Morada Musings

Archive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category

I’m in awe.  Really.  Watching the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, I’m amazed by the level of human strength, perseverance, finesse.  Those who have spent hour upon hour honing their bodies to endure the arduous pounding of moguls and pipes, the strain of  maintaining an awkward, unnatural position while skating as fast as humanly possible or gliding, jumping, spinning and flying through the air non-stop for long minutes while remaining graceful.  It is truly astounding what one can do when one puts one’s mind to it!

Then there are those who lose it – lose their focus, their determination, their timing.  Some, it would appear, just didn’t train long or hard enough.  Others have obviously done the physical training but somehow haven’t been able to bring their minds to the same level of preparedness.  I applaud each, winners and losers, for pursuing their dreams over the long haul.

Like Shen and Zhau, Chinese pairs skaters who left their homes as children to live in segregated dormitories with other athletes in training, even while they have been married, and after 18 years of skating together, won gold.

And Seth Westcott, who overcame injury, weather and being well behind the leader to dig deep, play smart and grab the lead late in the run to win gold, for the second time.

And I cringed with sympathy when Jeremy Abbott let his nerves get the better of him, losing his focus early in his short program with missed jumps that put him too far back to have any hope.  Cried when I read that luger Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia had expressed fear of the track that took his life but stepped into the gate nonetheless because it was his dream, what he had trained for.

And I’ve been thinking how these situations are not much different than what we entrepreneurs experience – years of training in the trenches of corporate life to bring our dreams to fruition, reaching some critical juncture where we must put in our best effort to attain the prize we’ve been pursuing.  And sometimes failing because we didn’t work hard enough, or missed the depth of training in a particular skill, or simply lost our focus.    So, what have I been learning while watching these tremendous athletes?

Prepare as much as possible.  Stay calm.  Be focused on your goal yet balanced in your life.  Get back up when you fall.  Be gracious in defeat.  Applaud the superb performances of others.  It’s not over until it’s over, and for many, there’ll be another try next time.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of
getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks
into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”

– Mark Twain

Sometimes the most exciting, scariest, hardest thing in the world to do is start – school, friendships, dating, driving, work, marriage, parenthood… It doesn’t matter what the endeavor, when it’s new, and big, it can be daunting to take that first step.  Working with children and adults with ADHD over the past two decades, I’ve learned that one of the things they struggle with most is sequencing – seeing the pattern of things, connecting the dots.  They see the big picture – that’s what makes them great entrepreneurs, artists, and visionaries – but they have trouble with myriad parts.  Or maybe they just don’t have the patience to decipher them.    Either way, many people function in a similar way, excited by the grand idea but unable to figure out how to get started.  They are overwhelmed, stymied, spinning their wheels looking for a way in.  Or a way out!

To help those children, I learned to break things down into small bites, usually single steps.  I could not say “Go get ready for bed.”  They wouldn’t know what steps were involved, even if they’ve done it every night.  Nor could I say “Go brush your teeth, wash your face, get into your pj’s and get into bed and I’ll read you a story” and expect the whole routine to be done.  By the time they’d finish brushing their teeth, they’d have forgotten what came next.  It would take months of single steps being connected for them before they were able to remember “what comes next.”

Over the years, they eventually learn to do that kind of thing for themselves, with varying levels of success.  Those who go on to become entrepreneurs often bypass the struggle and hire highly organized, detail-oriented assistants (some are Virtual Assistants like me).  Others keep struggling, trying to put structure in place, even going so far as to make lists or use elaborate planner systems.  They become adept at capturing and recording information but never get any further than that.  They remain stuck, victims of “paralysis by analysis.”  Even when they know what needs to be done, often they can’t decide what the first step should be.  They could start here…but then again, maybe there would be better.  Unless…  This could go on for days, weeks, even months or years if what needs to be done is large or significant.

Over the years I must’ve said “Don’t worry about the end; just start!”  thousands of times.  I give you the same urging – figure out what needs to be done, map it out with whatever organizational product or tool that works for you but then start.  You can usually correct course, change directions even, at any number of steps along the way.   The end may be meaningful,  the destination important, but you’ll never get there if you don’t take the first, and then next, step.  So, get started!  And if you find you need help with the doing, give me a call.