I hope you're all on the edge of your seat waiting for my newfound inspiration.  As readers of yesterday's blog know, I confessed to being in a three week slide (probably longer) with regard to my work responsibilities.  I have been chasing fires rather than chasing new opportunities.  I reported that my goal was to wake up a renewed, proactive person today, once again contributing value to our company and our clients.

I was fully prepared to admit that the doldrums are far too ominous a force to be tackled by simply confessing to be in them.  But something did happen.  I did wake up with a renewed sense of purpose.  I did make significantly more calls and came up with more creative solutions than I have been lately.  I did feel better about the economy, our company's prospects, and about myself.

Interesting….Hmmm….. What really happened, and why?

I confessed!  This was completely unexpected.  By simply making a public confession that I have nobody to blame but myself; by cutting myself off from any exit leading away from personal responsibility, I've been liberated.  I've been liberated to do things that I hadn't thought of previously.

The lesson is self-evident.  It correlates with everything we've written about in WorkPuzzle, and everything that science has revealed:  The more personal responsibility you take to solve a given problem, the more you believe that you can make a difference, and the more you will!

However, the impact of confession isn't described or studied much in science.  Perhaps it should be.  It seems confession may be the quickest way to turn things around when you're in a slump.

So, here is what I want you to do:  If you are caught in the doldrums and adding very little value to those who you are responsible to, do this:  Confess to someone where you've failed and what your plan of change is.  This alone can be your impetus to change.

And once you've done this — Use Metrics (1, 2, 3) to keep track of everything you do.  Without measuring, you can't critique your own improvements.