There are many traits that combine to determine our effectiveness and one such critical trait is resilience.

When I think of resilience, I think of our capability to bounce back from adversity. I think of an appropriate response to failure, and success. I think of our ability to persist when there are plenty of reasonable excuses to quit.

I used to think that resilience was a function of character. Some people are resilient, others aren’t. But now I’m not so sure. I’ve come to learn that our ability to cope is as much a function of how we design our approach to our work as any other factor.

If we let ourselves get into a situation where proverbially all our eggs are in one basket, then we may have a problem. If we’re over-dependent on winning a single client, or landing a particular job, or being assigned to a certain project, then it will be tough to handle the situation if it doesn’t work out.

The alternative is to distribute our ‘risk’ across multiple opportunities. If the client doesn’t sign up, then we can work with others. If we don’t get this job, then we can look at other options. If we’re not on this project, then we’ll prepare for a better one.

This is very much common sense. But we often lose sight of it. Experts in happiness speak of the importance of having a balanced approach to life. If we have strength in our work, our relationships, our family, our friends, our activities, then difficulties in any one of these at any time can be supported by the others. When people become overly focused in one area, then they are less resilient in times of crisis.

The same principle applies to our work. If we allow ourselves to get into a position of scarcity, where it’s all or nothing, then we’re at risk. Many gurus talk about abundance and the belief that there’s always potentially enough for everyone. And I think they’re right.

We will be more resilient, and likely more successful, if we develop our capability to work with multiple clients, if we grow our skills so that we’re capable of different roles and if we develop the reputation that will have us in demand for many different projects. This is often a conscious choice, a careful design rather than an accidental characteristic.

But, but, but…

It is possible to take this to an extreme. Some are guilty of hiding away from difficult decisions and clear thinking by pursuing so many opportunities that they have the convenient excuse of not having the time to do anything different. Try to avoid having all your eggs in one basket but equally, don’t keep endlessly adding to your collection of baskets.

When it comes to setting goals and objectives and developing a system to help achieve them, it appears that the best advice can be whittled down to a few key points.

• Be clear, specific and tangible in setting the desired outcome
• Ensure your goal has a bit of ‘stretch’ but not too much
• Break the work down into small, achievable steps (not all at once!)
• Work on it and move the thing forward every day
• Build in some accountability by going public or enlisting the support/challenge of others

Is that it? Can it be that simple? If we do all of those things, then can we guarantee success?

I’m not sure you can ever guarantee success (even though many will try to sell you that) but I think following this advice will certainly allow you to make progress.

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(Aside)

I often recoil from the ‘simple’. I tend to equate simple with basic, with common, with mediocre. I tend to think, “well if it was that simple, wouldn’t we all be doing it”. I tend to look for a more elegant, sophisticated solution.

And, you know, a lot of the time, I’m doing the wrong thing. We often over-complicate our lives. There are tons of reasons why we do so. One that recurs for me is to prove that I’m a deep thinker and an innovator by hanging on for the ultimate solution. How can I use basic stuff with all my fancy-shmancy education and my work with famous companies? Of course, this is classic ‘fixed mindset’ thinking, as defined by Carol Dweck. It’s not helping.

There’s a time for simple and a time for complexity. I often get them mixed up. (Seth Godin talks here about simple, complicated and nuance).

You might be surprised to learn that this picture wasn’t taken near the finish-line of the NYC marathon.

It was taken somewhere in Central Park, with still a couple of miles to go. As you can see, some people are struggling to make the finish, others have slowed to a walk. But yet, I’m happy and clenching my fists.

Why? Because I knew at that moment that I was going to finish. I knew I had it in me to travel the remaining distance.

It turns out that I had been hiding my doubts. I wasn’t sure as I headed for the start line on that November morning if I was going to make it to the end. I hadn’t run a marathon before. The farthest I’d ever gone was 21 miles. To a certain extent, this was a leap of faith, even though I had followed my training regime with reasonable discipline.

But something flipped in my brain at that point. The fear, the doubts, the worries, they all disappeared. Maybe it was some form of soothing brain chemical that my exhausted body was generating?! From that point on, I was oozing confidence.

And I still have some of that ‘learned’ confidence in my system. First-time marathoners often say it, you do feel like you’re capable of more when you achieve something as ridiculous as running 26.2 miles. Now, if I’m facing into commitments or projects that require a certain level of endurance, my confidence is high. I know I can do it. I know I can last the pace.

So, it’s important that we seek out the kind of experiences that give us a shot of that confidence. Paradoxically, it requires us to go where we aren’t confident, to where we might feel a little vulnerable, even exposed.

I finished the 2011 New York City Marathon.

I’m quite proud of that feat. I didn’t win the race, nor did I push myself to the point of hospitalisation but I trained long, and occasionally hard, and finished the marathon with a smile on my face.

The entire process has taught me a lot about myself. And I’ve learned a bunch of unexpected lessons about life and about work. When you are out on the road for several hours every week, I guess you have time to reflect and put all of that learning into context!

Here’s one lesson that stands out: the enjoyment of the process of training is as (if not more) important as the accomplishment of finishing.

I often hear people talk about ‘hanging in there’ until the big launch or the next promotion or the ideal client. This is normally coupled with some form of the “It’ll be great once we get there” delusion. It seems it’s ok to suffer now as long as we reach the target.

I would have agreed with that before the marathon process began. I fully believed that it was ok, even preferable, to feel pain and to be stressed along the way to achieving something big. Now, I see it differently. It’s not that you can avoid sacrifice or discomfort or risk. That’s unrealistic. What’s critical though is that you enjoy the process. This absolutely impacts the end result.

Don’t get me wrong. I found the training really, really hard. Sometimes I was so exhausted I was good for nothing else. But, I found that I enjoyed it. I looked forward to the long runs at the weekend, to exploring new tracks and running through places I hadn’t been before.

And that, ultimately, is my lesson for my work. Now I know I need to enjoy, as much as possible, my work. It’s no longer good enough to defer my sense of pleasure, enjoyment or gratification to when I have achieved something big. In cliched terms, I must enjoy the journey as well as the destination.

And when that’s the case, even greater achievements are possible. So, this is not about avoiding discomfort or lowering our ambitions. This is about ensuring that the path to achieving our goals is one on which we enjoy running.

Driving to work can be a pain in the ass.

You can spend all that time in your car and at the end of it feel frustrated, angry and demotivated. The perfect way to begin your day’s work!

Here’s a different way to look at the daily commute. Before you start the engine, ask yourself how you would like to feel when you arrive at your destination. Do you want to feel calm? Relaxed? Focused? Do you want to feel energised? Enthusiastic? Motivated? Or do you want to feel angry? Does it suit you to feel annoyed and flustered?

It turns out we have a lot more influence on this outcome than we might think. Even with the realities of dropping/collecting children, heavy traffic and the insane behaviour of our fellow drivers, we can actually get better at choosing our responses to those situations. Stay focused on the outcome – how do I want to feel when I arrive at my destination?

Do you listen to the radio in your car? Do you listen to music? Or take or make phone calls? All of these will influence how you feel at your destination. Do you think that listening to the news or current affairs chatter excites or depresses you? How does soothing music make you feel? How does high-energy music make you feel? How would listening to podcasts or audiobooks make you feel?

Next time you sit in your car, ask yourself how you would like to feel when you arrive at your destination.

I must be hiding something.

Why else would I be nervous every time I approach a checkpoint? Despite having done nothing wrong, I’m gripped by this sense that I’m about to be found out. I feel twitchy and begin to sweat.

And, of course, I’m ok. I pass through the checkpoint. I continue my journey and everything seems possible again.

We seem to have a natural resistance to checkpoints in all aspects of our lives, but especially when it comes to our work. Given the choice between continuing our work and stopping to take stock, we typically keep busy and wait until the checkpoint is forced on us.

Yet, everything that I’m learning about work and effectiveness suggests that avoiding the checkpoint is the wrong option. Reviews of what’s working and what’s not always help us. Sometimes we do it at the end of major projects or initatives. Or when it’s forced on us by clients or bosses. No matter when, we always learn. (Or at least there’s learning there for us if we’re open to it).

It seems to me that we’re better off if we drive our own review schedule. Whether that’s daily or weekly or monthly, or even quarterly or yearly, we should set the pace that works best for us.

I’m a big fan of David Allen’s Weekly Review practice, which is part of the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. It helps me to stay in control of what I’m doing, reminding me of things that need to be done as well as giving me a chance to update my priorities. And, no, I don’t do it every week. I would like if I did but I do it enough for me to see clear value in the practice.

Over the coming months, I’m going to try a bunch of other practices for daily reviews and checkpoints as well as exploring what works best in the monthly or quarterly realm, all as part of my Effectiveness Project. There may well be a fear that you might spend more time reviewing your work than doing it but I feel it would be difficult to take it to that extreme, especially when you have multiple areas of activity. I’m not sure if there’s an optimal percentage of time that we should invest in this kind of work and everyone’s needs are probably different. A number like 5% seems about right for me. Let’s see how I do.

If you’re not doing any kind of regular review of your work and how you do it, then think about giving it a shot. You won’t go far wrong by simply asking: what’s working, what’s not, and what can I do even better than I’ve done before now?

I was in school just when the personal computer was becoming popular. The ‘coolest’ thing for kids our age. aside from playing football of course, was to get access to a computer. In truth, I preferred playing games, as primitive as they were. But we also did some programming. It was in BASIC, one of the more popular early languages.

One of the programming constructs we used often was the IF-THEN instruction. IF something or other is the case THEN the computer should do this or that.

That IF-THEN idea came into my mind again in recent weeks arising from some really useful sessions with some of our Smarter Egg groups. Quite a few people have caught themselves making the IF-THEN mistake when it comes to their work and business.

Here’s the problem:

IF I get the promotion/get that contract/expand the business/am assigned onto that project

THEN I will start doing the higher-value tasks and work that’s required

But, is it the right idea to postpone doing that higher-value work until the circumstances change?

Todd Henry makes the point very well in his book The Accidental Creative, where he talks about the dilemma we face when we are expected to produce great ideas on demand.

If you want to deliver the right idea at the right moment, you must begin the process far upstream from when you need that idea. You need to build practices into your life that will help you focus your creative energy.

He’s right. Developing the right practices is so important. And there’s no point waiting for that IF-THEN moment for you to start doing the right thing.

Think Rugby. Do you think you’re better off passing to a player who’s already moving or one who’s standing still?

The first of the two key elements in effectiveness, at least as I’m defining it, is knowing what we need to be doing. And this covers the full spectrum, from the purpose behind our work all the way down to the best use of our time on a given day.

As I’ve been working through this process, I’ve learned (at least) a couple of things about my biases and preferences in this regard. I tend to veer towards what I ‘should’ be doing and I seem to crave structure.

I realise these are two separate things but they are connected in a certain sense. And, they’re not always faults necessarily, depending on how flexible and aware I am at any given time.

Every now and again, it’s seems appealing to be able to present our situation to someone else and ask what we should be doing next. Almost like our desire to get a prescribed medicine when we visit our doctor. We’re hoping that our own ‘yellow brick road‘ will be revealed ahead of us.

And that’s where I find myself on questions of making a successful business more successful, of making valuable offerings more valuable and available to more people, of delighting happy clients in a new and unexpected way. Maybe it’s time to suspend the urge to think about what I ‘should’ be doing and to leave the goals and project plans aside for a while? Maybe it’s time to pause, and listen, to both my valued clients and to my own instincts?

Maybe this dilemma is relevant only to me or maybe you also recognise your own situation as you read this. What I’m thinking now is how I want to avoid any road lined with yellow bricks and how I might be better paving my own path.

Surfing the internet is such a wonderful alternative to work! If I didn’t check myself, I could easily spend several hours every day consuming the fascinating, educational and useful content that is generated from all manner of inspired sources.

Social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook have made it easy for us to sit back and ingest content as an endless stream of links and recommendations are flung at us from our friends and contacts. It’s difficult to switch it off. Join the conversation, man!

Yesterday, one such link was highlighted by someone in my network, and when I saw it I couldn’t help laughing. It was introduced as ’3 tips on how to be an expert’. Are you curious now? Would you like to know how to be an expert (and it’s just three quick tips!)

Well, here’s my tip: be an expert.

That’s it. No more. No techniques, short-cuts or magic potions. It takes time and effort and work and practice. And you don’t get to decide if you’re an expert or not. It’s a subjective judgement from someone else.

I have a problem with the concept of the ‘expert’ in any event. Very few people can truly be deemed to be experts in areas of life and business that impact us all. Everyone can claim legitimately to be an expert in being themselves. Beyond that, it gets fuzzy.

You’re still curious about the three tips though, aren’t you? Well, here’s the first tip: “Call yourself an expert”.

That’s right. Call yourself an expert! Apparently, if you start describing yourself as an expert, then others will begin to see you as such. Magic, right! Who knew it was so easy?

Oh dear.

This is part of a larger problem we have, which is sometimes called the sucker’s hierarchy. There will always be someone else willing and eager to believe what we tell them when our message is offering them a faster/easier/cheaper way to their holy grail. And don’t think that you’re immune to it. We all have blind spots. We all can be suckers given the right circumstances.

Most of us learn the hard way. We discover that the Wizard of Oz is just a little guy pulling a few strings behind a curtain. We feel conned and move on. But many don’t. And unfortunately, too many people are trying to make a living by selling to (exploiting?) these people. Often deliberately, sometimes without considered intention.

Still interested in the other two tips? Here they are, and you know what, they’re actually not that bad!

It seems most of us resent being told what to do. We don’t like taking orders. We often recoil and end up resisting the path that has been laid out for us.

And yet.

And yet, when comes to solving our problems, we seek out someone to give us advice. We complain, sometimes to ourselves but often to others, when ‘proper’ advice isn’t available. It’s as if we’re being cheated.

How do we reconcile this apparent paradox? As long as we pretend to ourselves that the advice we get from others was actually down to our own initiative and ingenuity, then we’re ok. We’ve bought in to it. We feel good.

This is actually the key to good management, to good parenting, to good mentoring. The perception of ownership is all important.