Category: challenge

Step One or Advice from Years of Chess

(Edit: replaced ‘Decide’ with ‘Choose’ for the emboldened passages – this was the intended word decision choice.)

Step One: Cut a hole in the box. Choose what you are going to do today.

Growing up, I was the chess geek of the city: I was the inter-schools chess champion for 7 consecutive years and intra-mural chess champion for 8 consecutive years, beating kids from older age brackets, beating chess coaches. I’m talkin’ shiny chess trophies, with pictorial evidence of me receiving them, a me with even shinier braces. I’m talkin’ exciting chess stories, of trash talkin’, of being behind in pieces and position yet squeaking out a stalemate (effectively a draw, psychologically a win), of rook sacrifices where I’d invite my opponent to find my trap only for me to unleash it anyway.

(I was so passionate, I’d study the tournament games of grand masters, and I’d cry when I’d lose a game. I’d cry like an early teenage wimp. It was all kinds of not sexy. I remember the first game I lost where I didn’t cry… I was confused as to why I didn’t… somehow… I came to terms with the fact that chess was just a game.)

Yeah – I was that kid.

So let me share with you a chess life lesson – you lucky people, you. Gather ’round, folks! Don’t be shy!

Off the bat, you have white and black pieces, where the white side goes first – this is usually seen as an advantage. Regardless of which side of the board you end up on, most popular opening moves involve securing the center squares, usually by putting pieces there, then defending them – think of it as a strategic land-grab. As you go about controlling the center, you cunning and greedy braces-laden skinny white kid (…with glasses), you end up opening up lanes of mobility for your previously land-locked little change agents.

And this is where the chess-talk stops. (I just shed a tear.)

By choosing to go first, you set the tone of the game your day. You choose where you want to go by giving yourself the mental space to get there (you probably can’t help a quick visualization of getting that thing done), inadvertently preparing the pieces required to get there (your subconscious works on the ‘how’).

Good morning.

Your move.

(I’m welling up here… somebody must be chopping onions…)

Learn Anything In 20 Hours

Not gonna lie… I’m totally lifting this from the description under a YouTube video…

Josh Kaufman is the author of the #1 international bestseller, ‘The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business’, as well as the upcoming book ‘The First 20 Hours: Mastering the Toughest Part of Learning Anything.’ Josh specializes in teaching people from all walks of life how to master practical knowledge and skills. In his talk, he shares how having his first child inspired him to approach learning in a whole new way.

Still not lying… this is a punt-post, as I direct you to this awesome TEDx Talk:

The First 20 Hours – How to Learn Anything: Josh Kaufman at TEDxCSU

No fibbing here… it’s 10,000 hours to master something, and 20 hours to learn something new.

Got 45 minutes a day for 1 month? …pants not on fire.

How Not To Forgive Myself

Two guys walk into a bar. (Ooh, a joke…) One guy says, “Hey man, good to see you again.” (Alright, so this next part will be the funny part…) The other guy says, “Hey man, I don’t entirely want to be here.” (…well that was hardly worth a chuckle)

That’s what I actually said to him! Was that rude? (Oh, it’s not a joke, Merrill’s the second guy.)

At my Scrum Product Owner training session over three months ago, I met a Product Owner, started talking about my application of Scrum to Personal Development, heard how he was into using Scrum for Professional Development, and then took the conversation back up a couple of days ago. (A man-date?)

So when I told my buddy that I didn’t want to be there (“I was being a wicked rude jerk-face”), it was in the context of how I see a necessary level of forgiveness from the Product Owner in ScrumOfOne. In ‘regular’ Scrum, this is analogous to the practice of building a buffer into Sprints: a reservation of a part of the velocity for things the team or Product Owner decides to get done that arrive mid-Sprint. (You mean you can’t stick to a plan for a full Sprint?)

It’s because you can never plan what opportunities may arise or what fires may suddenly need putting out – and definitely not for a full Sprint. (Oh.) Thus, I almost NEVER fully follow through with what I set up at my ScrumOfOne Sprint Planning meeting. (And what, you beat yourself up for this?)

And I feel bad (oh) because I see these remaining Sprint Backlog items at the end of two weeks, staring me in the face from the glowing rectangle that lives in my pocket. (‘Glowing rectangle’, that’s funny.) This is what I brought up with my buddy. (Did you mention how you talk to yourself in your own blog posts?)

By me grabbing a drink with him, I’m NOT doing something I had already set up for myself. The forgiveness comes in if I ultimately believe that the activity I DO do (tee-hee) is effectively a story that gets me closer to some vision for myself. By chatting up somebody in the thick of promoting Scrum at corporations, I knew I would learn a tonne (the metric ton, good choice) about the various adoptions of the framework, and I think we were able to devise some concrete next steps for getting professional development underway where he is.

(I get it: doing the man-date meant you didn’t do stuff on your Sprint Backlog, but in the larger picture, it’s all good.)

So now here is my struggle: I want to replace the notions of forgiveness and anxiety over not accomplishing carefully prioritized stories towards building the product(s) of me, with the notion of judgement-free doing.

Yes, I’m trying to weave the Taoist concept of Wei Wu Wei (effortless action), or at least a consequence of this idea, into ScrumOfOne.

Suggestions?

(Yeah, he needs all the help he can get!)

Become A Superhero

Do you want to become a superhero?

Last week, at my favorite cafe on Newbury Street, I sat in on a talk by Dr. Robin S. Rosenberg, an author for the book, ‘What is a Superhero?‘. I liked the definition she discussed, which comprised of four parts.

1 – Be Super. You don’t need to be from out of this world, or have an ability that is beyond natural, but her criteria covers mortals with a capability on the upper tail of the bell curve of human knowledge & skills. I would argue it doesn’t have to be physical or strength-related. This is your super-power.

2 – Be a Hero. Do selfless acts. And not just once. I guess it’s a given that you primarily use your super-power while being selfless. Superheros are usually saving lives. Does that mean you have to save lives as well? More on that in a bit.

3 – Have an Alter Ego. If you’re going around not being normal (see Be Super, above), have an identity that embraces this, which might have to do with owning your new reality, psychologically. Think about how hikers of the Appalachian Trail take on different names.

4 – Have a Uniform. A costume, not necessarily all Spandex, extends the alter ego to being accepted by others, not just yourself.

What I find interesting about points 3 & 4 is that while, yes, you don’t need them to be effective (be a hero via your super-power), it allows you to be a normal human: mortal, fallible, someone who doodles when on the phone.

About saving lives… I asked the good doctor / author if this criteria for being a hero could be massaged to improving lives. She thought of a hero as one out to do good. Ha – selflessly do good. So, use your super-power to do good unto others.

Do you want to become a superhero?

Can you do something so well so as to be considered at the top of your ‘field’? This might be easier to accomplish if you can consider yourself at the top of your field, locally. Think of this super-power as your ‘gift’. This is you creating with your gift.

Can you selflessly do good by positively affecting other people? This might be easier to accomplish if you first think about affecting locally. This is you sharing your gift.

I believe we can all become superheros by creating and sharing our gifts.

Do you want to become a superhero?

Ask yourself: How can I use my gifts to do good?