Innovating and operating through growth
They’re all the same, because in each case you’re doing something and you get a benefit. Respectively: empowerment, knowledge, your goal.
Most of the parameters that determine your outcome you can’t control. Plus there’s the element of fortune, good or bad.
It doesn’t really matter how you start or where you end up – you always get some benefit and you’re never in control of the outcome.
In which case the only thing that doesn’t make sense, is never starting in the first place.
It is so great to have something to check. Something to check means progress is being made. The package is on the way, the project is moving forward, the numbers are ticking ever higher. Checking can be encouraging, exciting, and instructive.
But checking is a trap. Things don’t happen because you check, things happen because you take action, make a move, share something. The checks are the ripples from the first drop.
Checking is tricky because it can be nuanced. You can create new ways check; new ways to filter the spreadsheet, or create a new ratio. But this nuanced checking is still checking at its heart.
The more time you spend checking, the more likely it is you’re being distracted; doing things that are important but secondary.
By all means, check. But don’t lose site of the fact that you must keep doing things, over and over, to make the checking informative and useful.
A pull is different than a push.
A push is a jolt. A quick exertion of force causing momentum. It’s a one-off effort. A boost. It is abrupt and fleeting. It’s a jump across a chasm.
A pull draws you near gradually. It’s a tether to the past, or a thread leading to the future. A pull is enduring. A pull feels both distant and strong. It is a siren’s song.
Push or pull both provide momentum and direction.
Which one do you need?