Taking Our Own Medicine

What have you been putting off that you know you need to get serious about?

We’ve been focusing over the last two months, getting clear on who we are and what we do. We help other people get clarity, but we recognized we needed to apply our process to ourselves!

Who you are and what you do is an essential awareness at both the organizational and personal levels. We realized that what we know and what we do wasn’t always easily explained. Simplifying is hard... and it’s powerful.

?“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

- Steve Jobs

Here are some things we learned in the process:

1. Knowing and doing are not the same – in fact, there is always a gap between what you know and what you are doing. We know that sleep is important, but how many of us regularly do what is needed (wind down, eliminate blue light, etc.) to get sufficient sleep? We know that habits lead to long-term success. But how many of us have intentionally built the habits we need to reach our?goals?
2. Focus to overcome fragmentation - We are all fabulously complex, interesting beings. That makes it hard to focus on “the ONE thing!” At Brighton Leadership, we have had a lot of discussions about the problem that we solve. We could?joyously exclaim, "we solve lots of problems!" (which is what we’ve done in the past). Instead, we did the hard work of getting everything we do aligned. We use data to improve culture, deliver successful change, and optimize leadership...but what do we ultimately do and deliver? Bias-free, people data so you get better business results.?We are excited to see how our focus supports our success.

These concepts (focus and closing the gap) are basic and yet profound when applied. This is one of the reasons Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, was such a big hit. The author, Greg McKeown, makes the case that you can accomplish more by doing less, once you identify what is essential and say “no” to the rest.

A fascinating follow-up to his advocating essentialism is his next book, Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most.?While essentialism helped with focus, Greg teetered on the edge of burnout and realized that feeling perpetually exhausted is not a path to a meaningful life. So this book explains how to make the most essential activities the easiest ones, so you can achieve the results you want, without burning out.??

Whether you need to close your gap or get focused on what matters most, here’s to your journey. We are dedicated to helping leaders optimize their life and leadership. We want the best for you, and we're here to support?your success.

ACTION:?Assess the gap between what you know and what you are doing (look at your calendar and spending statements to gather data), identify an action to shrink the gap and do it!?? ?

“I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.” - Zig Ziglar