Understanding your CSFs

Your CFS is your critical success factor. 

These are like KPIs but for the inputs that directly contribute to your success at any give task. 

There is a cause-and-effect relationship between CFSs and KPIs. 

Critical success factors are the causes for how you and why you succeed. 

KPIs are the effects of that success. 

I'll provide an example. 

If you were trying to lose weight one KPI might be the amount of weight you lose in a given week/month. Your CFSs might be the number of days you work out in the gym.

Your CFS is your how and your KPIs are your what. 

How To Be an Imperfect Perfectionist

Imperfect perfection is the art of doing. 

It is in the relentless practice and pursuit of the things that motivate us. 

Sometimes there is an incentive. You might have an incentive to show up to the office every day and earn a paycheck. 

This is no way to live life. 

We should do things that inspire and challenge us. We should be on a mission. 

How do you find out what your mission is in life? 

You become an imperfect perfectionist. 

The story we tell ourselves in our own head is I can't work out I don't have the right equipment. I can't start that business I don't have the right connections. 

These are nothing more than lies we have convinced ourselves is the truth so we do not have to do the work. 

We offload the mental load because conditions are not perfect, the tools are not perfect, the timing is not perfect. 

Guess what? 

It is never going to be perfect. This is why you need to become an imperfect perfectionist. 

An imperfect perfectionist is someone who does what they need to do no matter how small the step or how imperfect the situation is at any given moment. 

They are perfectionists at the art of being imperfect. 

The Map is not the Terrain

The map is not the terrain is a mental model that is useful when in leadership positions. 

Often now we are inundated with data and analysis of every little activity. 

While data is important and I believe that what improves is what gets measured. 

It is equally important to understand life is not dashboards or data points on a graph. It is more complex than spreadsheets. 

This is the mental model concept of a map not being the terrain. 

If we were to think about a map. What is a map? It is a 2D representation of the actual 3D reality. 

A road map of the interstate highway system in the United States is a representation of the highway system, but it is not to scale. It does not fully represent reality. 

A map is a model. 

It is a model that does not always represent things like elevation or weather or traffic all of which could and will be encountered on a journey cross country that would not be conveyed on a map. 

This is a useful mental model because so much of life around us is only presented in a surface level aspect and we need to understand this concept so we can peel back the layers to the underneath. 

I call this Dashboard Management. 

Dashboard management is a concept in which numbers and metrics tell you the whole story. It is very easy for a CEO to look at sales numbers or website clicks and conclude all is well, but maps are not the terrain. 

It is easy to stand on a scale and conclude you are healthy or unhealthy based on a single number. The map is not the terrain. 

The map is not the terrain. Regardless of how detailed the map is it will never be to scale of the territory. 

So much of our social media world today is a map representing the territory. 

The perfect angles, the great lighting, the only showing the exciting moments. Even Instagram influencers posting on fake private jets. 

Even the most detailed maps. Think Google Earth. They are still not perfect. They do not contain the noise of traffic, or the smell of a pizza parlor, the feel of a cool summer night. So even highly detailed maps are still just unrealistic representations of reality. 

Just like maps model terrain the mind models reality. 

2+2 is 4 but so is 3+1

 2+2 is 4 but so is 3+1. 

This is an important concept to understand. 

People learn and arrive at outcomes through different paths. And when outcomes matter process should be flexible. 

The Machine Theory of Everything

The Machine Theory of Everything is a phrase I coined to describe the process or procedure for identifying preferred outcomes and matching those with key inputs and then monitoring those inputs over time for positive change. You can tinker or adjust these inputs when you are off track. 

Think of yourself on a line at point A. This would represent where you are today and point B to the goal or outcome you would prefer. 

This could be anything like losing 10 pounds before your high school reunion or getting a promotion at work. Or closing more sales. It doesn't matter what the outcome is that is specific to you. It's the process that matters. 

You then can deconstruct the outcome, work backward to try to understand what are the individual components to say losing 10 pounds. Well, you would identify eating healthier foods, exercising more, being a calorie deficit. Now that you have identified the individual components these are your inputs. They are specific, they are measurable, and over time by hitting them you will achieve your end result. 

The good news though with most things. You do not have to reinvent the wheel. You can simply copy others who came before you. 

There is something called the blueprint concept. And this is simply the idea that anything you want to do has already been done and you can copy and learn from the people before us. Anything you want to achieve you want to start that new business or run a marathon there are people who have laid the groundwork on the best path to completing this and we can simply follow their process. 

You can learn from their mistakes. You can benchmark your progress based on their timeline. And with the overload of information at everyone's fingertips, you can do this for nearly $0 dollars. 

Modeling Behavior

 Modeling behavior is the only life hack you ever need to know. 

Everything that people are attempting to do someone has come before you and laid the groundwork on how to figure out how to do whatever the thing is you are trying to do. 

Think of running a marathon. People have run marathons before and you can replicate their training, diet, and daily routine regiment and with some variation (genetics apply) get similar results. 

Nearly everything in life works this way. 

Even big impossible things like colonizing space. 

What about accomplishing a first - like colonizing Mars - surely there are models - look at empire building from early civilization.

To know the model for colonizing Mars you need to break down the core elements of what it took to build some of the greatest empires. Reading history books on settling the West in America or exploring the New World.

There were lessons learned as these lessons can provide a framework for colonizing Mars.

This is of course an extreme example, but you get the point. Anything you are trying to accomplish - switching careers, building a bigger pipeline, or completing that marathon you have had on your bucket list for year look to model and study those who have been their first.