Double Down - Stay Down.

Once you don't succeed - try something new, or try a new twist on the same approach...

You can keep pushing that square peg into that round hole, but odds are something is going break and splinter. Rethink it. Unthink it. Stop thinking it. Step back and re-access. Do something completely different.

Double down, revisit, keep with the same plan and expect a different outcome and you what they say - yes insanity. Turn it around. Turn it upside down. Re-frame it. Deconstruct and destroy and pick up the pieces and reassemble that puzzle.

But more than anything know when to walk away. Don't stand in the same line after the line next to you opens up. The time you have invested isn't wasted. But know when to pivot.

Stay curious. Keep learning. Know when to burn the ships on the shore and move on. When you keep going back to the same well, you either find it dry or stagnant.

Wouldn't you prefer to breathe fresh air as opposed to your own exhaust?

JEFF S TURNBULL

 

WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?

Your car could break down in the middle of nowhere and you must walk 12 miles in the middle of the night to get a cell signal. You could misplace your cash deposit on your way to the bank. All your employees could walk out on you on Black Friday. Or, you could be promoted to customer because you made a fatal error on the trends in your market. What then...

Personally, I do not mind failing now and again, or making a mistake. However, if we do not learn from it. The car breaking down that is beyond your control. The other examples could have been mitigated if we can be more mindful of what is within our control; responsibilities, relationships, communication and reason. If we are aware of those things that we have our minds, hearts, and intentions on we all would be better off.

Life happens. What’s the worst that could happen? Well, our health is very important. If we have good health we can have the resilience to be able to rebound and deal with just about anything. If we lose property – things can be replaced. Moreover, if things have sentimental value we still have our memories.

Life is more wrestling than dancing. So, if we get taken down we get back up. Gracefully if we can if not vertical must suffice. If we can put a little muscle in our hustle shake it off and get back in there we will not be deterred.

No one said life, career, parenting would be easy. Success is an expansion of our happiness. If we can put things in the right perspective, reframe and see struggles as an opportunity for growth we move beyond our difficulties and create a life, career, relationship that we have only before just imagined.

JEFF S TURNBULL

A GHOST OF A CHANCE

Why do some people see the rationale of joining forces and working together and others put themselves first at all cost?

Some see the value in the work and the process when some see their stake in the outcome. I just watched Ashton Kutcher break down in front of a congressional hearing speaking about his work against human trafficking. Here is a man who spends his wealth helping victims of modern day sex slavery who works long hours who has an organization solely to do this work. He goes on raids with the FBI and sees things that cannot be unseen because somebody must.

Then we have celebrities who are so self-absorbed who use their wealth to gain high office and act like spoiled five-year old’s. The rich and powerful do themselves and others a disservice when they think only of themselves and the ones close to them and do nothing for anyone else. Of course, they are not obligated to, yet their lack to use what they must to do good work for their fellow man.

We are all familiar with Ebenezer Scrooge and how that turned out. He only truly lived when he saw the benefits to helping his fellow man and the metamorphoses that occurred when he did. We should not have to be haunted by specters of our collective unconscious to make this happen. But, perhaps that is what is needed.

Buddha taught that humankind’s suffering is caused by desire. The desire or the attachment to someone or something or the aversion of someone or something. The desire for a better outcome or conclusion does not create suffering, it creates joy and helps the common good.

Unfortunately, the common good is uncommon for those who think only of their needs which create suffering for everyone. I will never count anyone out, give up that perhaps within them is a seed of our collective humanity. That maybe, just maybe at the right time under the right circumstances that that person be he or she the President of the Unites States or a refugee from a war-torn country climb the summit of our shared purpose to reach down and lift other’s up and into the light of a better and brighter tomorrow.

Jeff S Turnbull  

Look in the Box, Only for a Tool.

Are you using the right tool?  Do you have the right tool?  Do you even know what tool you need?

I just spent fifteen minutes trying to get my wireless mouse to work.  I changed the battery.  I played with the on/off button.  I even shook it…. I could not understand why it would not work.  Everything was turned on and in the right position. 

Well, I took a deeper look at the tool I was using, I noticed that one of the parts was not the part that matched the rest of the machine – my wireless mouse.  I had removed the tiny thumb drive and had switched it out while I was looking for pictures on another thumb drive.  They are similar in appearance with a slight variance.  

Knowing that you are using the right tool for the job, and knowing what the device is capable of is paramount.  How many would have considered the mouse broken and would have ultimately returned it and bitched out a customer service representative, or perhaps just went out and just bought another one?

The mouse obviously is a metaphor for so many other things.  So much time and energy and resources could be saved if we only knew what we had and how to use it. Some people throw out instruction guides and manuals without consulting them and are later amazed that they have spare parts or find out that the darn thing does not work right.  Then they are frustrated when they have to call a helpline and wait for hours to finally talk to a real person.

If we could take a few moments to value what we have in our hands and in our possession to actually understand what it is.  That tool box would be so much smaller and efficient that we could actually find and apply what we have.  Just like you cannot sell a product that’s in the stockroom, or motivate an employee unless you know what and how to leverage and manage then you cannot execute and deliver.

Jeff S Turnbull