Perfection is the antithesis of evolution
Evolution is a desire for improvement, not perfection. In short, if something is perfect, evolution wouldn’t occur because there would be no need.
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Perfection is the antithesis of evolution. Many of us have been taught since childhood that we should “strive to be the best” at whatever we do and while perfection may not be achievable, trying to get there is a great pathway to success. On the surface, that seems like pretty good advice. Especially for those of us who were raised “old school.” If you take a deeper look at that sentiment however, it can be both unproductive and even physiologically harmful; particularly when success is tied to self-esteem.
As an anthropologist, I’ve done a fair amount of research on evolutionary biology. Although many aspects of Darwin’s namesake theory are subject to controversy, one thing is certain – the catalyst for evolution is nature’s aspiration for improvement and a need to thrive in a changing environment. Once again, evolution is a desire for improvement, not perfection. In short, if something is perfect, evolution wouldn’t occur because there would be no need.
I think it’s safe to say our collective environments have changed pretty dramatically over the last couple of years. So here are a few steps we can employ to facilitate our own personal “evolution”:
Strive for improvement, not perfection
As Dr. Shauna Shapiro puts it in her wonderful book on mindfulness called Good Morning, I love you, personal change is a direction not a destination. Her contention is that while perfection isn’t possible, transformation is. Focusing on the former can only lead to some degree of disappointment – since perfection is unachievable. Dr. Shauna’s research illustrates that trading in self-esteem related thoughts (in which one’s self-image is reliant on success) with a focus on self-compassion (in which self-image is independent of accomplishment) people live happier and healthier lives with less depression, anxiety, and stress.
Disappointment only stems from expectation
Have you ever been disappointed in yourself or someone else? Of course you have. Ever give someone a gift and didn’t receive one (or maybe even a “thank you”) in return? How did that make you feel? Let’s think about why. I would suggest that every single time you were disappointed it’s because you were expecting a different result than the one that occurred. If we are able to release ourselves from those expectations whenever possible, the disappointment disappears along with them. Giving that gift then becomes an act of genuine generosity with nothing attached.
Set themes, not goals
Setting goals can be important, but achieving real personal transformation means focusing on your how right now rather than any ultimate destination. In his book Goal Free Living, Steven Shapiro (no relation to Dr. Shauna) proposes that life goals have the built-in negative side effect of coming with specific, measurable results that one must achieve in order to be successful. Whereas setting a theme – such as living with more compassion – can guide one’s behavior and mindset without the added stress of accomplishing a precise metric.
It’s all about the brain. I know what you’re thinking: how do we apply these concepts to our work lives? After all, we can’t be successful in business without goals, right? Success metrics and “Key Performance Indicators” are thrown around constantly and often the lifeblood of our respective projects. Don’t worry, you’re not going to lose all your clients. Once again, evolution focuses on the process rather than the result. If you change your mindset the success will come on its own rather than you trying to force it to happen.
It all comes down to brain chemistry. Basically, our brain responds to what’s going on around (or within) us by releases neurotransmitters that in turn radically affect how we feel and behave. Our attitude determines which kinds of these chemicals are released. For instance, when our stress response kicks in our brain releases things like adrenaline and cortisol (your body’s alarm system) that ramp up our heart rate and trigger our primitive ‘fight or flight’ response. These are the same chemicals that are released when we’re agonizing over trying to meet a deadline or are hyper focused on a specific goal. Sure, there are times when this is helpful – if you’re a pro athlete or in a war zone for example – but for the majority of us, the old “I work best under pressure” theory is a fallacy.
On the other hand, when we meditate or otherwise adjust our behavior and mindset in calming ways, our parasympathetic nervous system releases endorphins and acetylcholine. The latter is a powerful neurotransmitter that dilates blood vessels and slows the heart rate. It even plays a role in encoding new memories and has been linked to slowing the effects of Alzheimer disease. Even in difficult situations, just taking one or two deep breaths can release these positive chemicals.
Facilitate your personal evolution. Even if we work in a high speed, success-oriented industry, it doesn’t mean we have to let our environment dictate our mindset, behavior, or brain chemistry. Dismiss the notion of ‘achieving perfection’ from your mental syllabus and instead focus on what’s right in front of you on the path that you’re walking right now. Release yourself of expectation whenever you can and do the things that you do for the sake of doing them, rather than with an eye on an anticipated outlook.
Finally, remember that personal success is not about what you accomplish, either now or in the future. Having self-compassion throughout your journey is a sure-fire way to release those ‘good chemicals’ into your brain making you both happier and healthier.
Now THAT’s evolution.
Jan 29, 2022
Perfection is the antithesis of evolution
Evolution is a desire for improvement, not perfection. In short, if something is perfect, evolution wouldn’t occur because there would be no need.
Perfection is the antithesis of evolution. Many of us have been taught since childhood that we should “strive to be the best” at whatever we do and while perfection may not be achievable, trying to get there is a great pathway to success. On the surface, that seems like pretty good advice. Especially for those of us who were raised “old school.” If you take a deeper look at that sentiment however, it can be both unproductive and even physiologically harmful; particularly when success is tied to self-esteem.
As an anthropologist, I’ve done a fair amount of research on
evolutionary biology. Although many aspects of Darwin’s namesake theory are subject to controversy, one thing is certain – the catalyst for evolution is nature’s aspiration for improvement and a need to thrive in a changing environment. Once again, evolution is a desire for improvement, not perfection. In short, if something is perfect, evolution wouldn’t occur because there would be no need.
I think it’s safe to say our collective environments have changed pretty dramatically over the last couple of years. So here are a few steps we can employ to facilitate our own personal “evolution”:
Strive for improvement, not perfection
As Dr. Shauna Shapiro puts it in her wonderful book on mindfulness called Good Morning, I love you, personal change is a direction not a destination. Her contention is that while perfection isn’t possible, transformation is. Focusing on the former can only lead to some degree of disappointment – since perfection is unachievable. Dr. Shauna’s research illustrates that trading in self-esteem related thoughts (in which one’s self-image is reliant on success) with a focus on self-compassion (in which self-image is independent of accomplishment) people live happier and healthier lives with less depression, anxiety, and stress.
Disappointment only stems from expectation
Have you ever been disappointed in yourself or someone else? Of course you have. Ever give someone a gift and didn’t receive one (or maybe even a “thank you”) in return? How did that make you feel? Let’s think about why. I would suggest that every single time you were disappointed it’s because you were expecting a different result than the one that occurred. If we are able to release ourselves from those expectations whenever possible, the disappointment disappears along with them. Giving that gift then becomes an act of genuine generosity with nothing attached.
Set themes, not goals
Setting goals can be important, but achieving real personal transformation means focusing on your how right now rather than any ultimate destination. In his book Goal Free Living, Steven Shapiro (no relation to Dr. Shauna) proposes that life goals have the built-in negative side effect of coming with specific, measurable results that one must achieve in order to be successful. Whereas setting a theme – such as living with more compassion – can guide one’s behavior and mindset without the added stress of accomplishing a precise metric.
It’s all about the brain. I know what you’re thinking: how do we apply these concepts to our work lives? After all, we can’t be successful in business without goals, right? Success metrics and “Key Performance Indicators” are thrown around constantly and often the lifeblood of our respective projects. Don’t worry, you’re not going to lose all your clients. Once again, evolution focuses on the process rather than the result. If you change your mindset the success will come on its own rather than you trying to force it to happen.
It all comes down to brain chemistry. Basically, our brain responds to what’s going on around (or within) us by releases neurotransmitters that in turn radically affect how we feel and behave. Our attitude determines which kinds of these chemicals are released. For instance, when our stress response kicks in our brain releases things like adrenaline and cortisol (your body’s alarm system) that ramp up our heart rate and trigger our primitive ‘fight or flight’ response. These are the same chemicals that are released when we’re agonizing over trying to meet a deadline or are hyper focused on a specific goal. Sure, there are times when this is helpful – if you’re a pro athlete or in a war zone for example – but for the majority of us, the old “I work best under pressure” theory is a fallacy.
On the other hand, when we meditate or otherwise adjust our behavior and mindset in calming ways, our parasympathetic nervous system releases endorphins and acetylcholine. The latter is a powerful neurotransmitter that dilates blood vessels and slows the heart rate. It even plays a role in encoding new memories and has been linked to slowing the effects of Alzheimer disease. Even in difficult situations, just taking one or two deep breaths can release these positive chemicals.
Facilitate your personal evolution. Even if we work in a high speed, success-oriented industry, it doesn’t mean we have to let our environment dictate our mindset, behavior, or brain chemistry. Dismiss the notion of ‘achieving perfection’ from your mental syllabus and instead focus on what’s right in front of you on the path that you’re walking right now. Release yourself of expectation whenever you can and do the things that you do for the sake of doing them, rather than with an eye on an anticipated outlook.
Finally, remember that personal success is not about what you accomplish, either now or in the future. Having self-compassion throughout your journey is a sure-fire way to release those ‘good chemicals’ into your brain making you both happier and healthier.
Now THAT’s evolution.
Jan 29, 2022
The Qualified Lead, or, Leading with Qualified Content
Here is some copy which goes in the sub header. This is good information and speaks to the width and breath of knowledge of the writer.
When I was 16, I went looking for a summer job. I got an interview and they hired me on the spot. That following Monday, I reported for my first day of training.
The job: cold-calling “qualified leads” to sell people coupon books for local retail and entertainment businesses. It was hands-down, the worst job I ever had —FAR worse than cleaning kennels at the Dumb Friends’ League, for instance.
The training was great. We all got in a room, and a 20-something “super-closer” told us all about how he was making $5K a month. He gave us his “surefire, winning script,” and taught us all how to “overcome objections!” He wrote simple formulas on the whiteboard and explained how this incredible, tiered commission structure worked.
“Yes, this is a pure commission job, but you’re getting $8 per every book you sell. If you only sell TWO books in an hour, you just made $16 an hour! (This was back in 1990, so that was real cash —and it was a FORTUNE to a 16-year-old kid)… And if you sell THREE books, your commission goes up to $12 per book! So if you sell just one book every 15 minutes, that means you’re making $24 per hour!”
It sounded AMAZING.
The next day, we all reported to another room, where they had rows of folding tables, folding chairs, and telephones. At each telephone was two stacks of paper, a little bell, and a pen. And that was our work stations. One stack of paper was the order forms we filled out for every sale. The other stack of paper was our “qualified lead” sheets. The bell was what we hit with each sale, when the “team lead” would swing by and grab our latest successful sale order form. And the pen was for filling it out. We were seated elbow-to-elbow, and within moments, they we all were, one hand holding the phone to our ear as tightly as we could, the other hand covering our other ear so we could hear the person we were talking to.
By the end of the day, I figured out that they “qualified” their leads by ensuring the telephone number we were given was an assigned residential (this was before cell phones, remember) phone number. In other words: All they did was make sure the phone numbers on our list were working. “Qualified” indeed.
That was the longest, most disheartening day of my young life. Call after call after call after call, I was treated to hangups if I was lucky; a string of epithets and rants, however, was the status quo. By day’s end, I had somehow managed to sell one book. I wasn’t even excited to hit the bell by then. It was literally my last call of the day, and the old woman on the other end took most of my time talking about her grandkids. I think, in the end, she just took pity on me.
When Scott (that was the name of the “team lead”) came to get my order form, he went to give me a high five and said, “You got your first sale, buddy!” I looked at him and said, “Scott, that was also my last sale.” I stood up, thanked him for the opportunity and said, “Keep the commission. I’m never coming back. I don’t even want to drive back here to pick up a check.”
Thankfully, the science that goes into delivering so-called “qualified leads” to the sales team has evolved by nearly geological eras’-worth of time. That old approach could not be more fossilized, relatively speaking. And still, companies struggle withit. Even with all of the automated marketing tools at our disposal, if the marketing approach isn’t carefully researched, tested and tested again, the fallout can be tremendous. And that means lost time, higher costs, and fewer sales.
But, when the marketing team really does their due diligence, the results can be extremely profound.
Content marketing delivers on that effort. There was no internet in 1990 —so when someone had a widget to sell, their first approach was to convince the buyer why they needed that widget. The culture has changed geometrically since then —today’s buyers go looking for things online, and that, compiled with the terabytes of data they provide on a second-by-second basisvia all of the connection points in their lives (smartphones, computers, home appliances, cars, TVs, etc.), creates a tapestry of information savvy marketers can use to ensure they’re helping fulfill an identified need —even before the buyer might know what problem it is they’re trying to solve. That’s really the key —specifically in B2B marketing. It’s why more B2B companies refer to their offerings as”solutions” than “products” As much of a buzzword as that is, it’s still an accurate one. Our clients all sell solutions to business problems. As marketers, it’s up to us to position those solutions in a way that meets the buyer at their intersection of “right place, right time” to catch their eye. Nearly a decade ago, the Corporate Executive Board (now a part of Gartner) did a whole bunch of research to determine that the B2B buyer completed 57% of the “buyer’s journey” before reaching out to salesperson. That stat became a flashpoint for marketers, even though it was an average of the aggregate of every single vertical across the business landscape (which is fine
4—it was a benchmark and it gave us all a place to start from). Nevertheless, while that stat is likely not directly applicable to your industry —and less so, to your company in particular —the spirit of the stat is accurate: B2B buyers spend significant time researching their own problems and potential solutions long before they reach out to talk to a potential vendor.
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It’s all about the brain. I know what you’re thinking: how do we apply these concepts to our work lives? After all, we can’t be successful in business without goals, right? Success metrics and “Key Performance Indicators” are thrown around constantly and often the lifeblood of our respective projects. Don’t worry, you’re not going to lose all your clients. Once again, evolution focuses on the process rather than the result. If you change your mindset the success will come on its own rather than you trying to force it to happen.
It all comes down to brain chemistry. Basically, our brain responds to what’s going on around (or within) us by releases neurotransmitters that in turn radically affect how we feel and behave. Our attitude determines which kinds of these chemicals are released. For instance, when our stress response kicks in our brain releases things like adrenaline and cortisol (your body’s alarm system) that ramp up our heart rate and trigger our primitive ‘fight or flight’ response. These are the same chemicals that are released when we’re agonizing over trying to meet a deadline or are hyper focused on a specific goal. Sure, there are times when this is helpful – if you’re a pro athlete or in a war zone for example – but for the majority of us, the old “I work best under pressure” theory is a fallacy.
On the other hand, when we meditate or otherwise adjust our behavior and mindset in calming ways, our parasympathetic nervous system releases endorphins and acetylcholine. The latter is a powerful neurotransmitter that dilates blood vessels and slows the heart rate. It even plays a role in encoding new memories and has been linked to slowing the effects of Alzheimer disease. Even in difficult situations, just taking one or two deep breaths can release these positive chemicals.
Facilitate your personal evolution. Even if we work in a high speed, success-oriented industry, it doesn’t mean we have to let our environment dictate our mindset, behavior, or brain chemistry. Dismiss the notion of ‘achieving perfection’ from your mental syllabus and instead focus on what’s right in front of you on the path that you’re walking right now. Release yourself of expectation whenever you can and do the things that you do for the sake of doing them, rather than with an eye on an anticipated outlook.
Finally, remember that personal success is not about what you accomplish, either now or in the future. Having self-compassion throughout your journey is a sure-fire way to release those ‘good chemicals’ into your brain making you both happier and healthier.
Now THAT’s evolution.
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