Tag Archives: plan

Taking Risks verses Taking Chances

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For the most part, all of us have a robust fear of failure. We are good at counting the cost of trying and failing. We are also pretty much aware of what we don’t want to lose.  The result is that we miss opportunities due to not taking the risk of possible failure.

What we are not good at, is evaluating the risk of not trying. We decide to play it safe. Understand, though, you are guaranteed to fail if you don’t try. By playing it safe all the time, you limit your opportunity for success.
So what risks should you take? Fortunately, you are the only person who can answer this question. Do you have a plan? Do you know why you are interested in taking the risk? Is success tied in some way to your effort? These are just a few of the questions involved.
It comes down to balancing the difference between taking risks or taking chances. Taking a “calculated risk” is meaningful, but no one has ever heard of taking a “calculated chance”. A calculated risk is where you know what you need to do in order to be successful and you have some control over the criteria for success. For example, deciding to seek a Six Sigma Black Belt certification involves the risk of not making a passing grade. You control that risk with your effort.
Taking chances involves activities that put you in jeopardy in situations where no matter what you do, success is controlled by chance. For example, mortgaging your home in order to buy lottery tickets. You have hope, but understand that hope is not a plan.
The definition of an entrepreneur is someone who has a passion for seeing their dreams become reality. They live in fear of not trying. While other people fear losing something they already have, entrepreneurs fear not gaining something they want but don’t have.
So here is the point. Be an entrepreneur with your life. It is wise to be aware of the cost of failure, but at the same time be aware of the cost of not trying.

Fractured Thinking

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Have you ever been behind someone in traffic who was driving exceptionally slow or erratically? Then when you passed them you see them speaking or texting on a cell phone? You have just witnessed fractured thinking. It doesn’t take much imagination to see what kind of safety problems this creates.

Fractured thinking occurs when you are forced to jump around from one cognitive activity to another, or splitting your thinking between multiple subjects. It is usually the result of interruptions, or outright hijacking, of your intellectual activity.

The interruptions and split focus effects us in places outside of our cars also. Imagine that you are working on a project and you get interrupted by a phone call, text message, or a personal visit. You don’t just restart right where you left off when the interruption occurred. Some back tracking is usually necessary.  Sometime you even forget to get back to the original task. The next thing you know, you make a mistake and get to deal with all of the negative results.

It used to be good advice to not answer the phone every time it rings. Don’t let the phone dictate your work flow. Let the voice mail pick up or simply work in a different area.  One without your phone. Working in a different area will not work anymore because we carry our phones with us. “Hands Free” functionality will free up your hands, but you are still subject to the interruption and fractured thinking.

Here is the trick. Realize that you are addicted to your cell phone. You do not have to answer the phone every time it rings or alerts you about an incoming text message. You still have the power to control incoming information and to channel it into a less destructive time.  Really…You do.

Here is how.  Select ring tones that can be assigned to specific callers or groups of callers. That way when the phone rings, you can make a decision about answering now or waiting on a message based on what ring tone you hear. Text messaging is even easier. Simply turn off the notification and check your phone for text messages at a better time. How many people text you in an emergency? Not many, especially if you tell them that text messaging is a low priority communication medium for you.

Don’t use emergencies as an excuse to continue your addiction. I have arranged with my family to make an immediate second call to me in an emergency.  That second call within a few seconds tells me that I need to answer. A little planning on the front end saves me a lot of aggravation during my daily routine.

The take away is that you do have control over your cell phone. It is only a myth that you have to answer it’s every beck and call. The less fractured thinking you have, the better your performance will be and the more successful you will be.  Not to mention having less stress.

How’s Your GPA

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Remember when you were in school and there was this dreaded thing called GPA that was used to measure your success as a student?  GPA stood for Grade Point Average. Teachers used it to motivate and colleges used it to qualify applicants. My GPA wasn’t stellar, but I understood its importance.

I want to introduce you to another GPA.  In this case it stands for Goals, Plan, and Action. This GPA is a proactive tool to help you be successful. Let’s get right into it.

Goals. Goals are the set point of what you want to accomplish.  I want to reach $70,000 in income this year, I want to complete 5 sales today, I want to make it to everyone of my child’s games this year. 

In a broader sense, goals define what is important to you.  They are either enablers for other goals, step goals, or they are the end game of what you want to accomplish. Either way they should pass the RUMBA test and be highly visible to you when you are in the heat of battle.

RUMBA stands for reasonable, understandable, measurable, believable, and achievable. Goals that do not pass this test will leave you set up for failure.  If I set my goal too high, like high jumping 30 feet, I will not take it serious and will not be motivated by it.  The same is true if I set my goal too low, like high jumping 6 inches.  I will get the same result.

Setting goals that are beyond your reach is not a problem if you have more reasonable step goals in place along the way. Just remember that improvement and achieving goals is a journey.  There are typically many steps and obstacles along the way.

Plan: Next you need to have a plan to achieve your goals.  A goal with no plan is like a car with no gas.  It looks pretty, but will not take you anywhere. Your plan needs to be detailed enough to guide you in decision making and nimble enough to help you when circumstances become less than predictable.

A detailed discussion on planning is beyond the scope of this article.  Even so, there are generally three questions that a plan will answer for you.

What am I going to do?

How am I going to do it?

How will I know I am being successful?

Action: Even with a goal and a plan, you still have to take action to carry out the plan. Building on the car with no gas example above, even if you have a goal and a plan, you still have to get in the car and start the engine to go somewhere.  Action on your plan is needed.

Sometimes action is an activity and sometimes it is a sacrifice.  Either way, there is no room for coasting.  You are moving forward are your aren’t.  One thing for sure is that if you are costing and your competition is isn’t, you are losing ground.