Adventures, Misadventures & Executive Decisions
June 7, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
So maybe you’ve made some decisions that didn’t turn out like you had anticipated. Maybe you’ve gained your life experience from some ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ decisions. Make an executive decision to use the lesson, not lose the lesson of your experiences.
As a speaker and author, I tend to chalk it up to another adventure… or misadventure which gives me lots of material for my programs and articles. Re-framing any incident, whether it be a moment or monumental, can make the situation a little easier to endure. We have the power to make that executive decision on our perceptions. I tend to think of life as a grand adventure made up of many smaller adventures and new experiences.
Just like a pearl necklace; your life is a strand of many moments strung together. It’s our decision to create those moments that make up the grand strand. Who wants a boring life anyway? Why not take some risks – no risk, no reward.
Because adventures make good stories, and good stories are made up of overcoming conflict or adversity, then coming out victorious; I’ve made an executive decision to view my experiences as fodder for my work.
It seems to me that the measurement of a good story stemming from a misadventure is directly proportional to the length of time that has passed since that episode. 🙂 It takes more time to pass for some adventures before they can become ‘a good story’ without the sting pf their rawness.
Yes, even being stranded in the Sea of Cortez for a couple hours alone with my SCUBA guide, running out of air, abandoned by our dive boat (with all my belongings – ID, money, clothing), being swept out to open ocean by the current, verging on the realm of hypothermia, the sun setting, nobody to be seen for miles around, and my ship departing in the very near future.
That little misadventure not only took several of my 9 lives, it took several years before I could re-frame it without a visceral reaction to the memory. How are you seeing your challenges? I contend we can choose how long it takes before we re-frame something. You know they say we will look back and laugh about some of our bad decisions and misadventures. We can also choose to laugh sooner rather than later. It’s all about what we DECIDE to do. There’s no magic formula.
How do you see your life? Are you living your own adventure? What types of life experiences are you creating? How are you re-framing your misadventures so you can make better decisions next time. As one of my mentors says, “You can’t hit a home run if you don’t swing”. I choose to take a swing at life and chalk it up to an adventure.
As entrepreneurs, execs and enlightened employees, we make umpteen decisions daily. Isn’t running your own business a grand adventure? We may never know how just one tiny decision can change the course of our life. It’s up to us to course-correct if needed, or remain on that path. I’m making an executive decision to live an adventure. I’m choosing to see my life experiences and ‘bad decisions’ as stepping stones on my way to success, how about you? If you need a guide to lead you through some of your executive decisions and plot your entrepreneurial adventure, give me a call.
Deciding is the First Step to Success
June 6, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
What is the secret of success? Right decisions. How do you make right decisions? Experience. How do you get experience? Wrong decisions.
It all starts with a decision. Deciding to act. No action is started without first making a decision to do it. Deciding sets off a series of behavior that takes us down a path – we choose the path to success or otherwise. Once you realize you may be on the wrong path, it’s your decision to continue in that direction or bushwhack your way back to the right path.
Sometimes it’s a gentle nudge that tells us we’re on the wrong path. Sometimes if we don’t recognize the nudge, we get a shove, or a slap in the face, or a full-on hammer to the head to drop us to our knees. In life, as in hiking the back-country, our job is to be open and aware of our surroundings, what’s happening around us, what are we experiencing and are we following our internal compass and listening to our gut. Often our instincts kick in before our consciousness does to let us know something isn’t right, a person isn’t quite what they seem, a situation feels icky, somebody seems smarmy. Those are your signals to find a shortcut to your right path.
Once we realize we’ve made a wrong decision, don’t lose that lesson learned from the wrong path. At least you know what not to do or where not to go next time. It’s called experience. I call it adventure. As a speaker and coach, I gather all of the stories from my midadventures around the world as fodder for my programs so I can share with others what not to do. Sometimes the best stories come from the missed adventures and overcoming bad decisions.
So next time you find yourself lost in the woods, on the wrong path, with the wrong people, without a trusted guide and experiencing things you’d rather not; think of it as another life experience on your way to making the right decision. Pay attention to the signs. Listen to your intuition. Take note of where your decisions are leading you and if it’s not where you want to be, make different decisions. Remember the definition of insanity – making the same decision over and over and expecting a different outcome. Change your decisions, make better decisions and change your life for the better.