Small Acts of Rebellion

Originally from a post on Please Feed the Animals, by Michael Bungay Stanier.

5. Find out what really matters

Sometimes it can feel a little like we’re wind-up toys. Not that anyone has wind-up toys anymore, but if they did – that’s what we’d feel like. Somewhere back in time and space we started something, and then along the way the doing of it trumped the why I’m doing it.

Go back to your boss and ask her, “What are the top three things you really really care about? And what does success for each of those three things look like?” If you’re your own boss, ask yourself these things. And when you know the answers, decide what you need to do differently.

6. Ask a question

Nueorscience shows us that when you give advice, not much different happens in the electrical activity in the brain of the person you’ve just advised. But when you ask them a question that creates an A-ha! moment, you can actually see the new neural pathways being formed. How amazing and cool is that!

So get better at asking (yourself, others) questions:

What do you want?
What really matters here?
What would make the most difference?

What would be a small act of rebellion?

The first four points don’t really work for me. First, I can not write an email of just two sentences. Not unless my computer crashes and even then I’d just have to find it and finish it later. Secondly, settling for being adequate and halving things doesn’t work well for me cause I already procrastinate and self sabotage myself in other ways.

What would your own small act of rebellion be? I think everyone has their own personal little rebellion, even just to de-stress once in awhile.

Tagged as: email, inspiration, writing inspiration