I did it. That thing I thought I could never do. And it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be.
What’s the “it”? I’ll tell you in a moment. But first, the back story.
This year I’m focusing on scaling my business and taking on the responsibilities as CEO rather than as practitioner. In doing this, I started building a strategic plan using a template my friend and business coach Bruce Johnson shared. One of the tasks on that strategic plan is to develop some values.
As I thought about it, one of the things people most enjoy when doing business with us is talking to Lisa Young, my newly-promoted COO. They always tell me how friendly she is. So knowing that, one of our corporate values became “Always be friendly.” And our team liked it.
And then I realized that I spend a significant amount of time on my social media accounts being the exact opposite.
I tend to use Facebook to stay in touch with friends and a few family members. I’ve seen a very negative shift in this platform over the past couple of years and never weigh in on the politics. But I do tend to rant about things that happen when I travel, like packed planes, clueless travelers at TSA, and people that hog the overhead bins (my blood pressure is rising as I write this by the way…) and it’s not very nice. Then, the one social media platform that really spins me up is LinkedIn. There’s nothing political on this platform but I guess I suffer from a tremendous amount of jealousy as I see just a few views and likes on a blog post I wrote that took a great deal of thought and reflection and yet gurus such as Simon Sinek and Oleg Vishnepolsky put up an infographic with a statement as profound as “The Sky is Blue” and get thousands of views, likes and comments (blood pressure spiking right now…). I found myself putting up a bunch of smart-assed infographics as a response. And felt pretty good about it.
But after our team meeting, I realized that as the team’s leader, I had to take the lead in being friendly. Which led to the bit “it” I mentioned. On Wednesday, January 2, I took all social media off my phone. I started with Facebook. That was easy. Then I did Twitter which I rarely get on anyway. I followed that with Instagramwhich I use to post photos of events we do and check up on my college-aged daughter. Then came the tough one…LinkedIn. That’s a platform I post to regularly and sometimes use for networking, but I deleted it. Finally, and for good measure, I deleted my CNN app. I’m a news junkie but prefer to just have the news reported to me, not commented on. USA Today seems like the best source so I kept that one. With my phone now clean, I rearranged my home screen to just have my calendar, USA Today, ESPN, my NFL app, and my TaxMileage app.
And then I realized I had no way to ever post business stuff from my phone.
So I decide to upgrade my Hootsuite app which lets me post a blog, picture, or article there and it blasts it out to my Facebook, Corporate Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, without me having to open those apps.
And I felt liberated!
So on the night of January 2nd, rather than sit in my recliner with the TV on, mindlessly scrolling through social media, I decided to just put the phone away and watch the TV program (I will address TV-watching at some point in the future, but baby steps ok?).
Well that night, I dreamed that I was teaching a workshop and forgot to bring the handouts and PowerPoint slides for the group. I noticed there was this big white refrigerator in the room so I took out a dry erase marker and drew up a model of relationship-building for The Boss and taught it to the group. Now mind you I’ve never had this happen before and this model never crossed my mind but here it was, in my dream. I woke up and jotted down a bunch of notes. That model will be the focus of a February blog series we’re going to work on with Boss Builders strategic coaching partner Margi Bush of Wisdom Tree Coaching.
As of today, my brain feels more focused and I don’t pick up my phone constantly to see what’s going on. I feel more creative and more energized.
So I finally did it!
And I’m going to encourage you to do the same.
Yeah I know it’s hard and I also know if you kick the habit, you may never read another post from me unless you subscribe to our weekly email blast but it’s worth it. I want you to experience what it’s like to clear out space for growth.
Will you join me?
And, let me know how it goes?