Saturday, August 6, 2011

Moving From Defining To Refining

Defining means having a sense of clarity, scope and purpose. Refining refers to enhancements and subtleties once you have made this definition. Most people enjoy improvements when they are striving for positive change. Even the cliché, ‘change for the better’ expresses that notion with a clear outcome. Innovative practices include focusing on improvements, making refinements, simplifying processes, and making connections with solutions.

Improvements can be made with the appropriate strategies and effort. Even with talent, the difference that may make the real difference would be effort. Working hard is useful only if your energy is well spent. My friends in New York once wrote in their home on a placard: ‘Anger is love’s energy misspent.’

My list of improvement for the next six months includes:

1)    Expand the scale and scope of my professional work (my business funds my sports adventures).
2)    Focus on building my swim fitness and speed (strokes and flotation already much improved).
3)    Ride more and be race fit (my potential weakness is not being fast on the flats, and strong on the climbs).
4)    More brick training for my ride-to-run transition.
5)    More off-road races and time trials to build more dynamic strength and agility.
6)    To build my core stability and strength (with kettle-bells, barefoot running, and on unstable surfaces).
7)    To create more connectivity within my communities of practice.

Leadership Lessons: What have you done to improve yourself? What have you done to enhance your sense of purpose? How have you refined your sense of purpose, decisiveness and collaboration?

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