“Action expresses priorities.” – Mahatma Gandhi
I set a goal to ski three times in 2019.
Last week I went skiing for the second time, pleased to be well on my way to achieving this goal. It was a bluebird day, and I enjoyed a couple of really good runs.
But then, skiing down a gentle slope at a very conservative speed, I took a tumble and jammed my shoulder. It hurt bad enough to scare me. I could visualize myself being carried off the mountain on a stretcher. That’s never happened to me before and hadn’t really pinged on my radar as a possibility.
Until that revelatory moment. Invincibility is a happy illusion, but an illusion nonetheless. Consequences attend choices.
What if I’d really been seriously injured?
My friend Annette suggested that it might be a good idea for me to buy disability insurance; I wondered if I should continue skiing.
Earl Nightingale said that when you set a big goal, and you fix your mind on that goal, repeating it over and again, and visualizing it’s fulfillment (my big goal, by the way, is to help one thousand organizations use the Learning Curve frameworks to manage their talent and lower their disruption score), you can’t be distracted by other competing, conflicting goals.
On the ski slope, nursing a bruised shoulder, I realized that my desire to ski (as much as I LOVE it) is a competing goal. Not because of the time commitment—we can always find time for things we really want to do—but because of the opportunity cost were I to get injured. Even just three months spent unable to travel, to speak, to work with clients, being somehow impaired, could also seriously impair my ability to achieve this preeminent goal.
So the next morning I made a decision. I’m choosing not to ski for the foreseeable future. I won’t say never, but for now, no. I cried a little bit. I do love the thrill of flying down a slope. It was hard work to get myself back out there because it had been a while, and I was scared. But I chose this goal for my business—my why—over skiing. Because the S-curve of learning for me and the people I work with is a thrill ride all its own.
What goals have you set? Do you have goals that, at first blush, seem to be in harmony with each other but are, in fact, on closer inspection, incompatible? Is it time for you to choose NOT to do something?
This week the podcast features Dan Shapero at Linkedin. If you’ve read Build an A-Team, you’ll be familiar with his story. It’s exciting to now host him on the podcast. For anyone who thinks that disruption can’t happen inside of an organization, Dan is proof positive that it can. Notice as you listen his willingness to step back. His willingness to make hard choices and to say no to things that he loves.
Thanks for being here!
My best,
Whitney
P.S. Last week Ralph Campbell (who generously introduced us to James Clear) wrote in and suggested that our ROI for this podcast really ought to include connections made. Who have you met? What have you learned? What has happened because you listen to Disrupt Yourself? We’d love to hear!
