Rick Torresen uses Whack-a-Mole to explain why constant reactivity leaves you stressed and scattered. He prescribes four fixes: focus on one task, manage priorities not time, set a clear vision, and delegate what others can handle.
Welcome back to timeout for leadership. On today's episode, I want to share with you a fun game I used to play growing up when we would go to the carnival. How many of you have ever heard or played the game Whack a Mole? If you've ever taken your kids to Chuck E. Cheese, I think they used to have it there as well. I remember going to the carnivals and this game, this Whack a mole game you play, they'd give you a mallet and the board had these moles that were all underground. They look like little ferrets or like that mole from Caddyshack. I'm dating myself now. Right. The mole would pop up, and the object of the game was to hit the mole on the head to get it to go back into its hole. And every time you hit one, another one would pop up. And you'd keep doing this endlessly trying to beat the moles. And every time you hit one and knock him down, another one would pop up. Have you ever felt like life was a game of Whack a Mole? There are so many things happening at. At such a high rate of speed, and you're trying to deal with all of them at the same time. You're not dealing with any of them effectively or efficiently. So what's the problem with Whack a Mole? Whack a mole never allows you to deal with one until it's dead. Hit it until you kill it, and then go on to the next one. You might stun it, you might cause it to go back in the hole for a little while. But if you don't complete it, you don't finish it, you don't kill it, it's going to come back up and haunt you again. So what does a whack a mole life look like? Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. And that's a Whack a mole life. It's when we have a lot of action with little movement and scattered results. A Whack a mole life is when problems continue to arise faster than we're able to solve or cope with them. And a lot of times they result in these missed goals or objectives. We get discouraged. We have divided teams. We find that we're not able to complete one project because we're always chasing the next one. And that always results in an increase of stress and anxiety. I don't know about you, but I think it's time to kill that mole. How do we do that? The first thing is we've got to focus one mole at a time. The second thing is, we've got to set our priorities. Don't manage your time, manage your priorities. What's the most important thing that's probably pressing on you right now? Focus on that. Finish it until it's done and move on to the next. The third thing, to kill that mole, you got to know your destination. Have a clear vision of the objective that's in front of you. What is that overall objective or goal. And go after that until you finish it. And the last thing I would tell you to do is you need to delegate. Focus on what only you can do and make sure you give the rest away. And a whack a mole life, That's a distracted life. A whack a mole life is a life filled with anxiety and frustration because we're never able to truly get ahead. I hated that game when I played it because I never could win the game. No matter how hard I tried to crush that mole. Another one kept coming up. If you want to defeat the mole, you've got to focus. You've got to manage your priorities. You've got to delegate your responsibilities. Do what only you can do. Give the rest away. I don't know about you, but I think it's time to move from a distracted whack a mole life to a focused life filled with accomplishing the objectives that are set before you. And to do that, it takes focus. It takes clarity of vision and destination. It takes the ability to manage our priorities, not our time. And we've got to delegate. We've got to delegate those things that we can share with others while doing only the things that we need to do ourselves. So, my friends, thanks so much for continuing to be a part of this transformational leadership, community, and movement. As always, I'm Rick Torresen, and I'm believing your best is yet to come.
