The Five Obsessions

Last week, I attended a convention for my day job (I own a marketing firm) and had the benefit of hearing from Josh Linkner as he detailed the Five Obsessions of Innovators. His keynote resulted in so many conversations throughout the rest of the week that I want to share the concepts with you. Although the material was presented at a business, not a yoga conference, the concepts ring true on our mats as well.

The five factors…
Get Curious: In the spirit of curiosity, I ask you to ask yourself – are you curious about your life? Your practice? Or, are you going through the motions, simply working the plan. In 2018, I want to be curious about what bigger picture and different ways of doing things.

Defy Tradition: Being curious opens up the opportunity to defy tradition – to do things differently. Or, maybe not even do them at all. While many of us do a great job of outlining ways in which we will improve our products and services, we typically fail to identify what we are going to stop doing. How can you defy tradition and stop doing something that you have done for years?

Crave What’s Next: “I’ll deal with that once this happens.” Does that sound familiar? Are you living from milestone to milestone, task to task, or do you truly crave what’s next? How do you ensure you are open to what is next?

Get Scrappy: When is the last time you got scrappy, as in really dug your heals into an issue and took a stand on something? I am not suggesting picking fights or being a bully, rather, not being a passive bystander on issues that matter to you – big or small. Shouldn’t we invite an attitude of scrappiness? One can still be scrappy while being respectful of others and their viewpoints.

Adapt Fast: Most organizations and most people do not have a mindset or working model that enables to them to adapt in a fast timeline. Think back to the last few years. Did you miss any opportunities because you were constrained by how busy you were and knew you didn’t have the ability to adapt fast? What systems can you put in place so that doesn’t happen in 2018?

I invite you to get curious about your true contribution in your present structure, invite you to defy tradition, crave what is next, adopt a bit of a scrappy attitude as well as a willingness to adapt fast. If you can apply these attitudes on your mat, they’ll easily carry off the mat as well.