The Executive Summary of The Greatest Barriers:
(1) Worrying about what other people think (2) The distraction of trivia and melodrama (3) The desire for perfection (4) Simply not being bold enough (5) Not having a pen (6) Believing things should be fair (7) Copying rather than innovating.
The Story So Far
Your greatest work is what makes you tick. It's what brings you your greatest rewards in every sense. When not doing it you feel you are missing something and feel dulled. And frighteningly it can take you an awful long time to find out what it is and how you do it. Clues come from:
(1) Stopping worrying what people think. Worrying about what people think is useful in that it respects social norms, maintains common courtesies and lubricates the easy flow of communication. The downside is that it means the real break-throughs can be missed. Whether it is finally ditching the slide-deck approach in the management briefing, suggesting prices are doubled or going free-lance some of your greatest work will only manifest when you stop worrying what people think.
To continue...
(2) The Distraction of Trivia and Melodrama. Can your mind focus? Give attention to what is important? Push through the complexity to the essence of a subject? Get to the heart of the business problem? Inspire the team? Yes, yes, always yes. But only if we allow it. It has been said a bundle of times we live in an age of distraction. And do we love it! Surfing, hiding behind e-mail overloads and yet another conference call. Would Leonardo da Vinci have been more or less creative with an iPhone? Who knows? What is true is none of us will get close to Leonardo's output of our greatest work unless we beat back the distraction and reduce the melodrama.
TBC...