LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"Focus does not mean saying yes, it means saying no." Steve Jobs

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

This month we're looking at these words, YES and NO. Powerful words with some great prompts, challenges and reminders around them. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

Classic Steve Jobs in the simplest form. He actually goes a little bit deeper on this one here:

"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what It means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things."

Steve Jobs, Apple

I have a timer on my desk. It's a simple countdown timer, and sometimes when I'm overcome with distractions, I'll set the timer for a period of time, and then FOCUS until the timer goes off. It allows me to often get the project done, the email written, the response checked, and it's a simple way to focus in on something that I need to get done.

It's a gimmick really, because my phone still rings, my email and messages still send notifications, I can still be interrupted, but it's a simply exercise in FOCUS and it's only effective when I say NO to the distractions that pull me away from what I've determined to be the most important thing.

We live in a world of distractions, with some of them being really good, and some of them taking us away from what it is that we've identified as the most important.

Reading this quote from Jobs was simply a reminder to me to use the power of FOCUS and the word NO to attack the things that I've committed to do, chosen to do, and need to do.

What have you found that helps you manage distractions, allowing you to FOCUS?

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble." Mahatma Gandhi

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

This month we're looking at these words, YES and NO. Powerful words with some great prompts, challenges and reminders around them. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

We all learn the lesson that Gandhi is talking about in this quote. For some of us, it's taken a long time, but as we grow in confidence and experience, we draw on that to make better decisions.

When I was just starting out, I said YES to everything. I don't know if it was because I wanted to please everyone, or if it was because I wanted to do everything, I just said YES to everything, and then I began to realize that I couldn't continue at the pace that a "constant yes" requires, so I began to say no to things.

A lifelong mentor of mine, Jim Burns, while at a leaders training event, I remember when he had all of us practice saying NO out loud. His point was that for many of us, we didn't know how to say NO. He went on to share this quote that I attribute him with:

"If the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy".

As a young leader, for some reason that resonated with me, and I began to say NO with confidence. I'm not sure if I was saying no from the "deepest conviction" that Gandhi talks about, but little by little, I began to shift my mindset.

This is what I remember feeling as I shifted my availability:

• I felt EMPOWERED. I had a choice, and I didn't have to say yes to everything. My choice and interest mattered.

• I felt FREEDOM. I wasn't a slave to a bunch of things that I had agreed to, and I could learn to make better choices.

• I felt PROTECTED. As my convictions grew and my experience supported that, I was making decisions in alignment with my purpose, my role and my responsibility.

• I felt CONTROL. I quit blaming others and took responsibility for each and every decision. I was forced to think more deeply about each of them.

Have you thought about the convictions you have that help to drive every decision you make? What are those?

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"The oldest, shortest words - 'yes' and 'no' - are those which require the most thought." Pythagoras

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

This month we're looking at these words, YES and NO. Powerful words with some great prompts, challenges and reminders around them. To read past posts, visit my full site HERE.

I don't know about you, but from my perspective, the words YES and NO are often the words I most quickly respond with because they are short and simple words.

Pythagoras pushes us to think about these words, emphasizing that we should only use these words with careful consideration and thoughtfulness, rather than our impulsive nature which doesn't require much thinking.

I've learned a lot about saying YES and NO. I've found myself in situations where I'm asking the question, "How did I get here?" And honestly, as I look back, it's a series of decisions that I made without thinking, without "careful consideration".

Jesus addresses this in Matthew 5 while teaching, he says in verse 37: "But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes', and your 'No', 'No'. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." He's talking about us keeping our word, but the simplicity of his challenge is clear: YES and NO Matter!

I remember a situation many, many years ago where I had agreed to do something without much thought. I agreed to speak to a group of junior high students, on a boat, cruising around Catalina Island in Southern California. I guarantee that when I said YES, I was thinking about living on a boat for 3 days, as well as the $250 honorarium check I was earning (this was significant in my life at the time).

What I didn't think about was this...

• I was on the boat with 60 Junior High Students... for 3 days!

• My speaking part was 30 minutes a day... the rest of the time, I was with 60 Junior High Students... for 3 days!

• It was over my Birthday Weekend, and my wife had bought me tickets to a concert to surprise me (I hadn't mentioned the speaking gig)

• So while my wife and a friend enjoyed a great concert, on my birthday... I sat on a boat, with 60 junior high students, for 3 days.

Yes, this led to some reflection and the lesson was to THINK before responding with an immediate YES. Three Full Days....

Looking back, it's often easy to see impact of saying YES or NO. What do you do to "carefully consider" whether it's a YES or a NO?