Non-negotiables
At my day job, every employee level and job description has certain non-negotiable goals. Production goals. Sales goals. Checklists and forms. Payroll limits. There are personal goals for associates, and store-wide for management - but everyone has them. These are things that simply must be done. No question. No excuse. And they're not always reasonable either.
But they do always get done.
Somehow, miraculous as if often seems, day-by-day and week-by-week, the non-negotiables get done. I think, in large part, simply because they are non-negotiable.
As human beings, our intelligence makes us problem solvers by nature. You must complete this amount of work in this amount of time is a problem, and so, we find a way to solve it. Again and again, throughout history and in our own individual lives, we rise to the limits and the expectations set before us. Deadlines matter. Checklists help. Time limits are crucial. These are tools our intellects have fashioned. They are every bit as important in the development of the human species as hammers and the wheel. Without measurement, we can do nothing.
But there is one all-important ingredient hovering over everything I have just described:
Accountability.
The non-negotiable goals of my day job work because if you do fail to meet those goals consistently enough - well, it won't be your day job much longer. There's a whole other system set up to deal with that: Writeups, correctives, "decision days." And there are also incentives for the other direction: better yearly reviews, bigger raises, more hours if you want them...
Good businesses have all of these systems already in place to motivate employees.
And I thrive in that environment. I always have.
In school, I got straight As because I wanted the best grade.
When I was ten, I memorized and entire booklet of a hundred memory verses in two months because there was an award ceremony and a ribbon at the end of it.
At work now, I "always" make my goals because I do not want to look for a new job - and because I want to be a valuable employee who therefore has negotiating power over my hours.
Without outside accountability, I have always struggled. I am not a "self-starter," I rarely take initiative, and I've never really understood why employers would value these qualities in an employee anyway. (Frankly, no employer I ever have had has actually valued initiative or "self-starters," even when they say they do. In my experience, these oh-so-popular phrases are just code for "we don't actually know what we're doing, and you will get zero direction or input from us as a result.")
And now, I'm trying to start a self-publishing business which is literally...
...just...
...me...
...
...
...
So how do I even go about doing that?
The same way every successful business goes about it.
Goals.
Deadlines.
Lists.
Those are easy.
The problem is the non-negotiable part.
Because without accountability to something higher than yourself, everything IS negotiable.
But this is the new me, the me who does not let little things like a total lack of outside involvement get in her way - anymore. Every deadline and goal I create is negotiable because I'm not accountable to anyone else. This is a problem.
The human brain is built to solve problems, and the solution here is simple: I just have to make my goals non-negotiable.
So today is the day that I set my non-negotiable goals. Today is the day, because I say so. They are non-negotiable, because I say they are.
I will stick to the schedule I have programmed into my Amazon Alexa devices: It is non-negotiable.
I will complete my weekly checklist: It is non-negotiable.
I will write 2,000 words every day: It is non-negotiable.
Yeah, it's a brain trick. And yeah, I won't always make it (just like I don't always make my goals at my day job). But our brains are actually designed to be tricked. And old patterns of behavior can be rewired.
So, in next week's post, we'll see if the trick works.
But it will work, because it's non-negotiable.
On a side note - today I also got myself a job designing my church's new website - thanks to all I've learned here over the years. How did I do that? Well, because I didn't wait, didn't stop to "think it over," didn't negotiate with myself. I just knew they needed it, went ahead and built the test site, and showed it to the pastor. It wasn't something to be negotiated. It was just something to be done.
Maybe I can turn into a self-starter after all.
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Keep working at it. You will succeed.
Jim