Five Things You Can Do To Breathe New Life Into Your Program David Jordan
For those of you who have had the undeniably great pleasure of meeting me, you know I have a sense of humor. One person was offended because he thought I was “talking down to him” through one of my “how to” articles. People, people. That is not the case and never will be. Tongue-in-cheek sometimes but not talking down to anyone. We’re all in this together. What I hope to share are tools that can help make something, anything, better; make your job easier and life better for you and those with whom you work. That’s it. Onward and forward.
I. Get serious
What? I am serious. Yes, I know, I know. Maybe things are fine the way they are and that’s nice, congratulations. Don’t break it if it doesn’t need fixing. But if you do want to take a step up a level or make some changes, here are a few tools that can help you get to where you might want to go.
You don’t have to change your life, just change your day.
Every day we come to, yes, a fork in the road. Like Yogi Berra said: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” We come to many “fork-in-the-road” moments every day. And we take the fork -- sometimes without even thinking about it. The question is, did you want to take the fork you’re on?
A. You’ve got to want it more than you don’t want it.
We may not like the fork we took, but to choose not to take it again, you’ve got to want X more than you don’t want Y. When you come to a fork in the road, take the one you really want.
Everything will exact a certain price from you—energy, effort, patience, resources. Remember, doing nothing will also exact a price from you. There’s a difference between; “We are going to keep going until we have a predictably great program” to “Hmm… that was unpleasant.”
What do you think you want to get serious(er) about?_________________
B. To Do It, First Draw It!
While I blather on here, I do want to say that there is something almost mysterious about putting your thoughts on paper, not your phone or device, but on paper. The hand/eye/muscle memory needed to put something on paper seems to crystallize something in our mind that propels us forward. Try it, it’s amazing.
The idea isn’t to get in touch with your inner Van Gogh—but to animate your goals into something that lives and breathes for you. Draw, literally, what you want to have happen:
A new organ
A choir loft filled with people
A large audience for a concert
A well-funded music program
Recruit others and ask them to describe what they see in your drawing. If that person doesn’t have a clear understanding of what your goal is, chances are you don’t either. So it’s back, literally, to the drawing board. One of the keys here is to make sure that your team sees the same picture you see. They should be able to clearly understand what you want to accomplish. There will be much more buy-in and enthusiasm when they do.
C. THINK as if your life depended on it.
Okay fine, that’s a little dramatic. But, if you do want a real change then you need to throw yourself into it.
Think in questions. Instead of telling yourself, “I must do more networking,” ask yourself, “How might I do more networking?” Wording your goal as a question turns it into a challenge that your brain almost can’t help working on. Before you know it, you’ll come up with ideas that you’re more likely to act upon.
You might ask the question, “Why is this a problem?” Then follow-up by asking “what if” and “how might I” questions to hypothesize possible solutions.
1. What am I actually trying to achieve by solving this problem? Are you actually trying to solve the symptom or the cause of the problem?
2. What constraints have I self-imposed on solving this problem?Are they real? What happens when I remove each of them individually or altogether? What if that constraint isn’t true anymore?
3. How can I break the big problem into smaller ones? Doing this makes each problem less intimidating, as well as easier to explain to others who you might enlist to help. This is a huge. We can all manage specific challenges but we can’t solve all the issues of the world in one fell swoop.
You don’t have to change your life, just change your day.
4. What if I don’t fix this problem and choose to just move on?It might be okay. Hmm. Wow, interesting thought. Who thought it might be okay to just move on to the next thing.
5. What if I’m the problem? Oops. Hmm…. Get some feedback from a trusted friend. One that you can trust to tell you the truth. Don’t start hyperventilating, just take a deep breath and think about this:
You don’t have to change your life, just change your day.
To think of changing for a lifetime is too much, overwhelming, and, oh yes, it doesn’t work. But to get through this day with some changes in mind…well that’s possible.
When you shift to a determined, creative mindset, you begin to discover solutions for challenges that you may have believed were out of your control.
D. If you’re faced with a mental roadblock, put it down on paper.
Remember, creativity is the first requirement for self-enterprise. When you put a problem on paper, you take the emotion out of it. With the emotion gone, you can look at the roadblock objectively. You can figure out what you did right. You can figure out what you did wrong. You can figure out how to change it.
Problems? Choose one and pull out a piece of paper. Draw a line down the middle. On the left-hand side, jot down the problem. On the other side, list some solutions. To come up with solutions ask yourself three questions: What can I do? What should I read? Who should I ask?
You don’t have to change your life, just change your day.
E. Now for the fun part. Imagine outlandish solutions.
Don’t hold back. What’s the ultimate achievement you would like to see?
Get your brain out of the rut by considering ideas without considering their practicality. If you allow yourself to think without confinement, you might come up with a solution that seems totally inappropriate. But it also allows you to open up the process, which will eventually lead to appropriate solutions.
Okay, let’s say we came up with what we would like to change. A huge or incremental step. An idea that is clear and as far as you know, doable. What’s next?
II. Know what works for you
A. What is it that really works for you?
What is it that works when are you really in a flow?____________
B. What's your limiting step?
What's the one skill area that's holding you back? What's the quality? What's the action? Ask other people. Find out what step you may be missing. THEN, get someone who is great at that trait to help you either do it or do it for you.
Conventional wisdom, in the past, said put your effort into learning to do that thing at which you are really weak. That was actually a really weak idea. As an organist, or bell choir director, do you want to spend more time perfecting your skill, or invest time and effort into a trait that at best you’ll be, uh, okay? Right, me too. Need to be better organized? Ask a person from the Altar guild …carefully, to help you.
C. Stick to a mantra that resonates with you.
This is one of the most important parts of this whole process. You know who you are and what you can and want to do. If you feel obligated to imitate the music program down the street even if you have no like or feel for it, you will be like too many of the churches in your area, attempting to do something they can’t, don’t want to, and frankly doesn’t work. Chances of success? Not so great.
Here is your change to be authentic, to do what you do really well. To inspire from the core of your being.
D.What successful people DON’T do
I was reading an article about 10 things, successful people don’t do. It was quite interesting. Here are 3 from the list:
1. Successful people DON’T return to what hasn’t worked.
We should never go back to the same thing, expecting different results, without something being different. Remember one definition of insanity is repeating what you’ve done in the past but expecting different results.
2. Successful people DON’T do anything that requires them to be someone they are not.
In everything we do, we have to ask ourselves, “Why am I doing this? Am I suited for it? Does it fit me? Is it sustainable?” If the answer is no to any of these questions, you better have a very good reason to proceed.
3. Successful people DON’T choose short-term comfort over long-term benefit.
As musicians, we know, there simply is not an option to progress without persistence and seeing the long term benefit. We know it doesn’t happen. Once successful people know they want something that requires a painful, time-limited step, they do not mind the painful step because it gets them to a long-term benefit. Living out this principle is one of the most fundamental differences between successful and unsuccessful people, both personally and professionally.
E. Be honest with yourself.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately identify feelings and emotions, and then put them to use. When you’re interacting with someone, ask yourself: What am I feeling right now? What emotions is this person displaying? Begin this practice by reflecting on one conversation every day and journal the answers to form a habit.
You don’t have to change your life, just change your day.
Staying true to yourself and your goals should not be drudgery. You must view your accountability as a gift to yourself, a voluntary mindset to ensure success, not something you’re force-feeding yourself even though you hate it.
You don’t have to change your life, just change your day.
F. Minimize Goals to Maximize Payoff
If setting goals is good, setting more goals ISN’T better—so nix that long list of resolutions.
Instead list five things to accomplish in the day. Put them in order of importance. Start doing #1. If you only get through #2, that’s okay because you will have done the two most important things planned for your day. And, most importantly, you didn’t waste your day worrying about the 100 other things that you couldn’t get done today anyway.
III. Get around the right people.
A. Who are the right people?
Positive people.
Research, has found that positive social connection is the greatest predictor of long-term happiness. Welcoming a positive new influencer into your world can be one of the most important choices for happiness you make.
Get around people with goals and plans, people who are going somewhere with their lives and have high aspirations. Get around eagles. As Zig Ziglar says, "You can't scratch with the turkeys if you want to fly with the eagles."
And get away from negative people. Get away from toxic people who complain and whine and moan all the time. Who needs them? Life is too short.
B. Ask for feedback from the right people. Those who provide honest feedback.
Not the “Do these pants make me look fat?” type feedback. Soliciting advice and criticism from others creates accountability.
For this to work, you will need to convince the mentor, friend, colleague or significant other to whom you’re appealing that you want to know what he/she really thinks. The evaluator needs to know that he won’t suffer any blow-back if he is totally honest. Feedback is key to overcoming blind spots and achieving better results.
Determine which of the feedback could help you get to the goal you want to achieve. Which of the feedback helps fill out the picture you saw in your drawing? The image you want to achieve?
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The July issue of our Pro-Motion Music e-newsletter will include steps 4 and 5 of Five Things You Can Do to Breathe New Life into Your Program: How to Build a Team and How to Get Going. See you there.
B. 
The idea isn’t to get in touch with your inner Van Gogh—but to animate your goals into something that lives and breathes for you. Draw, literally, what you want to have happen:
middle. On the left-hand side, jot down the problem. On the other side, list some solutions. To come up with solutions ask yourself three questions: What can I do? What should I read? Who should I ask?
B. What's your limiting step? 
Instead list five things to accomplish in the day. Put them in order of importance. Start doing #1. If you only get through #2, that’s okay because you will have done the two most important things planned for your day. And, most importantly, you didn’t waste your day worrying about the 100 other things that you couldn’t get done today anyway.
