What Did You Accomplish Today?

I wanted to piggy-back a little bit on what I wrote about last week when I discussed autonomy and what we tend to do with any discovered time. Realistic goals and accomplishments drive the majority of successful businesses and individuals. Some people set goals daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly. Sometimes ones original goals may change depending on their environment or surrounding circumstances. Whatever the case, a person still needs to be able to commit their best effort to accomplishing new or existing goals.

In addition to my career and family, I also coach hockey. This year I was an assistant coach in order to be able to spend more time with my family. I was the head coach two years ago after taking last year off entirely for the birth of my daughter. This past weekend, our team (the Carmel Icehounds White team for those wondering at home) played in what ended up being its last tournament of the year. Our original goal was to win or get to the Championship game in order to be invited to participate in a national tournament in several weeks. As I have stated, goals can change quickly. The team played one of its best games of the year on Friday night, but ended up losing 4-3. We essentially needed to win our next two games on Saturday to get into the championship on Sunday morning. We lost our Saturday morning game 2-0 and tied our afternoon game 0-0. Obviously, I and the other coaches were disappointed that we did not make it into the title game. However, we were able to get into the consolation game. We were able to quickly re-align our goals with the situation. We now wanted to win the consolation game to end the season on a high note and give the two Seniors on the team the ability to say that they won their last high school game with Carmel White. Long story short, we won the game 2-1. It was impressive to see the team pull together and really give tremendous effort when they could have very easily "mailed it in."

Whether it is your business or your personal life, having to change and re-evaluate goals is a necessary exercise to drive success and emotion. It is true that the other coaches and I did not achieve our original goal of winning a tournament championship this past weekend. But we did win our final game and reward our Seniors with a victory. Make sure that you are giving yourself the opportunity to adjust as needed in order to work towards accomplishing something each day. Smaller victories are better than no victories at all.

Create Your Own Path

For those of you that are fortunate enough to have some job autonomy, be thankful for the time you are given. But more importantly, ask yourself, “What am I doing with this opportunity?” Most of us, and I am no exception, have now or in the past, used job autonomy as an excuse to coast or relax. It is only human nature. For the most part, we as professionals work extremely hard to earn comfortable livings for ourselves and our families. When there is a time to take a break, we tend to take it.

I am here to challenge each of you to take advantage of that found autonomy to make something great for yourselves or for someone else around you. The weekly challenge I make to myself is something I call the “Mirror Principle.” In my current position, there are not set benchmarks or required numbers to hit (I did have daily benchmarks in previous positions). I do have deadlines and project completion dates currently, but I don’t necessarily have something due each and every week. But, if at the end of the week, I am able to look at myself in the mirror and know that I did the things that I need to do to be successful in my position, then I consider it a successful week. Sometimes I consider it a successful week even when I miss an objective or a deadline…but that is because I took advantage of a situation and uncovered or expanded upon a new or existing idea that somehow impacts my role or the role of one of my colleague’s in a positive manner. I am not naïve enough to suggest to everyone that they work harder, longer hours in the name of getting more accomplished for the greater good. I am suggesting that if and when given the opportunity, create your own path and accomplish something that you can feel great about. It will not only further motivate you in your own job, but will motivate others around you and propel you beyond “the normal.”

Jobs and careers are what you make of them. Take the time to make your path one that others want to walk down.

Short and Sweet

I would love to pontificate all day about any number of topics. But the truth is, I have managed to get the flu for the second time in three weeks. My wife also has it, and I am anticipating my daughter getting it again. It is also Superbowl Sunday, and my beloved Steelers are in the Big Game. But instead of running around making meatballs, cooking wings, cutting up celery, mixing ranch dressing and making queso dip, (not to mention the few beers I would absolutely be having on this great day), I am playing defense. Defense from flu germs, defense from my phone, defense from my emails and defense from letting this normally great day slip away. I hope that defense is the theme for the day, and the Pittsburgh Steelers' defense finds a way to shut down Air Warner and the High Flying Cardinals. On the positive side, I can pretty much guarantee that I won't be feeling any ill-effects of alcohol tomorrow morning as I try and drag myself to work.

Enjoy the game everyone!