There are certain concepts which seem to be almost universal in application.

After leaving Dominic’s Fall sports meeting I heard him point out both of the Honda Fits we drove past. As he told me, “they are everywhere!” Of course they really aren’t all that popular and there aren’t hundreds of them on the roads of La Crosse. The reason he is seeing them is because that’s the vehicle he just got for his first car. We both joked about how he’ll see them everywhere now that he knows they exist. While he’s technically suffering from the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, in many ways it is really just a case of recency.

Over the past week one of my mentors and I have spent much time focused on finding where I choose to put my time. What types of tasks am I focused on – those which are working IN the business or those working ON the business? It’s a subtle difference that can really alter the success of a business. Should I focus energy on setting up a new spreadsheet or on setting the strategy for a new service line? Work on learning how to implement a new process or spend the same time developing my up and coming leaders? In some ways it seems a simple choice, but making the decision in the moment isn’t always easy.

Since we’ve started this conversation there have been many times when I have caught myself doing something that doesn’t quite line up. Due to the recency of this development focus I am seeing it happen more and more often.

Additionally, I am seeing it happen more and more often as I am working with others. When talking with someone about what’s on their plate it has been easy for me to quickly see that they are spending their time on an activity which doesn’t yield nearly as powerful results as other activity they could be doing with that same amount of time. This leads to the second universal concept I’m thankful for today… attaining distance.

When viewing the world from our eyes in an attempt to perceive the world through the eyes of another we’re able to attain distance from ourselves and make a more correct choice. When thinking only from our perspective about ourselves emotion has a much stronger opportunity to step in and divert us from the correct action. In order to make better decisions we can find ways to trick our brain into attaining distance so we can make better decisions.

Both recency and attaining distance have been wildly useful today and I’m thankful for both. They’ve both been big helps both at home and work.

Thanks!!!