If you have to drive others towards an objective, even drive yourself towards it, I call this being in push mode.
Push
mode is typified by focusing your attention on problems that need to be
resolved, or things that need fixing. Many people use a ‘todo’ list or
a GTD (getting things done) system. Are you one of them? Take a look
at yours now and see if it is a list of problems.
The fun,
creative or enjoyable things rarely make it onto a ‘todo’ list - rather
there is a tendency to say that once the list is done and I have time,
then I’ll do the fun stuff.
What’s more, you will already know
that the things we pay attention to are the things that grow and the
things we don’t pay attention to tend to fade away. So if we focus on
problems (call them challenges or issues if you must but they are
still the same thing), we will find that the problems grow. So here’s
a radical thought, if we focus our attention on interesting, exciting,
fun things, they will grow. And our problems, won’t they fade away?
But
you don’t understand. I have to get this report done, I have a ton of
emails to clear, I have to attend this meeting, I have calls to make
to angry customers, and if I don’t I’ll get fired. I simply don’t have
time to talk to people, take it easy, smell the flowers…
And
when your stress levels have made you so sick that you can’t work, let
alone afford the hospital bills you’ll feel what exactly?
Accomplished? Valued? Important?
Nothing more satisfying than lying in bed recovering from a heart attack knowing how much your contribution is missed!
I’m
not saying that these things (some of them anyway) don’t need to be
done but that by not focusing on them, they will (and do) fade away.
Oftentimes, they just get done. Without stress, without worry.
In
Push Mode, we are continuously pushing ourselves (and others) towards
our goals relying on our own effort to keep us on our straight and
planned track. Obstacles that we face in our way are enemies to
progress which may force us to re- plan our route. Our motivation stems
from outside forces, the concrete and measurable goal is frequently
thought to be motivation enough and any resistance to achieving the
goal, self-inflicted or external resistance, is just another obstacle.
In Push Mode, when progress is slow, we re-plan and consider time management a priority.
Only, unless you have discovered the secret to warping the space-time continuum, you cannot actually manage time.
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