Minding Your Mind
by Miki Saxon
Over the years I have spent countless content inches advising that all efforts stem from MAP, and just how critical it is for you to know your own.
I’ve also said that it is MAP that enables or prevents people from implementing what they learn and the advice they receive, no matter the source; I’ve talked about the advantages of managing MAP or actively changing it .
And over the years I’ve received the occasional email and phone call explaining to me why I’m full of it and my MAP approach is garbage—only in more robust terms.
So imagine my delight when I read What’s The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology by Ben Horowitz, general partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz.
It’s a great read about a subject that is typically taboo, but one that impacts most people, even though they aren’t CEOs.
The great advantage most of us have is there’s always someone to blame, whether at work or in our personal life, by saying ‘I did my part’.
Instead, tweak Horowitz’s four points to calm and focus yourself
- Make some friends –There is much talk today about “building community;” people have hundreds, if not thousands, of “friends,” but social networks don’t lend themselves to serious discussions and advice about actions needed or mental anguish calmed.
- Get it out of your head and onto paper – I’ve always been a big promoter of writing it down and divorcing it from your psyche. Writing it down is a kind of personal Sunshine Law that helps you to see things much more clearly.
- Focus on the road not the wall – For better or worse we all follow our thoughts; focus on the path to your destination and you’ll get there—focus on the roadblocks and you’ll hit them.
- Don’t quit! When you are tired and hurting it’s so much easier to reduce the goal or just plain give up, but doing so will come back and bite you faster and harder than doing the best you can—even if you fall a bit short.
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