Part of his power comes from the shadows.
Posts Tagged ‘Outer critics’
Outer critics facing the inner shadow critic
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 10, 2017
Facing the inner critic
Pema Chödrön tells the story of inviting the critic to sit for tea. To welcome him instead of running.
It’s not comfortable, but is there any other way? The sore spot is unprotectable. The critic only disappears when we cease to matter. They go together.
We can dance with him, talk with him, welcome him along for a long, boring car ride. Suddenly, he’s not so dangerous. Sort of banal, actually.
There is no battle to win, because there is no battle. The critic isn’t nearly as powerful as you are, not if you are willing to look him in the eye.
Posted by Seth Godin on September 29, 2017
The biggest difference between great work and pretty-good work are the meetings that accompanied it.
The crisp meeting is one of a series. It’s driven by purpose and intent. It’s guided by questions:
Who should be in the room?
What’s the advance preparation we ought to engage in? (at least an hour for every meeting that’s worth holding).
What’s the budget?
What’s the deadline?
What does the reporting cycle look like–dates and content and responsibilities?
Who is the decision maker on each element of the work?
What’s the model–what does a successful solution look like?
Who can say No, who can change the spec, who can adjust the budget?
When things go wrong, what’s our approach to fixing them?
What constitutes an emergency, and what is the cost (in time, effort and quality) of stopping work on the project to deal with the emergency instead?
Is everyone in the room enrolled in the same project, or is part of the project to persuade the nay-sayers?
If it’s not going to be a crisp meeting, the professional is well-advised to not even attend.
It’s a disappointing waste of time, resources and talent to spend money to work on a problem that actually should be a conversation first.
