JonathanManske.com

What Scrooge Knew About Play

This quote was provided by Barbara Brannen  http://www.letsplaymore.com

Barbara was my guest today on Jonathan Manske’s Inevitable Success Radio Show.  Our topic was:  How Play Makes You Successful. This fabulous show is archived at www.realcoachingradio.com/node/69

This quote comes from Scrooge when he is with the Ghost of Christmas Past and has a realization about the impact we can have on each other.

“He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil.  Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count them up; what then?  The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”

Quoted from Scrooge in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1907

What a great take on leadership - the power to render happy or unhappy - This would apply to leadership at work, at home, in the community . . .

When we play and are playful we contribute to all those around us.

Wishing you great joy and success,

Jonathan Manske

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Keep On Moving Forward

This spring I went on an adventure.  As it turns out, my adventure is a pretty good recipe for success.

My motto during the adventure was "Keep Moving Forward!"

Four friends and I decided to ride the Kokopelli Trail.  This is a mountain bike trail that runs from Fruita Colorado to Moab Utah.  It is 150 miles of very tough riding.

Going into the ride, I had concerns about my ability to complete this ride.  Simply put, I had not prepared enough.  The longest training ride I had done was 20 miles and I was exhausted after that.  Now I needed to do three 50 mile days in a row.

I decided that as long as I kept moving forward I would be all right.

I kept this idea, Keep Moving Forward, in mind throughout the ride.

When I came to really steep sections of the trail, I got off my bike and walked.  I have the ability to ride those sections but the energy it would have cost me was too much.  As long as I was walking, I was still moving forward.

My goal was to complete the ride and if walking 50 yards here and there helped me to complete that goal then I was fine with that.  In fact, there are numerous mandatory hike-a -bike sections on the trail that nobody can ride.  I just had a few more hike-a-bikes.

This strategy served me well.  I kept moving forward and I completed my goal.

Other elements were necessary in order for me to keep moving forward and achieve my goal.  (Do you have these elements in place to support you to keep on moving forward?)

Support:
Jason’s dad drove sag.  He met us about every 20 miles with food, water, tools to fix our bikes and our camping gear.  Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to complete the ride.

We also had the support of each other and of friendship.  This helped immensely.  (What’s your support?)

Rest and Recovery:
Part of moving forward is taking breaks where you are not moving forward.  Without stopping to rest, eat and sleep we wouldn’t have succeeded.  In the face of stress and effort, we still needed to take care of ourselves.  (How do you rest and recover?)

Snacks:
I ate a lot of powerbars and other energy snacks on the trail.  Whenever I would start to feel tired, I would put some more fuel in my tank which would allow me to keep moving forward.  Without these snacks, I would not have succeeded.  (What are the "snacks" that put fuel in your tank?)

The Right Equipment:
Obviously the right equipment was an important part of being able to complete the ride.  A road bike would have been destroyed 5 miles into the ride.  This is a serious mountain bike trail.

I also needed my pump and a spare tube.

My camelback carries 120 oz of water, has storage for tools, food and extra layers of clothes.  (Do you have the right equipment?)

Trail Map:
All of the other things I have mentioned would have been useless without a plan of where we were going and a map to guide us.  (Do you have a map and a plan?)

Remember, your success is a long journey.  As long as you Keep Moving Forward , you constantly move closer to achieving your goal.

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Jekyll and Hyde

Have you ever had a Jekyll and Hyde experience?

If you are living human the answer to this is - Of Course!

A Jekyll and Hyde experience is when you have a plan or course of action that you know would be good for you and would support you and then you go and do something completely different, something that is not good for you and does not support you.

Dr. Jekyll makes a plan and then Mr. Hyde takes over and things go to heck.  This is when you usually say something like:  What the “bleep” just happened?  Or, you start asking why:  Why did I do that?  Why didn’t I do that?  And so on.

Jekyll says, ” I ought to exercise, I’ll go for a run.”  Then Hyde takes over and 3 beers later Jekyll is wondering why he didn’t go for the run and why he drank those beers.

Jekyll has a plan to call clients this afternoon and follow up with them.  Hyde takes over, the afternoon is wasted and no calls are made.  Jekyll wonders what the bleep happened and where did the afternoon go.

Jekyll is often frustrated because he has good intentions and knows that these things would be very valuable and beneficial - but they do not happen.

Jekyll is your conscious mind.  Hyde is your non-conscious mind.  Whenever these two are not in alignment, Jekyll ends up frustrated and Hyde ends up running the show.

You have tried to fight Hyde so you know from personal experience that this does not work.  Hyde is just too strong he overwhelms you and takes over.

So, what to do?

It’s not about Jekyll becoming stronger or having more willpower.  Hyde simply takes over and that is the end of Jekyll’s plans.

You need to explore what is going on beneath the surface.  You need to discover what is that button that is getting pushed that has Hyde surface and take over thus thwarting your good intentions.

Then you need to reprogram that button so that Hyde stays hidden, so that Hyde does not need to come to the surface to ruin the day.

One way to reprogram the button is to inquire into:  what is my fear, what is my resistance here that brings out Hyde?  Once you have identified this then you can recontextualize and reframe the situation which, will give you different access to it.

A client of mine had a really hard time asking for sales.  When it came time to ask for the sale, Hyde would appear and consequently she wouldn’t ask for the sale.  We did some recontextualizing and reframing.  She saw that her job was to inspire people and that asking for the sale was really asking if the prospect wanted to get inspired.  For her this was a very different question and it kept Hyde dormant.

If you are not sure what the button is, what triggers Hyde to show up feel free to contact me for a complimentary Business Mindset Analysis.

In the Business Mindset analysis we will spend 15 minutes and take a look at what is the invisible brick wall that you keep bumping into that keeps you from succeeding.  We will look at what is it that makes Hyde appear.