BPO: Prioritizing and Accountability

I belong to a group called the Business Professionals Organization for University of Arizona Alumni (aka "BPO"). Here's a link to their/our blog. The group meets every other Tuesday, and what's special about their meetings is that they do a professional development exercise that's facilitated by a professional, and an attendee can start improving their life right away.

As I start posting more of these exercises, you can search for keywords “BPO” or “professional development.”

I'm blessed to be on this facilitator rotation, and that means I get to share my exercises with you. I've done several for the group, (I can't share the other facilitator's exercises, but you should still see what Jennifer Furrier and Jenn Kaye do, because they do great work.)

You're welcome to share these exercises with others. I just ask that you credit my blog or website. Greatly appreciated!

This week's exercise was pretty basic, but very key for most of us in our lives. If you've ever gotten to a point in your afternoon where you realize that you've spent all morning working on tasks that aren't toward your greater goal or larger purpose, then you could apply this technique today. If you don't take the five minutes to do this, you can end up wasting days of things of little value. You will need 3 notecards, a pen, and a friend who would like to help you reach your goal.

1. Identify a goal that you're looking to accomplish within the next 1-6 months (or longer term, if you have it).
2. Identify 3 tasks that you're currently delaying on that would thrust you forward huge steps toward your long-term goal.
   The tasks could just be making that phone call to a potential partner or sending that email to set up coffee with someone or writing 2 paragraphs of the article you need to write. They don't have to be large tasks - they just have to be significant ones. They should be tasks that will have real value to you and your goal when you've completed them.
3. Write one task on each of the notecards.
4. Choose one of the tasks you want to work on this week. Find a visible place to post this week's notecard.
5. Tell your friend about your long-term goal and what you'd like them to do that would keep you accountable: By email? By phone? In-person? And when you'd like them to do it: Each day for the next 3 days? In a week?
   If you're sensitive about how someone asks about your goal, it's entirely understandable - especially, if it's a goal that you care about. Do your friend a favor and specify EXACTLY what you'd like them to say to you as a reminder. If necessary, provide your friend with the script you want to them to use that would encourage you and keep you on track.

I'd love to hear comments on how this exercise worked for you!

My First ScriptFrenzy Experience

Most of you know that I participated in this year's ScriptFrenzy. (Read my excited post on starting the experiment.) The contest ended on April 30th, and it's time to debrief on my experience.

I have always been intrigued by these contests, not to win it or even to write something good, but to try it out and see how I do. I have never written a script before, so this was supposed to be my April adventure activity.

Numerically speaking, it didn't go very well. I wrote five pages.
I also admit that the quality of work was pretty lousy too.

But when it comes to stepping out of our normal routines - whether it's a new habit or adopting a different perspective - our failed attempts can be some of the best encouragement while we develop. There's no harm in giving ourselves credit for things accomplished along the way. In fact, it's an important step when we're trying to make lasting, positive change.

While I didn't write much on my play, I watched plays in the last month, and I learned to watch them with a writer's eye. Plays, TV shows, movies all fall into a different perspective when you're noticing how the stage directions, scenery, and lighting add subtle effects to the story itself. I read plays in the last month and went to the reading of a play that's on its way to being produced.

And I went from having written zero pages of a script to having written FIVE! I expect to at least double that next time.

When we start defining success in ways that are non-traditional (money earned, numbers reached, time saved, etc.), we start seeing that failure exists for some people, but success and failure only make their mark based on how we define it for ourselves. Only YOU can really give yourself credit for your successes.