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Directed Focus

Lesson 4 from: Be a Resilient Leader

Jason W Womack

Directed Focus

Lesson 4 from: Be a Resilient Leader

Jason W Womack

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Lesson Info

4. Directed Focus

Next Lesson: Rest and Resilience

Lesson Info

Directed Focus

So I've got a multi-layer process that I want to share with you. The overall process is called "At My Best When." One of the things that we've taught around the world, one of my favorite topics to work on with clients. And it starts off, again, with context. And for this one, what I'm gonna ask you to do is to create for yourself what I call a "Mind Map of Known For." And Known For, to us, is the term we use... We always put hashtag. Your Known For is what you hope you're described as. Your Known For is what you hope people introduce you as. So wherever you are in your organization, wherever you are in your professional career, job, or personal life, I always ask people, "Hey, are you living the Known For that you want to project out to the world?" The best place to start by the way, was the physical things. If I were to go to your LinkedIn profile, if you were to give me your business card, if I were to go do an online search with your name in it, what would I see? What does LinkedIn ...

tell me you're known for? What does your business card tell me you're known for? What does the internet tell me that you're known for? Now, there's all of those. But then there's what you want to be known for. And so the exercise that we have here is to give yourself, again, that gift of your attention. I am a huge mind mapper. I love making mind maps. So what I did, is I took picture of me going through the Known For process for you. And this is tool that you can use as you're beginning to build that process toward resilience and practicing this concept. So what I do is I put in the middle of the screen my Known For, or my name... And if I could get my slide deck up so that we can see this. And then what I'll do is, around that I'm gonna put the nouns of my attention. So when I think of me, what are the kinds of things that I know I'm engaged in, that I'm thinking about, that I worry about... if that's showing up for me. And just, on any given day, you give me a blank piece of paper and you say, "Hey Jason, what are you known for?" or "What are the areas that you wanna deepens, deepen, you want to expand?" I can just pick a couple of these. Well, I'm known for being a friend and a spouse. I'm also known for addressing challenges and having fun. How 'bout you? What are you known for, or what do you want to be known for? So that's step one of this exercise. And I'm gonna talk through this, but let me have you real quick in your notes, go ahead and just begin this little mind map. Give yourself a radial here. And if you've got two, or four, or six, you don't need a lot of these because you'll start to capture some overlapping. And this is where context comes in. This is where timing comes in. I always date stamp when I do this in my notebook. I date stamp what it is that I'm thinking at that time. And we're gonna talk about journaling a little bit later. And how journaling helps us become resilient. But once you've got those nouns, so what you want to be known for, this is where the timing comes in. So if we took a look at your calendar and we said, "Hey, over the next 12 months... And again I really like that 12 month period because I can see it, I can imagine it. It gets me through the quarter, through the next couple of seasons, and far enough out where I don't control everything, but I can direct it. I can attend a class, read a book, subscribe to a magazine, invite a friend out to coffee, lunch, or dinner. And so this is just a picture that I drew in my notebook a little while back. What do I want to be known for as having "fun?" Well, I'd like to schedule three-day vacations, and I want to have ten of those over the next 12 months. Well that gives me something to focus on. It gives me something to talk with my spouse about, who happens to be my business partner, who happens to be my co-author. Which is kinda neat because it's all one. Some people need to have three different conversations for those kinds of things. If I go over here to "friend." Well, I live in this little town called Ojai, California. About 8,000 people from there. I drive down to LAX and I travel around the world. Usually about 150 to 200 days per year. Well, as friend, I want when I get back home, if a buddy calls and says, "Hey can we go for a bike ride, run, or a beer, what order do you want to go in?" I want to have the time. So I hope what you're seeing here is this context to learning these different things. I want it to be real. I want it to be a real as it is for the people in this room. So for you, if you were to put the date at the top of this piece of paper. If you were to think to yourself 12 months out, what are the things that you want to get to? What are the things that want to be resilient for? Again, that idea of resilience we're circling around. 'Cause I think shared with you a little bit the definition that I grew up with was resilience was about what happened when you got hit and then you came back. "You bounced back," I've heard people say. To me in my world, I wonder how true this is for some of you in your world. There's no bouncing back to anything. In fact, some of the people who got hit, they don't want to go back to what they had. They want a new normal. They want a new experience. Now this is required, this little mind map, this little process, to get maximum value out of the activity called, "At My Best When." Now this is gonna be fun because, for the audience online, I'm gonna actually crowdsource this. So I'm gonna make up a mock of the community that we have in this room. But there in your worksheets you have a sheet up on top, it says, "At My Best When." And what I'm gonna ask the audience to do... I'm gonna walk over to my little computer here. Give me, just one at a time, give me one or two words... I call these the ingredients or the factors. Give me one or two words that, if those one or two words are true for you, there's a higher likelihood that you're an awesome you that day. So I know for me, when I'm rested, there's a higher likelihood that I'll be a better me. I know for me when I've eaten appropriately through the day. What's that term that I recently heard? Hangry? Has anyone heard this before? (Audience chuckles) This is a new term to me. It's like, "Oh, that's what I was living all my life!" I know that when I've eaten appropriately through the day. What's another one for me? Oh I know, when move my body, right? I'm not saying I have to work out every day. But when I go two, four, six days without a significant workout, or if I go through a day when I don't even get up from my desk... So if I can add in movement, nutrition, and rest, there's higher likelihood that I'm a better version of myself. Let me just get a couple of these really specific for those of those of you who are willing to share. But if you say these out loud, I'll repeat them so that the audience can hear. But I do wanna capture couple of these to come back to. What are some factors or ingredients that go into you being an awesome you? (mumbles) Being inspired. Wonderful. And by the way, for those of you who are watching or here in the room, if someone says something that you like and you write it down on your piece of paper, that's not cheating, it's collaborating. And we're a collaborative culture. So if someone says one that you like, please, add it in as one of your one, two, three, or more. What else? What goes into you having a better likelihood of you being you? (mumbles) Nice, being creative. What else to we have? Gratitude. Awesome. Daisy? (mumbles) You can track those, you know? There's the days, and then there's the days, and then there's the days. I've got room for about three more here. Other factors that go into you having a higher likelihood that you are the "you" that you want to be. We'll go one, two, yes? I heard something recently where someone said, "work life balance, a long time ago, would be, we'd leave work and turn off the light, and we'd get home and we'd turn on the light." And they said, "nowadays it more of a dimmer." I leave work and I turn it down to like, 10 watts, and I then I get home and I turn it up to 80 watts. And then the next morning I leave home and I turn it down... Can anyone relate to that besides me? Because like, I don't really ever just go off, on one. But I need that movement between that equalizer. And for those of you who wrote a couple of these down, please share those with the community online. You'll probably give an idea to someone else who can use it. For those of you who are here, I highly recommend that we turn these phrases, these words, these topics into, I call 'em mantras. Sentences. Or in California, we can say meditations. But I know I'm at my best when I capture agreements with others as I make them. I know I'm at my best when I eat a complete and balanced breakfast for a day of big work. I know I'm at my best when I get 30, 45 minutes of heart rate at 70 percent or more out in the field. Whether that's running, biking, swimming or doing some exercise. I know I'm at my best. Now the fascinating thing about being at my best, doing the mantras and even checking those off the list, it doesn't guarantee I'll be at my best. But I am telling ya, if I don't set myself up for success, if I don't do what it is that I know I can do, it does put me behind.

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Ratings and Reviews

user-e5ce5a
 

Fantastic class! Highly recommend- Jason has such positive energy and enthusiasm, all his courses have been fun to watch and very informative.

Misty Prewitt
 

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