a friend posted this on facebook and I watched it shortly after publishing my last post. Its always a good day for some Jill Scott... especially on a Monday! Enjoy.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
moving forward
forward motion is inevitable. We learn that from newton or someone equally as smart (or lucky, depending on your scientific politics). On one hand this is a good thing cause hey, my life is going to keep moving forward regardless of what I do. But on the other hand OMG!! my life is going to keep moving forward REGARDLESS of what I do---or don't do. So the question I have is....am I moving forward with life or because of it? I am not sure that the answer isn't all of the above. And I am not sure that is a bad thing. There are times when I am moving right along with what has been planned for me and others when life is pulling me along by my hair---- and each of those experiences have made me who I am---the good, bad and mediocre. So I return to my original hypothesis of maximizing relationships and experiences to increase my overall lifetime value. Life is going to happen in spite of me.... I am going to make it worth reading about.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
refining resolutions
As many people do with the start of the new year I was recently pondering what about myself or my life I would like to change in 2011. So being the scholarly person I am (geek) I started by looking up the word resolution in the dictionary (iPhone app). Right between the definitions of resulting state and the solution was optics or resolving power. So to make a boring story short the definition of resolving power made me change my perspective on resolutions (Dictionary.com). What if instead of looking at all the bad that I want to change I started refining the details and focused on making the good better? If I know relationships and experiences are what increases my lifetime value then why not focus on the positive relationships and experiences and make them better? It seems like such a simple and logical thought....
Sunday, September 26, 2010
interpretative powers
If I were a super hero I would want my power to be interpretation.
After reading When too much rigor leads to rigor Morris, I can't get the this statement out of my head "....interpretative powers of managers are essential to meaningful explanation."
It seems so simple. Of course you have to have human reason to tell the story of any numbers.... but how often do I flex my interpretation powers and take a risk when I know the story of the numbers is wrong? And maybe more importantly, how much trust do others have in my recommendation to take that risk?
At some point in my life I remember having a conversation with my mother about a significant decision I had to make. I don't remember the time or the circumstance of this conversation, or even what the decision was but I vividly remember one comment my mother made during this conversation. She said, "You do take more risks than the others" referring to my siblings. I remember being so proud of that statement. Not just because my mother thought I took more risks that my brother and sister, but because she said this as an argument in support of me doing something new and I knew she trusted my instinct to take risks. I have always wanted to be the one that others saw as willing to take risks. I didn't want to just know that myself I wanted others to observe that on their own and have confidence in my instinct. Not that I was always going to succeed in these risks, but that I was always going to learn something valuable.
After reading When too much rigor leads to rigor Morris, I can't get the this statement out of my head "....interpretative powers of managers are essential to meaningful explanation."
It seems so simple. Of course you have to have human reason to tell the story of any numbers.... but how often do I flex my interpretation powers and take a risk when I know the story of the numbers is wrong? And maybe more importantly, how much trust do others have in my recommendation to take that risk?
At some point in my life I remember having a conversation with my mother about a significant decision I had to make. I don't remember the time or the circumstance of this conversation, or even what the decision was but I vividly remember one comment my mother made during this conversation. She said, "You do take more risks than the others" referring to my siblings. I remember being so proud of that statement. Not just because my mother thought I took more risks that my brother and sister, but because she said this as an argument in support of me doing something new and I knew she trusted my instinct to take risks. I have always wanted to be the one that others saw as willing to take risks. I didn't want to just know that myself I wanted others to observe that on their own and have confidence in my instinct. Not that I was always going to succeed in these risks, but that I was always going to learn something valuable.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
what is the test package for me?
Someone said to me this morning "what is your test package?" The conversation was in regards to professional and personal growth and I was challenging the ability to overcome a first impression. Is it really possible for someone to overcome that stained shirt you wore the first time you met them? So they challenged me that you would never know until you try and to think of it in regards to the test package for me. You will fail 9 out of 10 times with a test package but that 1 time you get it right is going to change your control for the next 10 years... oh the wisdom. This more reminds me of a description I read about the 'New Me by Sandro Kopp than wisdom..."He made one self portrait in front of the mirror every day for 28 days. Sometimes painting the full face, sometimes only working a small section in elaborate detail." but its a test and I am willing to test anything...
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| 'New Me' by Sandro Kopp |
Sunday, September 5, 2010
why am i here?
As I was looking at a graph of the life time value of different segments of our donors I began to think about my life time value. Why am I here fighting for this cause at this organization in this position? And what about the value of my life outside of my professional impact? How will my annual contributions to society, my friends and my family add up as the years pass? So being a direct response geek i started to draw my lifetime value. Here is what i came up with (remember i said i was direct response geek not an artist).
The lifetime metric represented my age of course but the value metric is what I had to spend some time defining for myself. At the risk of referencing a sadly popularized Broadway musical, how do you measure the value of your life? For me it came down to relationships and experiences. What relationships do I most value and want to impact - friends, family professional peers, society, myself. And what are the experiences I want or need to live through to make me a better person and increase the cumulative impact of my life - professional growth through education, exposure to industry experts and becoming an expert myself, connections to the cause I am professionally attached to as well as those that mean the most to me, personal growth through fun, faith, sacrifice, self evaluation, love and loss (never forgetting the fun).
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| myLTV |
So ideally as we age all those relationships and experiences would add up incrementally increasing our lifetime value each year. But we all know that we don't live in an ideal world and none of us live ideal lives. So after I drew the straight line of my ideal LTV I added the red line of my LTV... my value is all over the place and I have no doubt will continue to be throughout my life. But as I live and learn, experience new things and build relationships I want to focus on that unicorn (or Pelican Brief for our Julia Roberts fans) of the perfect mix of relationships and experiences that are going to make my lifetime value ideal.
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