Two Guardrails to Consider in 2025
As we roll into December, we start thinking about what we’ve done well this year and what we can do better next year. This is the perfect time to invite two guardrails to help you assess *whether* to accept the random projects, roles, and responsibilities that come your way and how to ask the right ones to emerge.
A Personal Guardrail helps you focus on putting yourself first while considering your tendencies, proclivities, history, and inclinations. It invites you to be self-aware and considered rather than emotional or reactive as you consider your choices.
A Strategic Guardrail helps you see the bigger picture, the ripple effect, and the short-term and long-term implications of the ‘ask’ on the table.
The Personal Guardrail
Say yes to something when it’s good for YOU rather than agreeing for fear of how the alternative might make you look or feel.
Do ‘pay it forward’ in ways that benefit others and leverage your background and experience while also helping you do what’s right for YOU.
Don’t let someone guilt you into taking on something that’s not necessarily good for you.
Don’t feel bad for saying ‘no’ or ‘maybe.’ Consider that the task/job/project/work doesn’t necessarily have to be done by you, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be done now.
The Strategic Guardrail
Consider the bigger picture.
Focus on creating opportunities where you will say yes.
Suggest a job, role, or task to benefit you and others.
Err on the side of saying ‘no’ while focusing on what’s strategically right to say ‘yes’ to.
Don’t take on simple tasks just because they are easy for you to do. Consider the precedence set and the longer-term implications of doing that easy task.
My commitment to myself is to break my habit of considering the Budget, Authority, Role, and Task (BART) implications of a challenge or opportunity before fully considering WHETHER to assume a commitment.
I plan to lean into my personal and strategic guardrails to serve myself and those I serve and trust better strategically.
May this post help you make strategic and personal choices to deliver improved results and a greater impact on yourself and those you touch.