Here and There Consulting

Here me out. (Pun intended. Here and There, get it?)

• "Wrong" is better than not at all
• Failure is Good For You
• It's Easier to get Help Fixing Something, than Making Something
• How to Apply This to Your Clients
  • Doing it "wrong"
  • Plan to Fail
  • Doing it "Wrong" With the Goal of Getting Help Later

“Wrong” is better than not at all

If you mop your floor “wrong” or “badly” or “lazily” enough times, it will eventually look better regardless.

If you build your website badly, you will at least have a website that exists.

Set a goal to do something wrong or badly: if you’re an author, write a minimum of 5 words per day, artist? Make ugly art. Reply to emails with incomplete information. Just do the thing.

Failure is Good For You

I’m not kidding.

There’s science about it.

It’s good for your brain and nuero-elasticity. It’s good for self-confidence, and those are not even the material benefits.

Those who engage in “Failure Challenges” or “Rejection Challenges” often find that the worst-case scenario isn’t as bad as expected, and have an increase of success, self-confidence, and decrease of anxiety, fear, etc.

A Rejection Challenge is a challenge to try to get other people or businesses to reject you. Fail x number of sales pitches in a month, get rejected by x number of people for dating, advertising, etc.; try to find x number of new foods that you hate, etc.

The crazy thing about this, is that it works. Look it up on social media. Tag me on insta or YouTube or something if you try it, and tell me how it goes.

It’s Easier to get Help Fixing Something, than Making Something

People are generous when fixing broken things, but stingy to make new things.

I don’t know why people are this way.

What is it about someone messing something up, that fills humans with the desire to fix the thing? Why is it impossible for me to get help on an new project, but easy to have someone help me ‘fix’ a project I’ve started?

This is a real phenomenon that I’ve noticed in my life (I’ve noticed it especially with my family). If I need help with the Thing tomorrow–no one rides to my aid. If I ‘can’t figure out’ how to do the Thing, or do the Thing wrong–suddenly I’ve got a white knight or three ready to help me.

HMU on socials to tell me if you’ve noticed it too.

How to Apply This to Your Clients

Doing it “wrong”

Kendra Adachi, Founder of the Lazy Genius, always reminds her clients to look at the goals.

• Is the goal to increase strength and flexibility? Do one downward dog pose per day, if a goal of 30 mins of yoga keeps failing.
• Is the goal to get a vegetable into each meal? Make your own meal kits in your fridge with bins.

This has worked in my life. I realized I couldn’t squat well, so I did one squat every time I brushed my teeth, which is 1-3 times per day. In a month I no longer tipped over or got dizzy picking stuff up off the floor.

Is the goal to clean more often? Set a daily alarm to play for the length of a random song on a playlist. This could be anywhere from Shake It by Metro Station (2:32) to Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin (8 minutes long).

Plan to Fail

When I am assisting someone in building a residential system, I always ask myself “What if this system fails for this person? What would that look like?”

• What if this closet organization fails for this person? It would look like heaps of clothes on top of the hamper, because the hamper is too hard to open. It would look like a backlog of dry cleaning piled on the floor next to the hamper, or mixed into the clean clothes. I should remove the hamper lid, make a section of the closet near the hamper for dry cleaning, etc.
• What if this kitchen organization fails? Well, we decluttered a bunch of dishes, so that would look like dishes piled up, but not more than fit in the dishwasher all at once. What a win!
• What if my client makes this scary call and gets rejected? (Recommended reading: Worthy by Jamie Kern Lima). Good! Make the goal 5 rejections per day!

Doing it “Wrong” With the Goal of Getting Help Later

Have I ever decided to do it wrong, and accidentally gotten it right without any help? Yes.

But that’s a best-case scenario and is often unlikely. But here are more likely scenarios that also come in handy.

Diving in teaches vocabulary.

One of the best things you can learn in any industry is industry jargon. Why is industry jargon important? Because it makes resources easier to find. Let me give an example from my recent life.

A loved one over the age of 75 called me to ask me how to make the white space bigger. He tried to google it, but to no avail.

I told him it was called a margin, and that I’d call him back when I was free to walk him through it. By the time I called him back, he had already figured it out because he now knew the word “margin” and was able to look it up himself.

This is true in any industry.

One of my friends hired a self-taught visual designer. He was frustrated with communicating with the self-taught designer, because he couldn’t just send an email with a list of the things he needed. He ended up having to teach the self-taught designer what banners, web-headers, social media standard sizes, and other things that designers learn in design school. Just to communicate.

Doing it wrong can be the gateway that teaches the verbiage that you need.

Now with a client, we need to break it down. Look at the goal, and what is the smallest step that will make a difference?

Sometimes, that smallest step is research.

Once you’ve done the thing badly, reach out to the person you originally had in mind to help you. “Hey, I’ve done this, but it isn’t right–how do I fix it?”

For some reason, this is the way to get help from others. It’s worked for me with everything from my computer to my car, hobby projects, work projects, school projects, everything.

I think that in every generation, there is so much talk, and so little action. Most people let words flow like rivers, and are only 10% serious 90% of the time. Ideas float away like clouds into the hypothetical realms, with no research or action taken.

Taking action–even if done badly–convinces others that someone is serious about something, and willing to do the work themselves–not just wait for someone else to do the work for them.

If you can’t get help, do the thing badly, then ask again.

That’s a good one. Put a quote graphic here.