The LEGO® Productivity Secret You Didn't Know Existed
Do you remember building with LEGO® when you were a kid? Do you remember any lessons? I bet you read this headline and said: "No one gave ME no LEGO® productivity secret!"
Here's why . . .
There's this strange notion that taking on big challenges is how people achieve big things.
Of course, this is ridiculous.
People who are shooting to be the next Google, Facebook, or Apple are thinking big--but they're not thinking of the practical approach to getting there.
Stop thinking it's "will power."
Stop thinking it's your ability to execute.
Stop thinking you don't have the right shoes, camera, laptop, pen, climbing rope, bicycle, car engine, or professional network.
Almost no one started with all that.
No one builds a huge, 1000 piece LEGO® castle by looking at the box and making it happen with just some good ol' fashioned elbow grease.
They use instructions that break the build down into small, achievable chunks.
It's not about huge willpower. It's about writing your own LEGO® instructions and breaking things down into actionable and achievable pieces.
It's less about you committing to some huge goal and it's more about making a small commitment to a reasonable goal.
Exercise is another really good example.
"The hard part about going to the gym is putting your shorts on."
- Chris' Dad
Thanks, dad.
It's less about facing some huge challenge and it's more about tricking yourself into smaller challenges.
It's these smaller challenges, when pieced together, that make the whole LEGO® build.
Okay, so how do we pull out this LEGO® productivity secret from all this?
Understand: Achieving what you want is not about going after the whole big picture, it's about building repeatable systems, made up of small achievable tasks, that make you happy when you complete them.
Successful people are not magical.
Successful people are a combination of protocol and opportunity.
2 Minute Action:
What is a goal you have?
Let's just say it's running a marathon.
How do you go from couch to 26.2?
- Register for the race.
- Lookup a training plan.
- Find someone who will run with you even when it's cold and raining outside.
These are all things you can do today, pretty quickly.
You don't have to run 26.2 miles right now. In fact, that's a terrible idea. You'll hurt yourself and never want to try again.
No matter what your goal is, I challenge you to find something you can do to move forward in 2 minutes or less.
When you string together all of these small actions, you arrive at your protocol or system for getting things done.
That's the LEGO® productivity secret.
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Read This If You Like Superhero Movies
(This is a repost/edit of a full blog post I made on Medium a few months ago. I felt it needed to be reshared, here.)
In some, eery parallel universe, in a land far far away, something strange is happening.
One must be endowed, either by the cosmos or some stroke of chance, with the ability to help people.
And if neither the cosmos nor some radioactive bug exists, our only hope of being more than just ourselves is falling into a vat of toxic waste.
I don't know about you, but I have no idea where to find a good, deep vat of toxic waste.
The allure of superhero movies is typically the transformation from the reluctant, mild-mannered, everyday human to the genetically superior and morally obligated superhuman. Only after we are endowed with this unnatural capacity can we train our minds with a small green mentor or train our bodies on some distant, high-gravity planet.
Since we, unfortunately, live here on Earth, this proposes a small dilemma.
No vats. No radioactive bugs. No cosmic alignment.
No alien technology. No Dragon Balls. No Infinity Gauntlet.
Bummer.
So, now what?
Well, you guessed it.
You have to make a choice.
Most people stay stuck and thus choose the belief that "I don't have the ability to change myself, nor can I acquire the ability to change myself. Power and ability are unlearned traits that are solely endowed by fate."
But, not you, right?
Ask yourself something . . .
Do you feel strong when you watch a superhero movie?
Most people do and that's the point. We feel empowered to change the world or at least the part that interests us.
You have to choose if you believe that you can change yourself or if you believe you can't.
Most people choose to be a superhero without knowing it.
The problem with "superhero thinking" is that we often get charged up and attack the problem by ourselves. We suffer for the greater good, make sacrifices, and spin our wheels harder than we ever thought we could.
We charge the beach and don't see the .50 caliber on the shoreline.
Charging a beach alone like a superhero isn't valiant or noble.
It's stupid.
Real-life real-world problems cannot be solved by an individual.
Real-life real-world problems are solved by teams with systems.
Sounds really sexy, right?
"Superhero thinking" is sexy! It's romanticized! Superheroes can do it all!
We want the gadgets, the moral compass, and the abs, oh good lord the abs.
And we want it all before we even start.
We want the diet pill, the salary raise at work, and mountain top mansion all before we change ourselves.
I'm sorry, but we're not superheroes. We're humans.
It's up to us to do all the changing.
The human brain is plastic.
That means that when you practice something a lot, it gets easier.
Your brain isn't a muscle. Your muscles are more like your brain.
The first time you play the piano, it's terrible. You don't have the dexterity you need which makes the process of learning frustrating and unenjoyable.
After two years of performing the same motions over and over, your brain has rewired to make it easier. You can now do something you couldn't do before and guess what?
Now it's fun.
You are the same person.
Same name. Same face. Same DNA.
You just earned a new ability which can serve you in a new way.
Maybe it's a creative outlet that helps you regulate emotions. Maybe it's a source of income. Maybe it's a way to connect with your friends.
Some abilities are easier to learn than others.
For example, if you wanted to learn how to "walk the dog" with a yo-yo, it's probably only going to take you 45 minutes.
If you want to integrate evidence-based learning practices in public school districts across the country, it's probably going to take you a whole career.
So what happens when we raise our children to believe in superheroes?
Look, I'm not saying that superhero movies aren't fun to watch.
They're fantasy. It's fun to pretend we could be like that caped silhouette on the screen.
And that's exactly my point. It's make-believe.
Not just the radioactive, toxic waste part--the whole mindset.
Here are some ways to tell if you are using "superhero thinking" without realizing it:
- Sometimes you have to stay late at work and make sure the job gets done. The keyword here is "sometimes." If you are staying late more days than not, you are probably using "superhero thinking."
- If your work often requires you to make personal sacrifices to get it done, like missing your kid's baseball season, you are probably using "superhero thinking."
- If your mindset is that no one is better than you at this one skill, so you shouldn't let anyone else have the final say about that part of the project, you are probably using "superhero thinking."
- When a teammate breaks something and you run in to take the task away and solve it yourself, you are probably using "superhero thinking."
- If your child continues to struggle in school and you continue to sign absence notes and do their homework for them, you are probably using "superhero thinking."
I sort of tricked you.
I wrote this post about superheroes, but it's really about pragmatism, leadership, and the important commitment we owe ourselves to self-improvement.
It's also about media consumption.
You are what you eat, read, and watch.
We are each from different walks of life and have different predispositions, demons, and access to resources.
Regardless of where you are, today:
- You alone are responsible for deciding what's fantasy and what's real.
- You alone are responsible for developing yourself.
- You alone are responsible for building teams and systems that actually help people, long after you're gone.
Consider this your origin story.
There's no vat. There's no secret government lab. There's no mutating serum.
You are faced with the choice of whether or not to develop your own superpowers with the skills and abilities you have today.
You are faced with the choice of whether or not to decide your own destiny.
You are faced with the choice of whether or not to take responsibility for helping people other than yourself.
We live in a distressed world with real people in it. There are real lives at stake.
You must choose to be the best version of yourself.
You must choose to help others become the best versions of themselves.
You must choose to protect yourself from "superhero thinking."
I know you can do it.
We're all counting on you.