Yellow sticky notes for the apocalypse

What’s on yours?

Here’s your million-dollar idea for the day.  Create a set of yellow sticky pads with inspirational words and phrases pre-printed on them.   Which is not a new idea.  You can go buy any size or shape sticky notes, any color with many different sayings on them.

But mine would be better.

Mine are better.

I started dabbling in sticky not graphic design and publishing as the house arrest of the apocalypse started to push me close to the sucky vortex of, well not depression, but certainly some anxiety and definitely a bit of an attitudinal funk.

One of mine says Joy!

I created this one on one particularly bleak morning.  I was staring down a full day of video calls with clients and I was tired.  I didn’t want to do it.  I wanted to crawl back into bed.  Which would be easy because bed in the apocalypse is only a few feet down the hall.

Then I thought about the people on the other end of the video.  And I figured they were feeling the same thing.  If I was in a funk and not wanting to show up, then they probably were too.  Which meant that they need my help.  And that gave me purpose.  I thought the best way I could help them was to bring joy into the interaction.

So I wrote ‘Joy!’ on a sticky pad and posted it on my monitor where I would see it.  And I tried to bring positive energy to those calls no matter what.  I tried to bring empathy for how the others were doing.

I tried to bring joy.

Another sticky not I have says “Do the work”.

It is a simple declarative statement for when I find myself circling the sucking vortex of being overwhelmed by too many deliverables.  Big chunks of illdefined work that has to be done.  AndI don’t know where to start.

I have a tendency to procrastinate like an Olympic level procrastinator when I have these big impending deliverables.  When it gets too big I seize up and do nothing.  As Stephen Pressfield describes in “The War of Art” I let the resistance take over.  All of a sudden, I’m washing the dishes in the sink instead of preparing for that important call.

I have to remind myself that the only way out is through.  The only way to finish the work is to do the work. And the only way to Do the work is to sit down and DO THE WORK.

On a kinder note, another sticky pad says, “Smile and Breathe”.

This is for those times when I find myself taking it all too personally.  Where something has gone wrong and I’m anxious that I need to do something to fix it.  I take that personally.

Which, on the one hand, makes me accountable in the roles I am in, which is a good thing.  But, on the other hand too much self-directed stress around things that are mostly out of my control makes it hard for me to be effective in the very things I’m trying to fix.

When this happens you need to clear the performance stress, the anxiety out of your system so you can get things done.

When this happens I tell myself to smile.  Because it’s hard to be anxious when you’re smiling.  Especially when dealing with others. And I tell myself to breathe.  Because a couple deep, meditative breaths clear the anxiety physically from your body.

And finally, I have one that says, “Intent, Abundance, Detachment”

These are three things I brought with me from my sales roles.

Intent means that before any action or interaction be sure of what your intent is.  Because people can sense your intent.  If you intent is to sell them something and close them on a deal they will sense that and there will be resistance. If you intent is to bring value, to coach, to help them get to a better place they will sense that as well.

I coach people to openly declare their intent in the beginning of their calls.  Why circle the topic and make the others try to guess?   Tell them what your intent is up front and you own the agenda.  That is positive and powerful and people will appreciate it.

Take a moment to look inside and know your intent.  Feel your intent. live your intent.

Abundance comes, in no small part from Carol Dweck’s wonderful book on mindsets.  When dealing with others you always want to have an attitude of abundance.  There are plenty of fish in the sea!  There is always more business! There are an infinite number of deals and projects that you can be adding value on.  We can get this done! We can do big things! Nothing can stop us!

That’s your attitude of abundance.  It’s infectious.

The opposite of this is scarcity.  An attitude of scarcity thinks that there is only so much to go around.  There is limited time, limited money and limited attention.  Scarcity makes you think small and act defensively.  Scarcity is fighting over the crumbs.

Abundance is baking infinitely more cookies. 

Detachment is another way of not taking it personally.  Yes you are going to do your best.  Yes it is important.  But you can’t take it personally.   It’s fine line to walk.

But you must stay detached from the outcomes.  Focus on the process.  Doing the best you can in the process will inevitably produce the outcomes you want.

Focusing on the process is an act of production and abundance.

Focusing and becoming emotionally attached to the outcomes is a process of scarcity.

Those are my sticky notes so far this year in the apocalypse.

When I started my first company as an entrepreneur many years ago I had another one.  Let me set the stage.  I was way out of my comfort zone and risking everything.  I would sit in my home office, much like I do today and I would call prospective customers on the telephone.

I had a sticky note that said. “I can do anything, I can be anything, I am not afraid.”  Because I was very afraid.  But I did it anyhow.

So if I had to write that sticky note today it would simply say “Courage”.