How AI Went From Being My Adversary To My Ally
Note: I received no help from AI in writing this blog. I didn’t want you to wonder…
I’m afraid of change. I’ll be the first to admit it. It’s been a speed bump for me in every area of my life. Relationships, work, my health. Pick something. It wasn’t until 2000 when my friend David Buck handed me a copy of Who Moved My Cheese? that I finally realized how my resistance to change, and to a larger degree, unwillingness to explore the unknown, was limiting my business success and personal happiness.
Since then I have been a messy, yet improving, work in progress. From the uncertainty of investing a ton of time in writing books to shifting away (and back) to my work as a keynote speaker, I am no longer afraid to take risks in the hopes of getting something better.
That’s why when my Juggling Elephants co author and dear friend Todd Musig introduced me to AI, I was surprised at my unwillingness to embrace it. I dabbled with it but didn’t use it like I do today. My resistance was based on three perceptions:
1. It’s hard to learn.
2. I don’t know if I will like what it does.
3. It won’t be my work.
Looking back, I now realize there was a bigger issue for me. I wasn’t thinking about how I could use it to accelerate the accomplishment of my goals. To a larger degree, I wasn’t clear on those goals.
“Utilize AI as a compass, directing your focus towards your goals amidst the vast sea of distractions.”
There is a moment in the story of Who Moved My Cheese? where one of the characters is lamenting the loss of “old cheese” while another character says, “It’s time to find some ‘new cheese.’” My dilemma was that I hadn’t defined what my “new cheese” was. A breakthrough moment came when I identified that some of my current priorities were:
Less time trying to come up with creative ideas and more time expressing those ideas with my voice in social media posts, blogs, and books
To accelerate my ability to learn about new things (Learner is my #1 strength for Strength Finder)
To find new ways to help my network, subscribers, and friends reduce their work and life overload
Since then I have had the most productive and illuminating journey using AI tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Jasper.
How do I use AI you ask? Here is just some of what AI can do for you:
Writing Partner
When I’m writing and want to improve how I’m describing something, I’ll ask AI to give me three suggestions. Or when I’ve written something that doesn’t resonate with me, I’ll copy/paste it into AI and have it improve the copy.
Initial Idea Generator
I sometimes have a client that will want some portion of my presentation to be on a topic that isn’t one of my primary areas of focus. I will ask AI to create an outline for the content based on my style of presenting and the outcomes for the presentation. I not use any of the information it gives me (which is rare), but it jump starts my own creative thinking. Last week I was asked to give a one-hour presentation on professionalism to a group of local high school students. I typed the following prompt into AI:
You are a leadership instructor. You are working with high school students. You have been asked to create a fun and interactive one hour session on the topic of professionalism. I want to be relevant to how they show professionalism in their school and community, not just work. Write the outline, including steps for any activities.
It took AI about 30 seconds (an eternity!) to create the outline. I spent five minutes reviewing it, made a few adjustments, gathered the materials for the activities (10 minutes) and I was ready to go. Student response was fantastic.
Build Stronger Connections With Others
Let’s face it. We love it when people have taken the time to learn more about us or the place we live. I can use LinkedIn or someone’s social media to see where they live, went to college, etc. I like to use AI to give me a fun fact related to that information. For example, I had a podcast with someone who was residing in Guildford England. Before talking with them I asked AI about fun things to do in Guildford England. When I mentioned “Newlands Corner” to them on the call, they thought I must have lived there to know about such detail. I did tell them I used AI, by the way, which led to more interesting conversation-and connection.
Book Recommendations
People are always suggesting books I should read. Asking AI for a summary of the book helps me to make a more informed, objective decision.
Simplify Difficult Concepts
One of my favorite prompts is, “Explain ________________________ to a five-year-old.” I always get something that gives me a higher level of understanding.
Seeing The Bigger Picture On An Issue
I sometimes ask AI to “Give me the different perspectives on _______________________.” While I agree there is bias in the results, I will wager that there is less bias in it than most of the articles I might read about the topic on the Internet.
As A Resource For Others
I have friends and coaching clients who frequently talk about the mental fatigue from developing ideas, writing proposals, etc. It’s been so rewarding to teach them more about AI and how it can help them use their mental resources for more important things.
Fun
I recently had one of my daughters achieve a win at work. I used AI to write a congratulatory (and goofy) poem about it. I might ask about unique things to do in an area where I will be traveling to.
I’m just beginning to use the text to image tools, but the results I have achieved have been better than expected. Check out this image I asked AI to draw of someone feeling overwhelmed at work because they were surrounded by elephants (and yes I know the left hand looks like that of an alien).
Hopefully I have made the case that AI needs to be a bigger part of your work or life. If so, I have three suggestions that will help you overcome your fears of using this amazing smart-tech. They are:
Choose an AI platform. There are a ton of them available. ChatGPT is still my primary choice. The free version is perfect for most people.
Click this link for a free mini course on AI offered by Vanessa Van Edwards on LinkedIn. It is the best 48 minutes you will spend this week. And download the free resources.
Invest time in it like you would any tool. I appreciate Ethan Mollick’s advice on learning AI. In his book, Co-Intelligence, Living and Working with AI, he writes, “The cost of getting to know AI is three sleepless nights.”
Three sleepless nights. That equates to about 21-24 hours. The beauty is that you will be getting helpful information and insights in that learning period. And I will guarantee you AI can help you recover the time invested more quickly than you will ever imagine.
What’s stopping you… besides your fear of change?
