Choose Your Outcome

A few life outcomes are determined by chance, but most are determined by choice.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

It may be more comfortable to view situations as beyond your control, determined by either chance or the actions of others beyond your control.  

Leadership Tools: A few life outcomes are determined by chance. Most life outcomes are determined by choice.

The truth is that a greater degree of true joy comes from accepting that you are in control of much more than you think, and then using that control to change your outcomes.  

  • Accept where you are currently and be content about it, there is nothing you can do about it.

  • Visualize where you want to be in the future but don’t worry about how far you have to go or everything that could go wrong on your way there.
     
  • Focus on what you can do right now that will move you one step closer to your goal and attack that aggressively. Do what is uncomfortable. Don’t put it off until tomorrow. Don’t worry about the step after that. Just focus 100% of your energy on what is right in front of you.  

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past.  If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.”

Lao Tzu




Shifting Locus of Control
Technical skills stand on a foundation of behaviors that ultimately determine how effectively those skills are applied. Accelerating behaviors include:
Lean Principle - Stop Work (Until Problems Are Corrected)
All construction projects will run into some degree of problems. It is how the project team chooses to manage these problems that ultimately determines the outcome of the project.
Uncomfortably Exciting - Being a S.M.A.R.T. Leader
Managers must set goals that are S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound. Leaders must be stretching their teams toward objectives are beyond what anyone believes they can achieve.