“One more thing…” – Steve Jobs It may be obvious, but it bears saying: unlike the Highlander, when it comes to the Defining Moment there can be more than one. If you’ve tried this process on one of your dreams, close your eyes, take a breath, and ask yourself: What would I really like? Poof! …
Category: Defining Moment
The Defining Moment: Courage Overcomes Expectations
Not Much Left There’s really only a few last things to say now that you’ve figured out your Defining Moment, found a way to make it happen, and analyzed the results. You know now one of two things: what it’s like to do it, or what it’s like to not bother with the whole process. …
The Defining Moment, Part 14: the big question
Encore! Or not. By now, if you’re following the whole lineup of the Defining Moment, you’ve got a folder of papers, or perhaps an entire notebook, filled with first your analysis of what you want to do, and then all kinds of things about it. You’ve predicted risks and consequences and then checked the accuracy of your predictions; …
Defining Moment, Part 13: Final Evaluations
The Consequence Hero Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences. – Robert Louis Stevenson It’s one of the key principles of personal development, set down everyone from Aristotle to Covey: you are free to take action, but you are not free of consequences of those actions. Many a parent has shaken …
The Defining Moment, Part 12: Far Enough?
The Saddest Word is “Almost” Now that you’ve gone through the objective “Positive/Negative” evaluation of your Defining Moment experience, it’s time to go back to your gut. Did you go far enough? Much like the question “did you like it?” this is one where the answer will be immediate, followed by a whole bunch of …
The Defining Moment, Part 11: Positive & Negative
“You Keep on Using That Word…” – Inigo Montoya When someone says something discouraging, have you ever remarked – either out loud, or to yourself – that “negative reinforcement doesn’t work very well” or something to that effect? Raise your hand if you’ve ever done this – and don’t worry, you’re safe, no one is …
Defining Moment part 10: gut reactions
How did it go? All the pieces were in place. You finally got over your fear and took that step (or were pushed by friends or circumstance or both). You put everything on the line that was needed, all the fruits of those papers and those charts and those hours of evaluation…and the Defining Moment …
The Defining Moment Part 8: Resources
Whatcha Got? If you’ve been trying out these various exercises – figuring out what your Defining Moment is, working out the details of it, assessing the risks of trying for it and then also trying to foresee the consequences of success – you may be pretty excited. I hope you’re pretty excited, anyway! When you …
Defining Moment Pt. 7: the consequences of success
What If It Works? “You could go with this. Or you could go with that. Or you could go with us!” – Fatboy Slim Risks are one thing. They are mishaps that can happen along the way to your defining moment. If you want to skydive, the obvious risk is that your chute might not …
Defining Moment Part 6: how to assess risk productively
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly There’s a great podcast out from the Guardian’s Science Weekly where psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer talks about risk. He makes the point over and over again that first, people spend a lot of time worrying about the wrong risks, and second, even the ones we should worry about are …