Advanced Business Systems

April 12, 2016Scott Miker

Recently I grabbed a new book to read from the library.  I read the title and thought it could be an interesting look at graphic design elements of big brands.

The book is called Design to Grow: How Coca-Cola Learned to Combine Scale and Agility, by David Butler.  Instead of a basic overview or even an advanced look at design, the author takes a deep look at systems and explains the systematized elements of the Coca-Cola brand.

Sometimes the only way out is to go through

April 08, 2016Scott Miker

When I was younger I had a bad tendency to avoid difficult tasks.  I would try to find a shortcut or any easier way to do something. 

It didn’t matter if the difficult situation was one that was good for me long term and teaching me a valuable lesson, the only thing I could think of was to try and get rid of the uncomfortable feelings of being outside of my comfort zone. 

The Invisible Drives the Visible

April 05, 2016Scott Miker

When we strive to reach new heights and accomplish new goals, we can usually define our goals and visualize the rewards for achieving our goals.  We can understand what it will mean to be successful and find examples of times when others accomplished similar goals.

But time and time again we overlook the work necessary and the lifestyle changes we will need to make in order to succeed.  When setting goals we have to realize that the invisible drives the visible.  

Increase positive thinking through systems

April 01, 2016Scott Miker

The value of positive thinking is well documented.  Recently I was having a discussion with a friend about presidents.  He shared with me that there are a large number of presidents that died on July 4th.  

Initially I was skeptical so I did a little research and found this to be true.  Throughout the history of the United States, there are numerous presidents who died on July 4th.

A daring life or nothing

March 29, 2016Scott Miker

There is a famous quote by Helen Keller that says, “Life is a daring adventure or nothing.”  This quote has a lot of meaning in my life and I have referred to it quite a bit for motivation.  

But I think the simplicity of this quote leaves a vagueness and openness to interpretation.  At times this seemed to provide me motivation to take a chance on something.  Other times it seemed to follow the discontent mindset that always needs more in order to be happy.  

Darkest before dawn

March 25, 2016Scott Miker

The other day I overheard someone say “it’s always darkest before dawn.”  I missed the majority of the conversation but caught enough to catch the meaning.  They were insisting that the bad times they were experiencing were going to lead to good times.

We have all probably heard that saying.  We can even go online and find the origin and criticisms of this quote.  We can even find myth-busting websites evaluate it scientifically.

Opportunity to grow or adding unnecessary stress - the key lies in our mindset and ability to find balance

March 22, 2016Scott Miker

f we need change in order to grow, why do we avoid change?  We all know that we need change and we need challenge in order to improve and grow.  But it isn’t as simple as just seeking constant change.

The reason change is often uncomfortable is because change tends to involve stress.  If we start changing major aspects of our lives we will start to feel an increase in our stress levels.  

Systematic Learning

March 18, 2016Scott Miker

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The positive in negative situations

March 15, 2016Scott Miker

I have found that the positive moments and negative moments in our lives are all jumbled together.  There are always good things going on and certainly times when everything seems bad.

But the paradoxical nature of things says that even in bad there is good.  Even in our most challenging situations we can find positive aspects.  And even in good times there are bad elements.  

Unlearning

March 11, 2016Scott Miker

In the paradoxical world in which we live, we have to understand the value of unlearning.  Most of our lives we strive to learn as much as we can.  We are graded and rated based on our ability to learn quickly.

But we all know people who get stuck in their ways and are unable to learn new things.  The old idea that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks makes sense when you start to understand this idea of unlearning.  

Success isn’t instant

March 04, 2016Scott Miker

There is no such thing as instant success.  What may seem like instant success is usually years and years of hard work.

In order to truly succeed you have to find a way to consistently do the things necessary and put in the effort to reach a goal.  It isn’t about finding the magic idea, technique, or tool.  It is much more basic than that.  

Adding 1% more could be the key

March 01, 2016Scott Miker

The systems and habits approach to reaching goals has many advantages.  But if you rely on this approach make sure to understand its limitations.  

Because the focus is on slow incremental improvement, some areas could turn catastrophic with any slip up.  These are times when even one mistake could mean failure.  

Work is what takes us to our goals

February 26, 2016Scott Miker

It is amazing how often people overlook the work involved in reaching a particular goal.  I see it in business where an executive lays out a new strategy for the company but somehow doesn’t realize just how much work it will entail.  Or when we decide on a personal goal and focus more on buying running shoes than running or when we brainstorm how we will spend the money from an investment instead of researching that investment.  

I see that quite a bit when I work with startup businesses.  They have very ambitious goals but they don’t put enough effort into understanding the work involved and how they are going to do all of the work.  Somehow it seems like if they have the right product or the right approach they won’t have to work in order to be successful.  

We are not measured by our intentions, but by our actions

February 23, 2016Scott Miker

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Focus on the process not on the outcome

February 19, 2016Scott Miker

I am a big advocate of setting goals based on the process of getting where you want to go, not on the outcome you hope you achieve.  While many will argue that using specific, measurable goals mean that you will be more likely to achieve a goal, I disagree.

To me reaching a goal isn’t just about what goal you set.  It is about how you are going to achieve that goal.  It is about what you do to achieve the goal.

3 Things to Reduce Performance Anxiety

February 14, 2016Scott Miker

Years ago I wrote an article about performance anxiety.  I talked about the Yerkes-Dodson curve, which is a chart that shows that as anxiety increases, performance increases also.  But this only goes to a certain point.  After it crosses a certain level it actually hurts performance.  

The Yerkes-Dodson curve helps us understand performance and the relationship to arousal and anxiety.  The interesting point is that arousal or anxiety can either boost or hinder performance.

Automate your life

February 12, 2016Scott Miker

David B. Agus, MD has written several books about health, nutrition and exercise.  In his book, A Short Guide to a Long Life, Dr. Agus recommends, in chapter three, to “automate your life.”

I immediately found myself agreeing with this advice but also seeing that there would be many critics to this type of advice.  Critics would argue that it is better to be free than to form a rigid schedule.  They would point to techniques such as muscle confusion or a complicated weight loss plan to confirm their beliefs that automating life isn’t helpful.

Change the default

February 10, 2016Scott Miker

The other day I was having issues with my work computer.  It was behaving strangely and I wasn’t able to log on to certain websites.  

I talked to our IT manager and he recommended restarting the computer.  When that was done and hadn’t fixed the problem he changed the browser to go back to default settings.  This fixed the issue and I was on my way.

We always have options

February 08, 2016Scott Miker

In life we always have a choice.  Even in the direst situations we still have a choice.  But too often we ignore those choices and feel limited to just one.

Many motivational speakers talk about response.  They say that there is an event, combined with our response, which then equals the outcome.  In theory this makes sense but it may be difficult to translate the theory into practice.