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“Creating Successful Leaders”

Tag Archives: Lifelong Learning

December 3, 2013 If It’s Getting Too Easy, Shake It Up

We’re all familiar with that awful feeling of being stuck on a plateau, in a dry spell, up a river without a paddle, whatever you want to call it. After the excitement and challenge of learning something new, we get to the point of proficiency, and there is where you’ll encounter the deadly lull.

This is because your brain lights up to new challenges, releasing that feel-good chemical we call dopamine as a reward for reaching new milestones. You know what I’m talking about: that feeling you get when you finally nail the recipe that you never figured you could make, or hitting a personal fitness goal you thought impossible. It’s the joy of landing the big job, acing the tough class, or taking on a project that’s ripe for new personal growth. In other words, it’s the satisfaction that comes after long hours of frustration and failure where you go, “I got this!”

Unfortunately, once you get it, “its” magic wears off a bit. You do this new skill over and over, until your brain no longer feels challenged by what once took your full concentration. Welcome to proficiency, where it’s not a big deal anymore. It’s expected.

Author Whitney Johnson argues that the way to combat a plateau is to implement some personal disruption, writing that “We may be quite adept at doing the math around our future when things are linear, but neither business nor life is linear, and ultimately what our brain needs, even requires, is the dopamine of the unpredictable. More importantly, as we inhabit an increasingly zig-zag world, the best curve you can throw the competition is your ability to leap from one learning curve to the next.”

Don’t think of seeking out new challenges as a task you must do in order to meet the demands of the world at large. Instead, do it for yourself. Want to get that burst of accomplishment you used to get when you were still learning? Then seek out new tasks that push you outside where you’re already proficient. This is where real growth happens, and real growth leads to mastery.

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November 7, 2013 Thinking For Yourself

There’s true power in thinking for yourself. We need only look at history to see that the great minds–Edison, Einstein, Galileo, Newton–all shared in their questioning of the status quo, and found breakthroughs that have impacted society up to present day. They thought for themselves.

Like all of our cliche phrases, thinking for yourself isn’t very well defined. We might hear someone explain, “That gal over there thinks for herself,” and we’d nod our heads approvingly, not really thinking about what that actually means. The best definition I can come up with is someone who doesn’t just assume that the usual way of doing business is the best way. These type of people don’t feel comfortable operating unless they have a full understanding of why their role is necessary. They aren’t afraid to experiment with “what if” scenarios. They trust their instincts and their ability to reason their way to innovation.

These kind of people find themselves in an awkward position in the professional world. On one hand, the mavericks provide innovation, and innovation is what fuels thriving businesses. So we all rely them. On the other hand, they’re often perceived as the rebels, the trouble-makers, the ones who won’t get with the program and shut up. They’re often ridiculed, dismissed, or persecuted for their beliefs and actions.

If you’re an outside the box thinker, congrats! We owe the world’s innovations to your kind. Here’s some advice to keep you optimistic about this strength:

1. You’ll encounter resistance and doubts. Don’t be discouraged! Keep challenging the norm, but do it in a productive way, which leads me to…

2. Be patient and humble. Although can expect to be rejected and misunderstood, persistence wins in the end, as like-minded people tend to flock together and feed off each other’s energy. Keep in mind that every new idea isn’t automatically better, and it takes time for people to grow accustomed to change.

3. Give the outside the box thinkers on your team room to experiment. As a manager, you may be hesitant to encourage your creative types to explore, but you’ll be rewarded in kind by an improved dedication and some really stellar ideas on their part.

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October 23, 2013 On Organization: Let’s Learn From The Chefs

“Type A” people are too often misunderstood as overly strict and tightly wound when it comes to organization. Actually, we can learn from the type A’s out there. Their strict adherence to systems of organization may seem strange to a “go-with-the-flow” type of person, but they pay such close attention to sticking to the systems not to be weirdos, but to make things easier on themselves.

A timeless philosophy from the culinary tradition epitomizes the power of a well-organized work space:

Mise en place.

It’s French, and it translates roughly to “everything in its place.”

Going the extra mile in preparation for tasks helps you. It makes you work faster. It minimizes stress. It gives you free time. Imagine you’re a chef and all the things at your desk are different ingredients. Putting all the things in their place makes work flow beautifully, which is what mise en place is all about.

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