To Do or To Done
Ted Urban's TED Talk on procrastination is a brilliant and hilarious journey into the mind of a long-term procrastinator. The star of the show **spoiler alert** is clearly the Procrastination Monkey, but the line I find myself recalling of the most is "It has always been a dream of mine to have done a TED Talk, in the past.".
While most of us don't aspire to stand on the TED stage, the line is so relatable because we all know the feeling of unhappily measuring the distance between how we feel about tasks or projects not completed and how much better we would feel if they were just done.
For me, it is all of the things. I am such a captive of my to-do lists, that I have a notebook that if opened from one side is work items and if opened from the other is everything not work. And the problem of course is, it is much easier to add items to a list than the time it takes to actually get them all done. So both lists always seem to grow and never ends with the final item, "Now go have a nice day!".
Recently I was thinking about the infinite nature of my to-do lists and thinking that they should more accurately be called "Things I don't particularly want to, but have to-do lists" which of course made me think of the Ted Urban quote about the good part being to "have done a Ted Talk, in the past." since I also wanted to have my to-do list done.
I have previously written about the underestimated power of words and their ability to shape our thoughts and how we perceive the world, so I didn't care for the negative way my proposed list title sounded in my head. So I considered what a positive spin on it might be.
The answer for me has been a new title and a whole new approach to my daily lists. Instead of feeling like a litany of things still to be accomplished when I look at them, my new lists help remind me of the satisfaction of being done.
Rig your life for the results you want!
The Gift of Being Noticed
In this week's episode of the StarTalk podcast, one of Neil deGrasse Tyson's guests is Sir Martin Rees, a long time legend in the field of astrophysics. Neil tells the story of a time they had met before that contains powerful leadership lesson.Neil was attending a society conference as a graduate student, too young in his career to be given a speaking opportunity. Instead, he and others stand next to their scientific papers, published on poster board and hope a conference attendee will stop to read their work.Neil says "You came up to my paper! And you looked at it and you asked me questions about it. And you didn't have to do that. I felt that my future as a participating scientist was blessed, if you, will by your presence. So I just want to thank you. I don't know how often you do that, but I just want to thank you because what may have been little for you was big for me at the time."Neil reminds leaders so eloquently that although the gift of your notice or thanks may seem small to you, it could mean something much greater to the person you gift it to.This wonderful story is from 3:35 to 4:50 on the episode link above.
Top Level AEing
While you are out there serving the Realtors, serving the association, serving the staff and serving the public, there is one group you can't forget to serve if you want to be truly considered Top Level AEing - that's other AEs.There are many ways to serve the AE community (peer mentoring, committees and workgroups, submitting samples to RARE, etc.) but if you want to really raise the bar on AEing, help your peers' leadership understand AE accomplishments and recognitions.Do not assume that a President or other leader really understands or even knows when the AE for their organization has earned the RCE designation, has been recognized with a peer award (YPN Leaders of Tomorrow, the Magel achievement award, inducted into the Smith Society, etc) or has been otherwise distinguished within the AE community.AEs themselves can be reluctant to emphasize these accomplishments so it is incumbent on other AEs to pull aside the leadership, educate them and help them understand what it is and what it means for their organization.Designations and awards have great descriptions on Realtor.org that can be easily copied and pasted into an email with a suggestion like "It would be great to recognize your AE at your next Board meeting!", the same as you would tell your own President about a member who had achieved distinction.Leadership cannot appreciate what they do not know. By making sure AE accomplishments are understood and recognized by leadership, you are serving the Realtors, the association and the AE community.