Marita’s Blog

Yeah, I know. I’m so cool, and I’m so lucky.

I have DNA, flesh, blood and bones.

Barack Obama and Steve Jobs are truly two icons of our time - men with great dreams, great visions and a commitment to getting stuff done.

We are all humans in the world; we have all had our own adversaries and our own stories, but we are all made of the same stuff, essentially. If Barack and Steve can do it, so can you. Seriously.

Have a goal. Plot the steps between now and the goal. Put dates on everything. Work your plan. That’s it.

Planning things with integrity means to plan things such that you have done all you can in your base for things to go as smoothly as possible. It means being prepared for the worst-case scenario, being prepared for the best-case scenario, and actually preparing full-stop. Sure, you can always ‘wing’ something at the last minute - which makes your heart pump faster and you feel like you’ve ‘gotten away with it’ again. But when you actually prepare yourself for what is going to happen, you’re calm, focused, and know that whichever way it goes, you did all you could for it to turn out well. Answer the following questions to plan stuff with integrity.

What am I out to achieve?

By when?

What will I need to do in order to be able to achieve it?

By when?

Will doing what I say I will do really achieve it?

Really?

Have I factored in contingencies?

How will I do those things anyway?

By when?

What are the next actions I can take?

When will I take those next actions?

You set up a meeting time, ten people email back and say they’re keen, passionate and that they’ll be there.  One person shows up.

So what’s there to do?

Get on with it!  Don’t cancel the project and don’t loose faith in yourself.  Believe in the goals of the project, and keep pursuing them.  So nine people didn’t show up.  Boo hoo.  One person did.  They came for the meeting, you give them the meeting.  Meetings, paricularly the first meetings in creating an organisation, don’t have to look a certain way.  Meetings don’t have to have X number of people there talking about X or doing X.  Create what is necessary there in that meeting to move your objectives of the project, and the desired outcomes of the meeting along.  

Sometimes even the best laid plans go awry.  Just dance in the moment and create from what you have.