After a brief three year gap, here’s the latest ‘Friday Kin‘ – the gold, silver and bronze of blog posts I’ve been inspired by recently.

This week’s kin is themed around ‘follow through’ – and why many people don’t or can’t.

GOLD:

 Your Problem Isn’t Motivation

Peter Bregman’s post appeared in January’s Harvard Business Review blog and is a good introduction to a subject I’ve discussed here a number of times – that of motivation and follow through.

His key point is summarized well in this quote:

Motivation is in the mind; follow-through is in the practice. Motivation is conceptual; follow-through is practical.

In fact, the solution to a motivation problem is the exact opposite of the solution to a follow through problem. The mind is essential to motivation. But with follow through, it’s the mind that gets in the way.

Peter’s solution to “the mind that gets in the way” is simple and practical, and well worth the 60 seconds spent reading it.

SILVER:

 How to Make a New Year’s Non-Resolution

I’ve been following Daniel Pink’s writings for a while and in this post he features Dr. Kelly McGonigal’s new book, ‘The Willpower Instinct‘.

I think that willpower alone is definitely overrated as a change-enabler and I’ve have written about tools that can help people with follow through.

So, what’s a ‘non-resolution’?

Think of it as a way of paying attention to the consequences of NOT doing something. Curious? It’s a short post – imagine what you might miss by not reading it.

BRONZE:

 Dangerous Mind Games

Derek tackles the thorny topic of ‘failure’ and how the perception of mistakes and errors can have devastating consequences on the likely success rate of our own dreams and goals.

A short, punchy read.

Well, that’s it for this edition of ‘Friday kin’.

If you enjoyed any of these three posts, please tweet, stumble or like, so that others may discover them.

- Mark Mcclure

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Number 3 in the “Friday Kin” series of blog posts which have caught my attention out there in the world wide glitter

GOLD: Do It Tomorrow (Chapter One):

This is chapter one from UK-based author and time management coach, Mark Foster’s book, “Do It Tomorrow“. I’ve read Mark’s first book “Get Everything Done and Still Have Time To Play” and found it added to my time management strategies.

This one reflects his latest published thinking and goes on my reading list. Having spent a few hours on his blog last week I highly recommend the discussion forum where readers can interact with Mark and each other.

SILVER: On The Super Geeks and Management:

Check out Chris Mahan’s reply to a question posed by another blogger I’ve been reading recently, IT Manager Simon Stapleton (who will get his turn on the Friday Kin rostrum once I find a post of his that doesn’t have one of my comments all over it… lol!)

Chris concludes his thoughts with this provocative line:

“Geeks self-manage. Traditional management doesn’t work on geeks“.
What say you?

BRONZE: Sometimes Creativity Is Not In Your Job Description:

What I really like about mid-life career consultant Cathy Goodwin is she calls it as she sees it. No sugar coating from her on the practicalities of mid-life career planning and (at least, for some of her clients) of easing out of the corporate shackles. Her blog is recommended reading.

Cathy’s post reminds me of a friend of mine  who told me about how some senior management folks holding a ‘Town Hall’ style meeting accidentally restated the corporate mantra (quite truthfully, in my opinion) as “Our reputation is our greatest asset.” (Instead of; “Our employees are our greatest asset.”)

Keep that sort of ‘thought-speak’ in mind when you hear sound bytes about “encouraging employee creativity.”

Can be true, but caveat emptor

Have a great weekend!

- Mark McClure

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Here’s the second in an occasional series of “Friday Gold” wisdom nuggets mined from the web.

Enjoy!

Gold: The Art of Manliness
This post appealed to my sense of fair play and to the power of inspired team work. Check out Denzel Washington’s words to his football charges on the fields of Gettysburg.

(Way back in teen years I was a military history buff and spent many hours reading ACW books and painting hundreds of small metal soldiers, cannons and cavalry in colours of Blue and Gray. Oh happy days!)

I haven’t explored the rest of this site but it’s on my manly list of interesting topics.

Silver: Twelve Rules For Self-Leadership
I recently came across Rosa Say’s blog and this post stands out as a great launch pad for anyone exploring their career options and possibilities. There’s certainly room here for experimenting with one of the rules each week – and in 3 months you would have them all covered and maybe built considerable momentum.

For those actively pusuing a career change, I also like that you don’t have to “burn your bridges” in one full cycle – you could incorporate some or all of these rules (I like “guidelines” even though I did write a post about my own “just five rules” recently!) at an off-the-radar level i.e. do what you are comfortable with and see how it goes after a month or two.

Rules 8 and 11 light a fuse for me so let’s see what happens over the coming months working with these two in mind.

Also check out Rosa’s Flickr page from her blog – I so want to go back and run along some of those beaches! (But need to get out before 6am because when the Hawaiian sun meets my pale but sweating Irish skin, I come out in the most agonizingly itchy heat rash!! May have to make do with a short break in Guam – much closer to Japan and no real time difference.)

Bronze: Humor Power
Anyone who can turn humor into a wonderful career path gets my attention. Check out John Hinde’s About Me link and notice how his speaking skills and professional experience are artfully backlit with humor and magic! (Maybe I’ve got Norwegian joke genes in me too as I really chuckled over the tagline below his home page photo …)

- Mark McClure

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Just for a change – and partly influenced by the Beijing Olympics – I’m presenting 3 medal winning posts from bloggers in my Career Change BlogRoll (see right hand column of home page).
Note: 2012 March update – the blogging roll is no more!

Unlike the Olympics Games, I plan on doing this more often than every 4 years.
Depends on what I discover on my surfing travels.

There’s also a chance to win a prize – keep reading to see how

Each post has something I liked or learned about career change, personal renewal or mid-life professionals (a broad net indeed!)

Continue reading →

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