Are you making hay when the sun shines, or letting opportunity pass you by? (Source: kevindooley)
I know it’s been some time since the last Dot Connector post, but not without good reason. May’s One Goal was Execution, specifically, honing your “getting things done” skills. Not to be outdone in what many of you know if one of my favorite activities (getting things done), the last two weeks of May were a whirlwind for me.
Here’s a recap, with an execution lesson in each update…
Buying a House
We’ve decided to become homeowners again. With an $8,000 tax credit, and the desire to expand and improve our living situation, we’ve taken the plunge. While we made this decision some time ago – and looked relentlessly in our free time over the past 3 months – in May we found a house. We went through a long, tough negotiation on the deal. Long story short: we close next week and couldn’t be happier.
Execution lessons learned:
- Keep your eye on the prize. The deal we put together almost fell apart 3 times, with several more bumps along the way. By staying focused on the “prize” (a much better living situation for our family), we were able to ignore some of the small stuff and see past the issues we had to deal with.
- Vent once in a while. There were a couple of times where we just needed to vent, to really engage in the emotional side of the negotiation, and to just be mad. It’s important to do this as a constructive release. Far too often, in projects at work or at home, we keep things bottled up, and don’t give ourselves the opportunity to shut a door and just vent. It’s always amazing the clarity you can achieve afterward.
Launching Ame, the Automated Mortgage Expert
At Quicken Loans we launched a major project to help homeowners who need to refinance: Ame, the Automated Mortgage Expert. Ame guides a person through a radically new “easy as an iPhone” interface to determine what refinance loan is best for their situation. The results provide refinancing options, mortgage rates, and full closing cost details. Pretty cool, but just getting started. Expect Ame to do way more in the future.
Execution lesson learned: If you are working on a big project (Ame is a big project), you need to find those ways to strip it down to the essential to be successful. All good ideas (and good projects) create other ideas (and projects). It’s easy to get caught in the “breadth” instead of the “depth” of a project. Don’t let yourself fall victim to that thinking.
Completing My First 5k Trail Race
When I was setting goals in January, I decided I wanted to run a 5k race this year. I don’t know about you, but working out is always easier for me if I’m working toward something. At the beginning of April, I signed up for the Boulderdash, a 5k trail race in Duluth, MN (where I live). I had 60 days to get ready for this race. My goal? Run the entire way, in under 30 minutes.
Execution lesson learned: Preparing for this race was a good opportunity to practice chopping up a larger goal into smaller ones. I knew by the end of the 60 days, I need to be able to run 5k (3.2 mi) on trails. So, I spent the first 20 days running 1 mile every other day, the second 20 days running 2 miles, and the final 20 days running 3 miles. The result was finishing my first 5k trail race in 25:46!
Hopefully you can understand why my posting has been light lately. However, in June we’re focusing on Decision Making as our One Goal, so there will be more to come on that soon!
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