This is great advice, it can be so difficult to get across what is in your head to someone else. I haven't worked with freelancers, but even colleagues I have known a while can misunderstand each other easily
Looking forward to part II. This one you made me think of two things:
1. There’s a business lesson here.
Always, and it works in both directions. I believe we have lessons on both work and personal sides that can help on the other. This the premise of my newsletter, it's all about life and work lessons.
Either can help us on the other.
But the whole work/life balance gets misinterpreted as if we have to separate and build a wall between them, hence the slash.
Why the wall?
Good lessons can come from either side and help the other.
I actually like better the phrase 'work-life harmony'
I wish I could remember the name of the lady I got it from to give her full credit.
Instead of the separation that balance introduces, we can find a way to mesh and integrate both in a way that works, well, in harmony.
2. A situation just last week.
I made a payment way early. Good? Hold that thought.
While submitting it I had a little voice say something like "You sure? this can wait. You may want to hold on to that cash for now. Pay this later, there's revenue coming before it's due."
All that in a fraction of a second.
I didn't listen to it.
My logical head was following what I had scheduled to happen that day, it was on my calendar: pay this bill.
Sure enough, something happened earlier this week where I could have used that cash but now I am somewhat decapitalized. Had to make do with less.
I didn't derisk.
Didn't ask your 2 questions 🤦♂️
Btw, that little voice, that's intuition. It is not some woo woo stuff. It's part of our psyche and very real.
I'm striving to do better and listen to my intuition more, then combine it with my logic. Not one or the other.
Vishen Lakhiani said something like "our logical mind doesn't have all the answers."
Great examples, thanks for sharing Ramon. I haven’t replaced my astilbe yet—I’m going to wait until next summer and do some research on plants that like full sun outdoors, to prevent new ones from burning to a crisp in 48 hours. 💀
Love this, Wes. Especially the “healthy paranoia.”
As a sales person, I often feel like I am overthinking a prospects potential objections to a deal, but it often prepares our team much better for the obstacles.
Hi Wes, thanks for sharing your processes here and how they help you make better decisions.
I sometimes suffer from "analysis paralysis" and will look to use your reflective questions to help me think more clearly about the actual vs. perceive risks involved in a project or process.
In the spirit of sharing, I recently heard on a business podcast four questions to help think about the future in more objective and abundant ways:
A common derisking situation is data collection/aggregation. It's usually done by early career people, so they don't tend to ask a lot of (or the right) questions.
I taught all my staff when assigning anything somewhat tedious, to check in after just a few items were finished. Then if that goes well, after a few dozen.
These two quick check-ins have saved hundreds of hours of staff time over the years.
Of course, I learned this the hard way =)
I think as an example, this is a great time NOT to ask "what is likely to go wrong?" My brain can come up with a hundred scenarios where it goes wrong. Instead, just plan that it might, and check-in.
This is great advice, it can be so difficult to get across what is in your head to someone else. I haven't worked with freelancers, but even colleagues I have known a while can misunderstand each other easily
Looking forward to part II. This one you made me think of two things:
1. There’s a business lesson here.
Always, and it works in both directions. I believe we have lessons on both work and personal sides that can help on the other. This the premise of my newsletter, it's all about life and work lessons.
Either can help us on the other.
But the whole work/life balance gets misinterpreted as if we have to separate and build a wall between them, hence the slash.
Why the wall?
Good lessons can come from either side and help the other.
I actually like better the phrase 'work-life harmony'
I wish I could remember the name of the lady I got it from to give her full credit.
Instead of the separation that balance introduces, we can find a way to mesh and integrate both in a way that works, well, in harmony.
2. A situation just last week.
I made a payment way early. Good? Hold that thought.
While submitting it I had a little voice say something like "You sure? this can wait. You may want to hold on to that cash for now. Pay this later, there's revenue coming before it's due."
All that in a fraction of a second.
I didn't listen to it.
My logical head was following what I had scheduled to happen that day, it was on my calendar: pay this bill.
Sure enough, something happened earlier this week where I could have used that cash but now I am somewhat decapitalized. Had to make do with less.
I didn't derisk.
Didn't ask your 2 questions 🤦♂️
Btw, that little voice, that's intuition. It is not some woo woo stuff. It's part of our psyche and very real.
I'm striving to do better and listen to my intuition more, then combine it with my logic. Not one or the other.
Vishen Lakhiani said something like "our logical mind doesn't have all the answers."
Note to self: remember the 2 derisking questions.
1) What’s most likely to go wrong?
2) What can I do to prevent this from happening?
Thanks Wes.
P.S. Have you gotten a new outdoor plant?
Great examples, thanks for sharing Ramon. I haven’t replaced my astilbe yet—I’m going to wait until next summer and do some research on plants that like full sun outdoors, to prevent new ones from burning to a crisp in 48 hours. 💀
Until next summer? That's going to be some mighty research 😄
Love this, Wes. Especially the “healthy paranoia.”
As a sales person, I often feel like I am overthinking a prospects potential objections to a deal, but it often prepares our team much better for the obstacles.
Hi Wes, thanks for sharing your processes here and how they help you make better decisions.
I sometimes suffer from "analysis paralysis" and will look to use your reflective questions to help me think more clearly about the actual vs. perceive risks involved in a project or process.
In the spirit of sharing, I recently heard on a business podcast four questions to help think about the future in more objective and abundant ways:
1. What was true?
2. What is true?
3. What will be true?
4. What could be true?
Take care,
Matt
A common derisking situation is data collection/aggregation. It's usually done by early career people, so they don't tend to ask a lot of (or the right) questions.
I taught all my staff when assigning anything somewhat tedious, to check in after just a few items were finished. Then if that goes well, after a few dozen.
These two quick check-ins have saved hundreds of hours of staff time over the years.
Of course, I learned this the hard way =)
I think as an example, this is a great time NOT to ask "what is likely to go wrong?" My brain can come up with a hundred scenarios where it goes wrong. Instead, just plan that it might, and check-in.