Need...More...Oxygen!

Oxygen is unquestionably my favorite element on the periodic chart. It's easy to remember, has great marketing appeal for all sorts of products (hey to Oxy-Clean), and is an important part of water, my favorite compound. So when someone tells me to go without it for my own good, I tend to be a little skeptical.

But that's exactly what happened today. After a really tough swim workout (okay, most swim workouts are tough for me, but today's was especially hard), our coach has the great idea to finish practice with "no-breathers." For you land-lovers, no-breathers are drills where you swim laps without breathing. You know, straining your muscles and organs, simultaneously depriving them of air. The guy in the lane with me thinks this is a great idea, but I'm pretty sure he's half fish.

Coach encourages us by saying "these will get easier the more you do" -- which I think is like saying "hitting yourself in the head with a hammer will hurt less once you crack your skull." But on about the 3rd lap, that's exactly what happened.

After 2 laps of flailing to the point of passing out, I figured out the secret: stop trying so hard. The goal remained the same, of course, to swim across the pool without a breath. But taking my standard brute-force approach to swimming didn't work. It required more finesse, more technique, and a slower pace. In doing so, I got more distance out of the oxygen I took in.

In a way, this is exactly what many of us face every day. Companies everywhere have cut staff. As managers and leaders, we're asked to produce the same results with less resources. Our employers aren't just asking us to do no-breathers, they're expecting it.

And while our natural response to this is to work harder, push harder, and power our way through it, it's not necessarily a path to success. To get to the other side, we have to do things differently, use our talents and minds in new ways, and achieve more with less. Just applying more effort isn't enough.

The moral of the story? The next time your boss, shareholders, board of directors, or employees ask more of you, just hold your breath until you turn blue. That'll show 'em.

2010: Resolutions

Resolutions can be hard to keep, so I took a look back at my resolutions from 2009, and realize that I actually did okay.

Now, for 2010:

• Correspond to connect: based on a fantastic post by Steve Rubel, I'll be upping my correspondence: particularly the one-to-many correspondence here. I had thought of a writing resolution, but Steve makes it sound so much more 21st century!
• Innovate: Chris O'Brien's blog post on the innovation bias at Sequoia was both funny and sad. While I know that attitude isn't universal in the industry, I fully admit I did my best innovating before age 30. Why that trend has declined in the past several years is probably the subject of another post. If I can prove Sequoia wrong in 2010, at least in my own mind, I'll gain a small slice of personal satisfaction.
• Discipline: Be exact about my training regimen, diet, finances, and work. Focus, and refocus, to get the most out of every minute of the day. Time is precious.
• Improve Every Day: Take a second, a minute, or an hour to make life a little better for at least one person every day. Because, everything else aside, that's what's really important. Right?

With that, I wish you all success in all of your goals, big and small, in 2010.

JMF