Jolt!, Phil Cooke [reading women txt] 📗

—JOHN FREMAN, THE TYRANY OF E-MAIL

Distractions—they drain your energy, blur your focus, and disrupt your momentum. Projects fail, companies collapse, and marriages are damaged because of the way distractions deplete resources and destroy relationships. When I reach the end of my time on the earth, I hope to look back on a life of significance and achievement, instead of an impotent life bled dry from the distraction of things that added nothing to the value of my existence.

Distractions drain and take away value. Focus adds value. Eliminate destructive distractions and prepare for a life of significance.

» JOLT #22

FAILURE IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Mistakes Are Just Part of the Process

You always pass failure on the way to success.

—MICKEY ROONEY, ACTOR

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

—THOMAS A. EDISON, INVENTOR

We live in a culture of success. America celebrates winners and despises losers. We even call winners “stars.” Star athletes, movie stars, TV stars, all-stars. A star reporter recently called the winners of a state spelling bee the “stars of the written word.”

But anyone who has experienced success of any kind has also experienced failure. Real failure is the proving ground and training camp for success, and yet most people don’t know how to learn from their mistakes. As motivational teacher Tony Robbins said, “Success truly is the result of good judgment. Good judgment is the result of experience, and experience is often the result of bad judgment!”

The greater the failure, the greater the opportunity to learn. But first we must realize the teaching potential of our mistakes and commit to an attitude of learning, growing, and changing from our failure.

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.

—THOMAS A. EDISON

Whenever I fall short, I’m reminded of Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, as well as many other inventions that have changed modern society. At only twenty years old, he set up his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, and became a full-time inventor. At any given time, he and his team were working on as many as forty different projects and applied for more than four hundred patents a year. His feverish work schedule and productivity caused the local citizens to dub him the “wizard of Menlo Park.”

But Edison wasn’t always successful. He struggled with many of his inventions, but in spite of embarrassing failure after failure, he refused to give up. Edison was driven to succeed in spite of obstacles of all kinds. Often ridiculed for his perseverance, he attempted more than ten thousand experiments before he finally invented the incandescent lightbulb in 1879.

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

—THOMAS A. EDISON, INVENTOR

We must stop labeling failure as negative. There are no real failures— only options. Some options work, and others don’t.

In the journey of change, I’ve discovered that most people and organizations fail for one of four reasons: situations, emotions, motivation, or knowledge.

SITUATIONS

To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all.

—PETER MCWILLIAMS, WRITER

Many people are trapped by dead-end situations they feel are impossible to change. An executive who’s been forced into a meaningless job due to political maneuvering from a rival or laid off because of downsizing is a good example. Others are: a single mom carrying the burden of raising kids and making a living all by herself, a man or woman left devastated by an unfaithful spouse, and a retiree on a fixed income.

» THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF WAYS LEADERS, MANAGERS, AND OTHERS CAN FEEL THAT THEIR PARTICULAR SITUATION HAS TURNED INTO A PRISON.

In the 1980s, I worked with a client who was sponsoring a weekly national television program. I was asked to direct the program, and an excellent executive was named the producer. We spent six months developing the show—designing the set, hiring the crew, writing scripts, and promoting the program. The producer worked hard, and we were on track for a really exciting TV series. But about three weeks before the first broadcast, the client decided he wanted a relative to produce the program, so my friend was pulled from his producer’s position and sent to manage the organization’s regional office in another state.

He was trapped. It had nothing to do with his performance, and it wasn’t even personal. Nepotism happens, and my friend was caught in its wake. But whatever the reason, he had to make a decision to leave the company or be trapped in a situation out of his control.

We will either find a way, or make one.

—HANNIBAL, CARTHAGINIAN GENERAL,

LEADER OF THE FAMOUS MARCH ACROSS THE ALPS

You may feel trapped by your financial situation. Perhaps you’d like to go back to college but just can’t afford it. You might like to change jobs or positions but feel trapped by your salary. I know many executives who feel ensnared by their retirement program. They’ve spent so many years at the company that—even though fantastic opportunities are available elsewhere—they just don’t want to take the chance of risking the loss of benefits.

You may feel trapped by a physical handicap. If you’re in a wheelchair, hearing impaired, or are limited by any other physical situation, obviously you have a different set of challenges than others and have to deal with that state of affairs.

The secret to overcoming what I call “situational failure” is to divide your circumstances into two groups: situations you can change and situations you can’t change. I believe nearly everything can be changed or at least approached in a different way, but sometimes they can’t be changed right now. Certain things take time, and we have to consider that as we attempt any serious change.

Make up your lists. Start with the situations you can’t change right now or ever: physical handicaps, financial situations, geographic locations, family issues, age, and