Seeking Coastal Utopia

“herd of sheep at daytime” by Sean Thoman on  Unsplash So we have stepped outside our comfort zones once or twice in our lives. Yet, do you? Always? Are you here to be a sheep? Or lemming? Herd mentality tends to shape us as a society. Old fashioned peer pressures, social pressures, and even shame tends to keep us in line. But are we expected to stay in line? To follow the rules? If the rules are the ones that are intended to keep you in line, to keep you “normal” from standing out in the crowd, then why not become the person that makes the new rules? Should you consider being a peacock or a flamingo standing among a waddle of penguins? If you are here reading this, you are already in the minority and looking to lead. Are you going to do what you hope to do? We humans take a very egocentric view of ourselves. Most of us believe we are better than the next guy or gal. That we are above the norm, in the “above average” category. But if we are all thinking and believing we ...

Check your ego at the door, please. It is time to wake up and realize you are NOT the smartest in the room, and you really should not be if you wish to be successful. If you are the smartest in the room, maybe it is time to change rooms. Remember in grade school when picking teams? You knew who the good kickers were. You knew those that could roll a perfect pitch. Everyone had the ringers recognized. Why should that be any different at work? Before everyone starts squawking about wanting to have inclusion, I am talking about surrounding yourself with experts. The smartest people available that will force you and the rest of your team to up their game. We talked about the Hawthorne effect in a previous post ; how does that affect you when you’re working at your job? The observer effect makes you change your behavior. You find yourself working harder and being busier (yet maybe more inefficient) because somebody is watching you. When you notice your change in behavior because of t...