ROL: Be Fearless.

ROL(Return on Life) is the "help improve your life" counterpart of ROI (Return on Investment). Simply stated, ROL suggests incremental changes or activities that can produce major returns toward a better quality of life (QOL). This week's ROL is about starting something new without being afraid.

Whatever Happened To Pong?

As a parent, I have mixed emotions about hand held gaming systems. I would much prefer my kids are reading instead of doing thumb stretches. I'm also not thrilled that these gaming systems come with a habit slightly less expensive than cocaine. On the other hand, as we end a two hour car ride free of "I'm bored" or "Dad, she's breathing my air", hand held games are... priceless.

No Fear, Just Fun.

This month finds my family anticipating way too much time for the kids in the car. In that light, each of my kids got (yet another) much anticipated cartridge for the handheld. My wife was amazed as the kids put in the games and just started playing. No tutorial and no review of the rules. Just dive in and have fun.

I'll Be Ready Tomorrow.

After my wife's observation, I realized I should follow my kid's lead. Too often I am reticent to jump right into an activity for one reason or another. I watch for norms, try to fit in and wait for the perfect moment to become involved. In fact the perfect moment doesn't announce it's arrival in advance. No one ever got better at anything by not doing, so why delay the doing? As my kids have shown me, push start and keep going.

Do you find that you wait too long to jump in? Or have you found that the "measure twice, cut once" approach works best in all facets of your life?

ROL, Ralph Waldo Emerson Trust 30 Challenge: Systematically Facing Fear.

ROL (Return on Life) is a weekly post. ROL is the life style enhancing metric similar to the business measurement ROI (Return on Investment). Just as ROI increases with incremental additional investment generating large gains, ROL is about small life change strategies that can provide significant increases in quality of life. Today's ROL is inspired by a Trust 30 prompt.

This Trust 30 prompt is from Dan Andrews.  I love this prompt because it addresses the need of creatives to eschew logic and create. The prompt then provides a systematic approach for addressing any fear based on not following conventional and systematic thought.  This prompt synergizes left and right brain function using logic to defeat the enemy of the creative. What is the enemy of the creative? Logic.

Other prompt generated posts have pointed out that rational thinking is the enemy of creative energy. Considering the cost of failure obscures the benefits of success. Since the proper sequence remains ready,aim, fire, it's understandable that many great ideas don't get started because of the fear of failure. Luckily, not everyone is bound by this thinking. Richard Nixon's political career was thought to be dead when he lost the California governor's race in 1962, yet a mere 6 years later he became president. Okay, maybe that's a bad example but you get the point. There is tremendous value in forgoing conventional wisdom and achieving something no one thought possible.

It's great being a blind optimist, so long as you don't mind being blind. It's better to grant those fears reality and address those fears one by one.

1. What are the costs of inaction? Consider this: Starting a sentence "If I had only ..."is so sad. "I did this but it didn't work out as I had hoped" trumps "If I had only..." every single time.
2. What kind of person do I want to be? Look to your personal heroes. They are your heroes for a reason. I'll bet they're not your heroes for their ability to sit idly by and watch the world happen.
3. In the event of failure, could I generate an alternative positive outcome? As long as failure doesn't kill you, there should always be an alternative positive outcome. At the very least you learn what seemed like a great idea, lacked. Use knowledge gained in failure to succeed next time. Today's success's are often built on the foundation of yesterday's failures. On the other hand, if there is a high (or even slim chance) that the activity could kill you, perhaps additional consideration about charging ahead is warranted.

Ignoring fear isn't always the answer. Facing fear and defeating fear point by point allows you to properly separate the factual from the irrational. So go ahead, embrace fear. Break it down, then break it in half. Then go out and show the world what you can do.