Tag: personal development

  • Finding your natural fit in order to do what you love to do everyday.

    Finding your natural fit in order to do what you love to do everyday.

    Listening to Jim Collins on the Tim Ferris podcast last week, I was reminded of the elegant simplicity in which Colin’s frames complex subjects. In this case, the Hedgehog Concept.

    The concept of the three circles, or the Hedgehog Concept posited by Jim Collins, is a powerful framework for individuals looking to determine what they should be focusing on in work.

    Collins invites you to imagine you were able to get or construct work for yourself that meets three tests:

    1. you’re passionate about it and you love to do it;
    2. you’re genetically encoded for it, so that when you do it you just feel like you were born to do it;
    3. and finally, you’re able to make the economics in your life work—you get well paid for it or perhaps there’s some other way of funding it with an economic engine.

    It’s a nice framework to guide and remind you to focus on what you naturally do well, enjoy and can make work for your own situation.

    Below is an expert from Jim Collins’s website;

    Now, people often struggle with the question, how do I find my own Hedgehog Concept? How do I find the intersection of my three circles? Let me suggest a specific piece of homework that everybody can do. That specific piece of homework is to take three totally separate sheets of paper.

    Sheet #1 On the first sheet of paper, do an analysis of yourself along the lines of, what am I truly passionate about? What do I love to do? What are the things that, even if there’s drudgery in them, I really have passion for doing them, and I have passion for the work?

    Sheet #2 covers the question, what am I genetically encoded for? What are those things that, when I do them, I feel as if I was made to do this? This just fits the way I’m constructed. It fits my psychology. It fits my capabilities. It fits what maybe I was even put here on this earth to do.

    Sheet #3 Finally, with the third sheet of paper, note all the various things you can think of that would allow you to have an economic engine. What are the things you could do in which you could make a living, if you need to do that? Or maybe the answer to that question is, “I don’t really need a traditional economic engine,” but what does your economic-engine sheet have as all the possibilities on it?

    Don’t worry about how those three circles or those three sheets of paper intersect with each other while you’re doing each one. Do them independently. Then give copies of those three sheets to your personal board of directors, or to other people whom you admire and whom you feel can provide perspective to you, and ask them for their thoughts regarding where they see the intersections. What do they think is the right direction for you? Have fun with it.

    Adapted from Jim Collins source; www.jimcollins.com 2019

  • Finding the edge

    Finding the edge

    In the pursuit of excellence whether in business, sport or my personal life, I like to continuously challenge where my real or perceived limits are. I often find that when I explore a limit, I find an edge. This edge is where I start to explore, understand and challenge the belief that is defining the ‘limit’.

    Exploring where the edge can be uncomfortable. It generally challenges an existing belief, yet my desire to improve, my pursuit of excellence, drives me forward to find, explore and push this limit. I won’t find the limit unless I push the limit, push to find the edge, move with it, learn from it and find a way through it.

    An example is in preparation for the 2019 rowing season, I have challenged the Masters Rowing Squad to train differently to how they have in the past. Together we challenged the belief in the “no pain no gain”  approach to athletic improvement. (Side note; see Seiler’s Hierarchy of Endurance Training Needs 2016) On exploring what the best in the world do to go fast. we identified the key themes that define success and the supporting tactics. Some of these themes challenged general beliefs and concepts, yet instead of going with what everyone else is doing or the dogma of failed strategies, we are focusing on building up the season in a healthy, intelligent and personalised way that has proven to be successful.

    Although the squad knows the approach works, it challenges their beliefs. Together, we need to be consciously aware of what we are doing and why we are doing what we are doing. We need to be aware that our approach is challenging our belief systems and the beliefs of others around us. We need to pay attention to our thoughts and fortitude to stay the course. Simple questions like; “whats the purpose of this session”? help to bring the awareness to what we are doing and why.

    Another example may be when challenging an organisation in transformation to examine existing organisational beliefs. The old quote of ‘this is how we do things around here’ or in excusing leadership beliefs and or behaviour that are not working as ‘The Organisation’s DNA‘ need to be consciously put on the table for discussion.

    Leaders need to explore and understand how successful teams have navigated through change. The default norm of ‘telling’ people what to do and being directive simply is not as successful or effective as empowering teams with clear direction, with trust in the organisation to work it out. This may challenge existing beliefs on what it meant to be a leader and may place leaders at the edge of their beliefs and along with the ambiguity, doubt.

    “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

    Albert Einstein

    Like the rowing squad, leaders that acknowledge they need to work differently and consciously pay attention to their behaviour generally do. It feels different, yet when supported, leaders can gain strength in exploring the edge through cooperating and collaborating together.

    So what you say? Well in the pursuit of excellence I’m constantly looking for the edge, understanding what I need to do differently or optimising the ‘same‘ to achieve my personal and professional goals. I’m paying attention to what is making me uncomfortable and why. I’m getting feedback from close counsel on what I may need to do differently or pay attention to. I’m challenging my beliefs. I’m finding the edge…


    Excellence. The quality of being outstanding or extremely good.

    Oxford dictionary, 2019