Author: Chris Martin

How often do you fear what other people will think and say to you and about you? For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been afraid of the anonymous collective of imaginary haters waiting to pounce on me the second I put something out into the world. Because of that, I don’t like to ask others for feedback, and I often keep my voice silent on issues and topics important to me. Fortunately, I’m slowly learning how to respond to the actual voices of others — in front and around me. The more I do that, the stronger my connection to my creative soul, and my fear of “the others” loosens its grip on me.

How often do you get ads for proven systems that help you create more content faster? For me, it seems almost daily. A year ago, I would have loved a plan to help me do even more than I was attempting to do. But today, not so much. I want to do less, at a slower rate, so I can do the work that truly matters. In today’s episode of Getting Work To Work, I’m going to explore seven bundles of questions that will help you examine a downshift from fast to slow. It’s not going to be easy, but much like driving the speed limit, you usually get to the same place at the same time as those weaving in and out of traffic.

As I’ve been sharing recently on Getting Work To Work, I’ve been putting myself in situations that reveal how much I don’t know. I have to learn as fast and as safely as possible. Most importantly, I have to recover from mistakes quickly. Some days it just feels like my best isn’t good enough. Sometimes people get upset, which in turn makes me feel awful. And that perhaps presents the most valuable skill anyone can learn: how to bounce back quickly after a setback, conflict, or mistake. If you are a chronic people-pleaser like myself and want to find a way to be okay with giving your best, even when it isn’t enough, this episode is for you.

How do you learn new things? Are you like me and read books and other sources of information until you feel confident enough to try? Perhaps you’re like others and love watching videos or listening to podcasts to get the same hit of information acquisition, but in a quicker way. As life-long learners, it seems like there is a never-ending source of learning opportunities until one day you wake up and ask yourself a powerful question: how do you learn new things? I grapple with this question and more in today’s episode of Getting Work To Work.

As I look back over the past twenty-plus years of working, I can see a clear pattern of behavior that I’m not proud of: an attitude of irreplaceability. I said yes to every task and increased my level of responsibility, not as a way of helping out and making an impact, but to prove that I belonged. To show that my work was great, even if it wasn’t that good. And to hold others for psychological ransom about how hard it would be to replace me. What a horrible attitude! Fortunately, as I get older, I not only learn how replaceable I am but how the attitude of impact can actually get me what I always wanted.