The worst
I read a good article on CBSNews.com recently about the 10 things you should learn to say. Please click on the link and read the article, but in the meantime I’m going to list the 10 things here:
- My work doesn’t define me.
- What should I do differently?
- Do the right thing.
- Tomorrow’s another day.
- What’s the worst that can happen?
- How am I doing?
- What’s my value proposition?
- What the heck.
- I’m wasting my time and energy.
- Hope is a terrible strategy.
I really like them all, but I do have a few favorites:
- What’s the worst that can happen? I tend to look at problems on a continuum and that forces me to decide what the worst case might be. It also points out the best case and allows me to determine where on that continuum I’m willing to stake my claim. I’m also known for saying (quite often), “Compared to nuclear war, this isn’t a big deal.” Nuclear war is certainly the worst (I grew up during the Cold War) and if you put things in that perspective, other things seem much less important.
- Hope is a terrible strategy. I don’t usually live by this one. Since Pollyanna is my middle name, I tend to “hope” things will turn out the way I want them — no matter now poorly I’ve planned or prepared. That’s certainly a flawed strategy since preparation and careful execution are the keys to getting things done. This article has made me think about hope in a different way and perhaps I’ll get more accomplished now.
What do you think of this list? What is your favorite?
12th July 2012
“I’m wasting my time and energy” needs to be posted on top of my monitor, because it’s SOOO easy to get caught up in minutia.
“What’s the worst that can happen” is a phrase I would NEVER say, because the Universe has a perverse sense of humor, and I’m likely to find out the answer to this question in the worst possible way.
But I think “What the heck” or “Tomorrow’s another day” are closest to my own defining phrases, which are “Let’s see what happens,” and “It’ll work out.”
When I worked in the theater and people started to take themselves or the project just a little too seriously, we would often remind them “We’re not birthin’ babies here” or “It’s not Brain Surgery”. Sort of another take on the What’s the Worst that can happen.