How To Get a Bob The Builder “Yes We Can!” Attitude

ARTICLE BY James Costa | POSTED ON December 24th, 2009 | Freelancing and Business | 8 Comments

Watching T.V. with my 15-month old son has to be one of the greatest things to do during the day. Not because I’m too lazy to take him to the park, and not because hearing him laugh and watching him dance to the songs puts a permanent smile on my face – but when you pay attention to the morals of the shows, you’ll notice that they give good lessons that you can implement in your life. I’m not talking when you’re wasted and/or high and you catch a late-night showing of the Teletubbies, but if you actually pay attention to 1/4 of the things said, you can take a lot out of it.

One particular show seems to catch my attention every time it’s on. “Bob The Builder” has a central theme that together, we can do anything. Other shows like Thomas and Friends (and Rev. W. V. Awdry’s books, the ‘Railway Series’) sport a similar theme of “I can do it, I can do it…” determination. For focus of this article, we will hold on to the idea that together we can do it.

Let’s first analyze this attitude in parts.

From Me to We

Many of us may have heard of the excellent book written by the Kielburger brothers entitled “Me To We”. An excellent book on the importance of unselfish thinking and acting, we see more and more thought about working together. As freelancers we have to embrace that alone we cannot do anything. We all have specialties and can’t do everything. Even some of us (lucky ones) who have a large client load, you can’t do every project on your own.

We need to share the wealth. But, in this case we’ll drop the materialism and say that we need to share the work. In doing so we not only open other doors for ourselves, but we open doors for others. If we don’t get the large amount of work we need to survive, we still need support. But in this case, mentally. Surround yourself with positive people who believe in you (and trust me, I’m one to know how hard this is to find as a freelancer), get involved in communities and other support groups, and you’ll find success.

Positive Thinking

Yes, positivity. It’s something that can sometimes be hard to come by as your own boss. You see a lot of work on your desk and you wonder if
you can get through it. You look at your monthly bills, your budget, and all these other negatives and when you do you get yourself down.

What we need to do is flip these thoughts and make them objects of change. Use these different obstacles as challenges for us to grow ourselves and our business. If you are determined enough, and if you have that backing we’ve already talked about, there is no way you won’t succeed.

How To Get a Bob The Builder “Yes We Can!” Attitude

Here are some ideas that you can bring about with you in your life to try and achieve this personal attitude:

• Take time to yourself. Take an hour out every week from your schedule. Let others know this is your private time for yourself. During this time reflect on the week and write in a journal to figure out your achievements from the previous work, and set goals for next week. Do this in the park, across the street at the coffee shop, or go for a drive. I find taking time to yourself away from e-mails and everything else helps me refocus.
• Take time to yourself, for others. One of the funny little things I like to do every week is sit down for 10-15 minutes, and go through the hundreds of contacts on my phone. During this time, I make a list of people I need to call the next week to catch up with, or text message people at that time. What I get is a snowball effect throughout the week with people updating me on their lives. You wouldn’t believe how much support I’ve gotten through simply finding out how others are doing and what they’re up to, and also how many clients I’ve found in my address book!
• Make a to do list. A lot of people laugh at me because I obsess about finding GTD (Getting Things Done) apps for my Macbook. I obsess with organization and keeping track of things. By having a to do list, I find I feel great about myself at the end of the day. With my current favorite app Things, I am able to check off items, and they are still visible. At the end of the day when I log all completed tasks, I see I’ve completed sometimes 30+ things in my day, and I see how clean my inbox looks by the end of it. Makes for a good feeling.
• Divide and conquer. I mean this in two ways. First, in regards to the last point, I find making small manageable tasks is useful. I almost literally put in my to do list to brush my teeth and take a shower. Since there are a lot of small things to do in the day, this adds up and makes you feel like you’ve been awarded with a prize for just taking a piss. Secondly, I mean this in regards to the projects we take on. We can’t do things alone, so (budget permitting) we should always look for outside help. If you do what you love to do for projects by yourself, and let someone else do the same for the other parts, you’re giving the client an amazing project.

What else do you do, or can we do, to get this attitude, especially with the New Year in clear sight? Leave a response, and share the wealth (of knowledge, that is)!

(Image (c) 2004 HIT Entertainment PLC and Keith Chapman.)

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