Today is December 3 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is "What do you do to shock and wake yourself up?"
Sam Mendes is an English film director, film producer, and stage director best known for directing the drama film American Beauty and the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre.
When asked if he has ever failed at anything Mendes said "God, yes; I can't speak a foreign language. I can't type or play golf. I can't cook and as a director I have been down some blind alleys and felt I was repeating myself. I did Skyfall to shock and wake myself up. And it has certainly done that – and then some."
Mendes demonstrates the two traits of successful people that researcher Peter Bregman noted in his November 9, 2018 Harvard Business Review blog post. Bregman wrote that there are just two questions peole need to ask if they want to do something they’ve never done.
The first question is “Do you want to do better?” and the second question is: “Are you willing to feel the discomfort of putting in more effort and trying new things that will feel weird and different and won’t work right away?”
Mendes wanted to do better and was willing to feel the discomfort by shocking and waking himself up. Are you?