The Snowflake Strategy

Snow is gently falling outside my window. For those of us in the Northeast United States this is a common occurrence this winter especially in the past month. Yet as I gaze out on the winter wonderland that blanketed the area overnight I realize something about accomplishment that snow can teach us… a little bit at a time can cover the world.

Think about the size of a snowflake. Seriously! When we imagine just a small snowflake we might think “what could this possibly amount to?” Yet when we look at drifts, blizzards and snowbound areas we see the power of massing small incidental things to create enormous effects.

Many of us have dreams, some of them big and some of them small. Yet they remain as dreams because we can’t fathom reaching the end, finishing them. They seem too insurmountable. Whether you have a project at work or at home; for your life goal or a career necessity, at times it seems impossible to start.

That’s where the beauty of a snowflake comes in. Just a small, incremental step in the direction of your goal adds up. Just a little each day (and I mean a little) can add up to amazing amounts. Whether you are writing a book and only adding a paragraph at a time, or managing a project at work and just sent the first email, the gradual culmination of small things creates big effects.

What small thing can you do today to make one tiny dent in your “to do” list? What step could you take that would get a little closer to the goal? What tiny fragment could you place in your own world, or the world at large that eventually could blanket everything?

Sometimes "Ready, Fire, Aim" is a Good Strategy

After five days of vacation, I feel rested and refreshed and I learned something along the way. Now when I look at the stack of mail on the side of my desk, or  at the file folders not put away at work, I understand what gets in the way for me. Sometimes I think too much.

I've heard the advice to be wary of pulling the trigger too quickly on some new idea or endeavor. Consultants often glibly refer to it as "Ready, Fire, Aim" and calmly assure people that they need to take time to aim before pulling the trigger. That is where I get bogged down. I can comfortably spend a large amount of time thinking about anything from where I want to file a bill, to launching the next phase of my life. Now seriously, those are two things on a totally different scale, but sometimes I feel like I give everything the same importance.

The realization hit when I was visiting my parents and helping them out around the yard. They have a nice fountain in front of their house that was empty of water and has been since the last time I visited. When I asked about it, they told me that it leaked. They wondered what to do with it; whether or not to just put soil in it and plant flowers. We stood discussing ideas about what to do about the fountain for a while. Finally I offered "what if I can fix it?" They didn't want me to take all that time and besides, they didn't think it was repairable.

I took the fountain apart, cleaned it, and filled the bowl on dry ground. Nothing. No leak,  no spillage. I was proud of myself as I put the fountain back together and filled it with water. Apparently the leak had been a fluke. Until about an hour later, then the leaking started. I immediately emptied the bowl and put it in the sun to dry. After purchasing a tube of silicon, I layered the inside of the bowl with silicon and let that dry. Problem solved. The fountain works beautifully.

So what? I learned that, for me, it is best to do something just to start on a project. I can think about things all day, all week, or all month and they will remain un-started. By jumping in, I learn as I go and in the process things get done. Of course some might say that I'm firing before I aim, but for me I can always realign my sights. The important part is that I have to pull the trigger because I can aim for a very long time.

Do You Have Any White Space?

As an author I'm very familiar with the traditional concept of white space. The strategic placement of words,  pictures and graphics on a page allow the reader's eye to peruse the page easily without excess clutter. Much of this ease is caused by the use of white space, or empty space on a page. Additionally this concept of white space has crept into our lexicon about thinking. I'd like to apply white space more broadly to life.

We live in an information society. Microsoft's tag line use to read "information anywhere, anytime." It is prophetic of our age. This technological society provides easy access to all sorts of information, for free. We can read the New York Times, or Wall Street Journal online. All our friends and family can post the latest pictures from the most recent gathering and we don't have to be there. But most of all, we can scan and find information on any topic. Just pop an item into Bing and viola you have information. But isn't it getting to be too much?

Every morning I waltz through the world news, US news, sports, Positive Psychology News Daily, Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today and others. I scan the headlines catching some of the stories, but skimming most of them. So I am filled with information, but it has all been filtered and finessed by someone else. I'm really not thinking about any of it, just gathering.

So too, if you think about our lives, there is constant busy-ness. Most people I meet have very little time left in a day. Every moment seems crammed up with something and in the downtime, or the travel in between, we catch on all we've missed by getting on our phones or PDAs and finding out the most recent news.

Yet what we know about creativity, focus, strategy, calmness, etc, originate in quiet moments, in other words, in the white space of our lives. When we take time just to sit, we are not just sitting. We are creating worlds and words that others haven't thought about. Rather than just regurgitating information that's already been processed, we think for ourselves. Taking white space time allows us to think through the day and think through our lives so we make choices aligned with who we are rather than knee-jerk decisions.

I've place it in my calendar. It's an appointment for me every morning. I take white space time and allow my mind to just go wherever it wants. When I first started it was frustrating. I'm an achiever. I like to do things, so I was really antsy. But now I look forward to the moments and have started adding more during the day.

Make white space time; time to let you mind go freely where it will. You will be refreshed, energized, creative. It takes a little while to get use to the discipline, but don't give up. We all know when we look at a page that is too cluttered with little white space that it's difficult to comprehend anything. Now we need to examine our lives with the same discipline. A little white space helps our lives to be attractive and compelling.