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We are constantly deluged with an unmanageable amount of information screaming for our attention.

Each day:

• 269 billion email messages are sent
• 8 trillion text messages are sent
• 500 million tweets are tweeted

Astoundingly, 90% of the data in the world today was created in the past 2 years. (IBM Marketing Cloud 2016) It’s not surprising that we get overwhelmed and overpowered by information. Defensively, we utter the phrase, “I’m so busy” like a salutation, “Good morning! I’m so busy!” So what can we do to stop drowning?

1. Identify our essentials
2. Consume only the information that contributes to our essentials

Without vigilantly deploying these filters, any information can seem intriguing, interesting, or important. To identify essentials… “Essential” gets defined by our aspirations, our goals, our commitments, our vision, and our battle cry. We need to ask, “What are my aspirations [goals, commitments, vision, battle cry] for my career, my family, my heath, my finances, and my life?”

To determine what information is important… Pause to evaluate: “Does this information [email, text, tweet, data, Yahoo story, LinkedIn announcement, Facebook update, YouTube cat video] I’m about to consume contribute to or contaminate one of my aspirations?” (“Contaminate” is any distraction, derailment, or sabotage.)

If the information does not help us move toward that which is important to us (our aspirations!), we need to: resist it, trash it, return it, or ignore it.

The only way to survive the deluge is by taking back our power over the information.

When we don’t use filters, we don’t have control. And then we helplessly grouse, “I’m so busy!”

We can do better than that…

Soto Zen Buddhist monk Shunryu Suzuki said…
“You are perfect just as you are, and you could use a little improvement.”

There’s nothing wrong with us!

Yet our world constantly reminds us that we are broken and need fixing:

• Report cards: here’s your grade and where you fell short
• Commercials: here’s what’s wrong with you and how our product will fix it
• Feedback: here’s my “constructive criticism” to change you

But if we start with the notion that we are perfect as we are, we could springboard from our strengths, instead of flail from our flaws.

With “perfect as we are” as our anchor, we can enthusiastically seek suggestions, feedback, ideas, and input from others by asking, “How can I improve from here?”

Without a need to defensively protect our ego, we can welcome suggestions and ideas, not as judgments or criticisms, but as contributions and building blocks. Each block helping us to become bigger, better, bolder versions of ourselves – to be even more perfect.

So how do we get a little improvement? By seeking advice, perspectives, and ideas from others through:

• mentoring and being mentored
• coaching and being coached
• attending classes and trainings
• reading voraciously
• joining mastermind groups

Now consider using this mindset to lead others: our people are perfect as they are, and they could use a little improvement. From here our job is to add the building blocks that contribute to our people being bigger, better, bolder versions of themselves. That’s the secret to becoming the boss people want to work for!

All by starting with perfect and improving from there…

Woo-hoo! The annual holiday to be more grateful has arrived!

And every year, experts apprise us of all the benefits we could reap personally by being more grateful: lower blood pressure, less stress, better sleep, stronger mental clarity, happiness…

But what about the influence that being grateful can have on others?

There are two behavioral theories that get triggered when we acknowledge and appreciate others:

1. Self-Delusion Bias

2. Spotlight Effect

Self-Delusion Bias People who feel good about themselves tend to perform better. When we express gratitude by acknowledging someone, we fuel their self-esteem and boost their confidence. And with boosted confidence, people exert even more effort in hopes of obtaining more self-esteem fuel.

Spotlight Effect People who feel their actions are noticed (“spotlighted”) by someone tend to operate more effectively just to impress the person watching.  When we express gratitude by appreciating someone’s actions, we spotlight that action.

Just by noticing, we spark that person’s desire to perform that action even better in hopes that we continue to notice and spotlight that action again.

The secret, however, is in the specificity. Running around yelling “Thanks, Bob!” “Thanks, Mary!” is ineffective because it feels contrived and insincere. How? We need to put some gusto in our gratitude!

• Thank you for the way you always make us healthy dinners.
• I appreciate the difference you make on the team with your solutions.
• I am grateful for your perseverance in getting us the right answer.
• I am in awe of your constant kindness toward strangers.

If we want our gratitude to be significant and ripple with impact beyond the holidays, we need to add a little gusto to our gratitude!

One of my favorite movie lines can be heard at the end of the romantic comedy, Serendipity: “The Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: ‘Did he have passion?’”

* (This is partially true and partially Hollywood. The founders of Cyrenaic (435-356 BC) held this philosophy and they were Greek. But this practice was not true of all Greeks.)

What if we were evaluated only by our passion?

• Would we spend our time differently at home and at the office?
• How would we have to act and behave if passion was a requirement of our job?
• Would we still prioritize our emails and altercations, or our impact and contributions?
• Would we focus more on the output we deliver or the outcome we influence?

If passion were revered and valued at work, would we add it as a leadership competency and evaluate it during the annual performance review: “So Bob, how should we rate your passion this year?” … and perhaps reinvent the exit interview: “So Bob, did you have passion while you worked at our company?”

But what is passion? Intense enthusiasm, energy, and tenacity for something that excites us. Typically it manifests as:

• unquenchable desire and devotion
• an internal drive regardless of circumstances
• dogged determination to make a difference
• intrepid risk-taking in spite of doubters, naysayers, critics, and judges
• obsession with improving: self, others, processes, products, profits
• courage to challenge mediocrity, complacency, and the status quo

So what should do we do if we would fail the Greek’s obituary-test today?

Start creating passion… in moments. Soon enough, the moments will add up to define a passionate life. And even the Greeks won’t need to write an obituary about us!