Month: September 2019

How big of a paycheck?

How much status?

Perhaps, you are not missing anything.

The question isn’t how much more do you need.

No, the question is, when are you going to stop making excuses and begin?

At the turn of the 20th century, we had invented so many productive machines that many speculated that someday their grandchildren (i.e. us) may never have to work again.

Instead, we have become less productive while spending more hours at work.

Worse, because we live in a plugged-in world, everyone, especially Millennials, is expected to be available 24/7.

Here’s the thing, there is zero research that supports that spending more time on something makes you more productive.

The problem is when we don’t disconnect there is a subconscious level of stress that hangs on a person’s soul.

“What if there is an emergency and they need me?”

Urgent isn’t the same as important.

We are not performing our best at work when we are thinking about home (or the weekend). And we are shortchanging our loved ones when we occupy our minds with work.

We can significantly reduce cognitive load by doing one thing at a time. Better yet, by choosing to do less.

The Fortnite World Cup went to a 16-year-old American.

The prize?

3 million dollars.

Someone has to win.

The thing is, someone has to win the lottery too. But if you are banking on the cosmic odds to play in your favor, you should find a different game to play.

Winning the lottery isn’t about putting in more time and more effort for a better outcome.

It’s a trap.

A trap made to seduce people into thinking that this will open a door someday to do the important work you have to do.

The odds are against you to play video games for a living or to win the lottery. It’s a race to the bottom. One that you can’t win.

Let’s not confuse leisure with the stuff that is worth paying a price for.

You have important work you must do right here and right now.

It turns out doing something important every day is sufficient to make change happen.

Publishing a blog post.

Displaying a picture.

Posting a podcast.

When stacked on top of each over a long length of time, you are now being diligent.

But diligence isn’t a story of steady work.

It is a story of sufficiency.

Showing up day in and day out changes things.

Not all at once, of course.

Only over time.

When Amanda Palmer was on the Dresden Dolls, her record label dropped her because she only had 20,000 fans that followed her work.

In their eyes, it wasn’t enough.

So she went to Kickstarter and asked her fans to help fund her next record.

That campaign became the most successful music Kickstarter in history.

The amazing thing was that it was funded by 20,000 fans.

We don’t need millions upon millions to make the change we seek to make.

1,000 is sufficient.

It turns out you are neither always one or the other.

Context matters.

You can be optimistic that your football team is going to win but pessimistic about healthcare reform.

What makes someone optimistic then?

Optimistic people believe in more possibilities. They believe the world can be a better place and that people are doing the best they can.

It’s hard to stay optimistic all the time (and to be pessimistic too). Much like the moon, you are either waxing or waning.

Have you ever been so mad that you wanted to quit your job on the spot or wanted to tell your child exactly what’s on your mind?

We all have.

Here is a good rule of thumb to follow: Wait 48 hours before you say anything.

Why 48 hours? Because you will feel different then from how you feel right now.

Sure, it’s possible to feel frustrated after 48 hours but this gives you the appropriate amount of time to move from reacting to responding to a situation.

The thing is, the person you are going to war against is probably not ready to hear from you either.

Don’t underestimate the importance of a cooling-off period.

I’m convinced the world and the people within it are not conspiring maliciously for your demise but rather it is incompetence and fear that gets in the way of so much of what we seek to change.

When we can shed the narrative of, “they’re wrong” a bunch of things can begin to open up.

Quentin Tarantino, one of the most important writers and directors of this generation, didn’t learn how to make movies at school. He was never taught how to properly make a film. In fact, he was a video store clerk and taught himself by just watching a lot of films.

One technique that Tarantino is famous for is pastiche. Pastiche is when an artist imitates and celebrates another artist from a previous generation.

Except with Tarantino, he openly admits that he is stealing ideas or scenes from every film he has ever watched.

Tarantino understands an important lesson about creating. That is:

All great artists steal from other artists. 

You will never come up with an original idea. Ever. At this point, it has all been done before. Anything you can think of has had a movie or a song or a blog written about it.

Instead, you can honor previous work by mixing and mashing ideas together while putting your own twist on how you see them.

That is what something original looks like now. You improve not create out of thin air.

And if you were at the right place, at the right time, with the right combination of assets and even the right foresight, you might be reaping the rewards of acquiring an asset that has gone up in value in terms of dollars of cents.

However…

You haven’t done anything important.

Having wealth is not the same as doing something that matters.

It’s easy to fool yourself into thinking that your net worth increasing each month means you are contributing to something great.

Because of the story we tell.

But when you put it in your pocket along with other coins then it becomes pocket change.

The story you tell about things and people changes how we treat them.