Work productivity, time management, organization, tools and tips

One thing that will stop productivity dead in its tracks is a tendency to waver with a decision when we get some negative feedback.

It's a too-common scenario.  It's the one where we get an idea for some kind of life change.  It doesn't matter if it's a business or personal change; the point is that it's a new path.  It's exciting to us and we talk about it.  Sometimes it's so new and different that we ask for opinions because, rather than be caught up in the whirlwind of our wonderful, but isolated, ideas, we welcome other perspectives.

What happens, then, when the only feedback we get is based on the fear of failure?  How do we feel and react, respond to and fully consider the feedback that stops after it says "don't do that"?  It's a tough question.

On one hand, it's tough because we have some wiring that conditions us to accept that "that" can't be done.  But, ya know what?  That wiring is out of code.  We have a better circuit that tells us to question why "that" can't be done. And, therein is what's on the other hand.  When we ask for an opinion, we must listen to it; we're not, however, obligated to follow it.  One person or a hundred people giving our ideas a bad review has no weight unless those people can back that opinion with a viable alternative.  In my experience, they often can't.  The more common reply is something like, "I don't know, but it just won't work".

This is to say that, while those who give us their opinions likely genuinely care for us and our well-being, they aren't us.  Their and our accomplishments will always be different.

History has shown us over and over that, if it looks like something worth going for, we should go for it.