not for the sake of doing so, but because you are doing something valuable for your company. For example, if you don’t write well, write a blog post for your company today. If you don’t know how to cold call, do it - call three potential clients today. If you don’t enjoy networking, invite a potential mentor to lunch today. The more you are challenged with new things each day, the more you’ll be able to see opportunities that will open doors for you.
3. Take responsibility. Honestly, I’m sick and tired of hearing entrepreneurs complain about the economy instead of taking responsibility for the decisions they are making. Everyone is in the same boat, the great entrepreneurs are the ones that are able to adapt, make decisions given incomplete information, and take responsibility for their own decisions. Blaming the economy is an easy way to continue doing the same things and avoiding the tough decisions that need to be made in this environment. Another thing that drives me absolutely nuts are companies that survive by leeching off of others, in other words, building a business around suing other businesses and people instead of building real businesses or competing. Build value, take responsibility, and stop the nonsense of detracting value.
The past Bush administration post 9/11 asked all Americans to step it up and spend to keep our economy growing. The biggest insanity in the US is that we think spending and debt will bring about a sustainable economy. Time and time again, it’s been proven that spending and debt both personally and as a country is unsustainable. We tend to spend on assets that decline in value, automobiles, Ipods, Iphones, TV’s, overpriced homes, etc. What we need is to have a healthy mix of saving and investing in assets that provide a return. It means that we must do things differently, we must live below our means (both personally and collectively), we must invest wisely, and we must save more. It’ll mean more short-term pain, but in the long-term it’s sustainable and bubbles of the past may be minimized in the future.
What are other insane things you see in life? How are you avoiding the trap of becoming insane?
Amazing blog post, I myself feel like im going insane sometimes.
Realizing it is one thing, but pulling yourself out is another - make it happen!
I think 9-5 is pretty insane. I think the fiat money system is insane. So is the ‘Stimulus Package.’
So is spending, spending, spending, no savings.
I think listening only the mainstream media is insane (how easy would it be to control perspectives if everyone is getting their news from the same sources?).
I think eating fast-food to save $ is insane… How much do you think your medical bills will be later?
I think thinking Change will come effortless because we’ll be led to the promise land is insane…
And finally, I think entrepreneurs feeling like they are hopeless in this economy is pure insanity!
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”- Benjamin Disraeli
This is the opportunity of a lifetime sheeple! Roll up those sleeves and provide real value… doing so you can’t go wrong.
Don’t go w/ the flow, start a new current.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein
Love your comment. Insanity does seem to surround us, but opportunity is there for those who seek it.
Great words carefully chosen and delivered.
Great great post! I try to avoid the trap of becoming insane by
1) scheduling “media diet” once a month — no news, no TV, no web surfing for a weekend
2) read serious, well researched biographies and history books — it helps me to put things into perspective, and learn from the great minds in history
3) play with my young kids — they don’t know anything about recession, bailout, financial crisis, etc. And they remind me what really matters in my life
4) visit my relatives in Asia — they might not have the materialistic comfort we’ve here. They might not live in houses as big as ours. But, they’re closer to each other; they’re happy.
And finally, I truly believe what Warren Buffet said — Keep your inner score card.
thanks again for the powerful and thought-provoking post,
GeekMBA360
thanks for your comment. i think you’ve got a good rhythm of keeping yourself out of a bad cycle. perspective is important as well as an inner score card - giving is another way to keep that score in your favor. cheers!
Great Post! I’m trying to stay sane by limiting repetitive activities such as checking Emails, Google Reader and Twitter. I found that setting time limits for each of these makes me more sane. Also, I try to get away from my laptop for several times a day or change my location (parks, coffee shops, office, etc). Finally I try to only work towards one goal, that keeps me focused. If I have too many goals at once it feel like I get nothing done.
staying away from emails, google, and twitter is hard! keeping focused on getting 1 thing done well a day is a fantastic idea.
Challenge - The word.
Yes, we should take interest in subject/s that are knowlegable no matter they are of our interest or not. Knowlegable is always existing. All we have to do is to generate interest/curiousity to know our surroundings.
“Out-Hustle Everybody” …Gary Vaynerchuk
Amen!
Understanding your motivation is the most important in my opinion. I recommend to all my friends and colleagues to develop a decision matrix for their lives. Let’s imagine you are trying to decide upon a career choice. List 5 - 10 items that characterize a possible decision or career option along the X axis, and then 5 - 10 items that describe characteristics for all of the choices (e.g. salary, long term stability, personal fulfillment, vacation time, social prestige, geographical location etc.) Next assign a weight to each characteristic. For example, you might give salary a 5 and geographic location a 1.
Place a grade from 1 to 10 for each characteristic as it relates to each career option, multiply each grade by the weight for each criteria and add the total for each option.
Not only will you learn what decision you should make based upon the total score, but more importantly, by examining the weight you gave to each characteristic you will understand what motivates you.
(google ‘weighted decision matrix” to see more uses.)
thanks for quantifying how to understand your motivation. it’s surprising to me that most are unable to articulate it, if you don’t know find out now, or you’ll find yourself years from now wondering what happened.
What’s insane? Acting from the belief that life is sane, secure, normal, and never changing.
What keeps me sane? “Dancing like nobody’s watching.”
Thanks for asking the questions.
thanks for your comment. well put.
For me, procrastination is insanity… the insane idea that there will always be a better time to do something. It’s so pervasive and easy to legitimize… but is horribly debilitating over the long run.
Almost as bad, however, is the opposite - consistent impulsiveness as a result of lack of time or other resources to act/do things that really should be thought through better.
This can also be pretty difficult to see as well… until you wake up one day and realize all the business decisions you’ve made over the last 6 months have been made ‘in the moment’ rather than as a result of careful planning or analyzation.
I guess ultimately, though, insanity is most severe when it comes to the continued misuse of resources like time or money. There’s some routines that bring great benefit when done repeatedly… but when it comes to be being a poor steward of what you’re in charge of, repetition fast becomes insanity.
i totally get where you are coming from. i really like your analogy of being a steward of resources - entrepreneurs really are stewards of resources. if we do nothing, or what i like to call analysis paralysis - where we dream and plan and don’t execute we’re awful stewards. as well as vice-versa, if we’re swayed so quickly by opinion that we can’t handle some unanticipated outcomes, we’re also bad stewards. well thought out strategy and execution is key to staying sane! thanks for your comment.
I’m new to your blog, due to this AWESOME post. What I do to avoid insanity is to take the time to exercise, play with my kids — and trust my instincts and passion for doing meaningful work, “something that matters.” I also find that cutting back on spending results in more family together-time doing simple activities, which makes us all happier.
thanks for visiting amy and the reminder that spending does not equal happiness. what we need is not more stuff but more genuine human interactions that lead to more meaningful lives.
enriching lives by finding meaning in it isn’t it the essence?
Great post! I totally relate, and this was a great pick me up. Thanks!
bad economy, recession are all part of life. Yes, as you told, a good one will try to uncover something which has never been tried and make the recession help him make money! good example would be some of the famous players in commercial open source products which are increasingly popular because of recession and companies with smaller IT budget!
Good post! Really hope that people don’t become insane and shoot at will at others! sigh!
Agree with your here completely.
This is an awesome post with all its comments.
I really like number 2. I am going to start challenging myself by making sure I do something everyday on one of my sites. Sometimes a day or two goes by before I do anything and this needs to stop.