Help Me Get Things Done

April 9, 2009 8:21 AM

I love taking risk-taking. I am bold, tenacious, speak my mind and if you've met me you would know that I get a certain thrill out of it. Increasingly, I am finding myself wanting for ways to channel my love of risk into the energy I need to get things done. Please help me do this.

In almost every aspect of my life, I can say with honesty that I take advantage of my love of being challenged. In work, I have moved from difficult position to difficult position looking for ways to create better enterprises but have been happy with my work in general.

I fear I am unable to put real strength into overcoming certain obstacles that are "New Beginnings". I want to take the GRE and finish my MA; I want to become a leader at work instead of just being the "Idea Guy who is good at building relationships"; I need to show that I can implement my own good ideas and be a capable ally to others. I am not following up all of the projects and people like I need to be doing and it's bad for me.

I ordered "How to Lead When You are Not in Charge" and "Inside the Millionaire Mind" but I would like to especially hear from creative people who decided they needed to get moving on things and found ways to be constructive, please people and most importantly please themselves. Any other help, links, or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

The steps I am taking now are:
1. Knowing I cannot please everyone.
2. Being aware of when I might overstep my station.
3. Taking care with information I have gathered.

posted by parmanparman to work & money (5 answers total)

I love taking risk-taking. I am bold, tenacious, speak my mind and if you've met me you would know that I get a certain thrill out of it. Increasingly, I am finding myself wanting for ways to channel my love of risk into the energy I need to get things done. Please help me do this.

Consider the idea that your love of risk and boldness are a way of avoiding putting energy into getting things you need to get done. Thus, when you feel that way, ask youself if there is something else you ought to be doing.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:52 AM on April 9, 2009

You sound like a very motivated person, and I'm sure that this combined with the risk taking will serve you well in the success you seek.

Many organizations have built-in professional development planning which can help you approach your supervisor about building your skills in leadership development. If your workplace doesn't plan/invest in professional development of that sort, or your supervisor doesn't support your vision, perhaps there are other possible mentors in your workplace, or outside who can help you to identify the first steps to the bigger "New Beginnings" you wish to achieve.

Mentoring can be really rewarding for the mentor as well- cultivating that relationship over time, and taking the time to acknowledge their contributions can help them experience the rewards of working with you.

Re: "I am not following up all of the projects and people like I need to be doing and it's bad for me." ... balancing motivation with creation is tricky because the world seems alive with possibility. Its hard to feel fulfilled. For me, I work best when I am able to distinguish between the instinct of "drive" and "impatience". The reason for this is that the feelings/instinct (physical and mental) often appear the same to me, and sometimes I interpret them as one and the same. Because drive has always brought me good things, I tend to respond rapidly when I feel either instinct... but responding to 'impatience' rapidly brings me problems, not success.

The thoughts which lead to 'impatience' are actually those are which I'm telling myself 'I'm somehow not good enough' 'someone isn't happy with me/my work', whereas 'drive' is when I'm able to tap into something inspiring, or I am seeing a vision of something I want to create or bring into being. I don't know if this is helpful, but for me, cultivating a sense of awareness about this distinction helps me feed 'the creative' rather than 'my creative monster' feeding on itself.
posted by iiniisfree at 8:53 AM on April 9, 2009

I want to become a leader at work instead of just being the "Idea Guy who is good at building relationships"; I need to show that I can implement my own good ideas and be a capable ally to others. I am not following up all of the projects and people like I need to be doing and it's bad for me.

You really emphasize your "boldness" and "risk-taking" qualities.

But a lot of the qualities required for leadership, for implementing good ideas, following through on projects, and being an ally for others, involve slow, plodding hard work.

Not every situation requires boldness and risk-taking.

In fact, if I recall the "Millionaire Mind" books correctly, they emphasized that most millionaires live rather humdrum lives, having staked out one small non-glamorous area of excellence and pursuing it with dedication. I read NOTHING in the Millionaire Mind books that suggested boldness and risk-taking were necessary or even valued attributes among the millionaires studied.
posted by jayder at 2:34 PM on April 9, 2009

I'm having a little trouble understanding exactly what it is that you're struggling with and asking for. My advice, however, is to determine your goals, break them down into manageable steps, plan how you will perform each of those steps and then reward yourself every time you complete one step.

For example, if your goal was to learn to play the piano, you can break that down into the steps of 'getting a piano', 'finding a teacher', 'taking lessons', 'practicing twice a week' etc. Then, you set a date to finalise each step (and take your time and be realistic), and you reward yourself with something each time you complete a step. When it gets to the 'practice twice a week' stage you can reward yourself with small stuff such as doing a task you've been looking forward to after you do your practice.

Good luck.
posted by gwpcasey at 3:02 PM on April 9, 2009

Sign up to give public presentations of your work.
You can call a work meeting where you'll present something, or call ahead & book time at an open mic night to do a reading from your book-in-progress, or invite 10 friends over for next Thursday and have them read your screenplay aloud, etc.
Nothing gets you moving on a deadline better than the spectre of public humiliation.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 3:20 PM on April 9, 2009