Just a minute rules

The rules for Just a Minute would make excellent goal setting guidelines.

No hesitation

No repetition

No deviation

Update: Thisidea became a theme for my March newsletter. If you would like a copy please let me know like this: whynotwizard(youknowwhat)gmaildotcom

Change One Thing

Boots (PLC, that is) has repeated its New Year 2006 campaign and is once more urging its hapless customers, at every till point, to "change one thing".

And why not, when it clearly works?

And especially if you have been diagnosed with, or suspect you have, ADHD, it makes sense to change just one thing at a time, working on it in short spurts, modifying your behaviour in just this one respect, for the magic 21 days that psychologists say we need to "practise a behaviour" to establish it as a habit. Let's even call it a month to be sure - to allow for lapses.

For all of us, small steps may make the journey longer than taking great strides, but if we keep at it steadily, forgive ourselves for relapses and keep moving, we will get there.

What may be an issue, of course, is our impatience. We want soon. Dieting represents a certain hardship. Discipline. Self-control. Deprivation, even. We'd rather get it over as quickly as possible so we can fit into those dream jeans.

We'd all rather shed the extra weight in half the time, even though aiming for half the weight loss (a modest 400g a week instead of a kilo - a pound a week, rather than two) makes the whole dieting thing less stressful, and apparently makes it far less likely that that lost weight will start piling back on after the goal is reached.

Thus ASAP promotes the cycle of dieting, regaining, dieting, regaining.

So if you're changing one thing, change it modestly, ease into it gently. And if you wander off the path, dust yourself down; no recriminations; get back on that track and keep walking.

Just Showing Up versus Being Prepared

I’ve just ordered another book from Amazon! (Oh January Spendthrifts...)

It’s Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up. This book has been simmering for 20 years so not a rush job, and backed by years of reflection and experience. Its author: Patricia Ryan Madson, a respected, innovative teacher, who recently retired from full-time teaching at Stanford University. Her speciality:drama and in particular, improvisation.

[Today I put a “My Bookshelf” list in the side bar of this blog and will gradually add books which have helped me as a coach. If you click on the link, you’ll get the details.]

I’d come across an extract from the book, covering the first of (I gather) thirteen maxims: Say Yes. What I responded to immediately, here, and to a related comment was the importance of getting started. I have clients who can’t get started and I often share with them advice I got from a friend in my first year at university on how to overcome “essay block”. Just start writing.

Anyone facing this problem from freshman to doctoral student will find lots of support in Ben Dean’s free emailnewsletter: the All But Dissertation Survival Guide. Back issues are archived - this bloke is generous and smart.

I also found online the transcript of an interview Madson had had with Tom Peters.

Something in it was pointing a finger right at me! Perfect is the enemy of good.

Expanding on this, she commented: "If you relax, you'll do it right. If you've done the background work, you know the stuff." When it comes to writing my newsletter, I do what I‘ve done all morning. I find sidetracks: lots of peripheral tasks to work on instead—all of them related to my newsletter and perfectly justifiable, but at the end of my morning, there’s no newsletter.

When I do get down to writing, I’m never satisfied. I edit and re-edit.

So I now have my first challenge to myself for 2007: Bin that perfectionism.

Perfect is the enemy of good.