Month: September 2019

It’s hard to enjoy a movie when you’re busy checking your email.

Difficult to focus on what your spouse is saying when you’re checking Facebook messages.

It turns out that we are terrible doing two things at the same time.

That when we are at work and thinking about our family or at home thinking about work, we are not very effective at doing either.

The simple answer then is to just be present where you are. When you’re at work, be at work. At home, be at home.

We can’t half do things. Choose to be all in or all out.

There is no correlation that spending more time on something makes us more productive.

We don’t have time to do things, but somehow, we find a way to do it twice. Think about it.

The problem with a full closet isn’t that you need a bigger closet.

No, the problem is the amount of time it takes to sort out your clothes.

And to do the laundry.

And the time it takes to try different outfits on.

And the mental and emotional energy to pick.

It weighs heavy on the mind to have to make these types of decisions every day.

The more decisions you make the quality of decision making goes down.

Because you don’t have unlimited capacity to make decisions.

Of course, we are still not talking about clothes and closets.

Bills, spam, text messages, pings, notifications, what to watch on Netflix…all of it takes a toll.

Why do you Steve Jobs only chose one outfit to wear?

It’s worth noting: All interruptions are urgent. But urgent isn’t always important.

It’s easy to run a cost/benefit analysis in terms of dollars and cents.

Or by time, energy and effort…

But what about basing your decisions by a therapeutic one.

Not how long this will take or what do I get out of this.

No, by weighing in how much this decision will help someone grow.

Despite how long it will take. Despite how much it will cost.

It’s a choice: How much do you care and to matter to someone?

When there’s credit to go around, it is easy to pick yourself. Much harder, however, when there is blame going around.

Which is why we hesitate.

What if I get in trouble for something they did/didn’t do?

Being in charge isn’t about a title or badge or a paycheck but about accepting the responsibility of others.

Unfortunately, too many of us will happily give it away.

Decide then to take charge. Because…

Most of the time, you will be right to assume so.

It’s worth noting, the person who was in charge of inventing a ship also invented the shipwreck.

Most of us don’t actually know what it is we actually want.

So, we begin to look around and rely on others to tell us what it is we are supposed to want.

Status, artifacts, symbols…

Over time, we accumulate some of this stuff but learn that isn’t what makes us happy.

And because we still don’t know what we want, we haven’t committed to anything that will create the conditions that we say we want—to make our promises and commitments become a reality.

If you were to make a list of things that actually make you happy. You’ll find that the majority is spent with other people doing remarkable things and solving interesting problems.

You don’t need money to be happy.

Ready?

You’re never ready to graduate high school and step into the adult world.

You’re never ready to hold your child for the first time.

You’re never ready to say Yes.

But prepared?

You can always be prepared for when the tension comes. The tension of this might not work, but I will give it a try.

If you are waiting for conditions to be just right before you step into the unknown, you are going to be waiting for a long time.

If you are waiting for permission, it’s your turn.

If you are waiting to be in the mood, then you are hiding.

Go.

Do.

Do!

In 1974, Phillippe Petit stunned the world by high wiring between the two World Trade Center towers.

Last year, Alex Honnold became the first person to ever free solo El Cap.

Here’s the thing:

Every future acrobat and climber is being raised in a world where high wiring the World Trade Centers or free soloing El Cap is possible.

We no longer wonder if it can be done. Rather, we ask, “How did you do that?”

That’s how impossible is enabled.

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” — Upton Sinclair

Bingo.

When you create systems that focus on short-term gains, you ignore long-term prosperity.

Worse, the more intellectual debt you collect, the more bureaucratic things become, the more interchangeable the system gets, when entities grow too big to fail; we pretend we are no longer accountable for the actions of others.

Besides, if we just leave, someone else will just be plugged in to do it anyway. “I might as well get mine while I can.”

Indeed, the marshmallow is a real temptation. Whether we are talking about eating the forbidden fruit or today’s problem of climate change:

We don’t live forever. As a result, it isn’t natural to act in the self-interest of others. 

The point isn’t to become self-reliant so that you never have adversity again.

There is little doubt that with the right combination of resources, environment and grit, you can accomplish just about anything in our post-industrial world.

Want to make a million dollars? You can.

Want to have a million Twitter followers? You can.

But, here’s the question:

What are you doing to matter?

If you get to choose, might as well choose to matter.

Comfort and convenience aren’t the same as important.

I want to…

Have a house in the Hamptons.

Find a job where I am my own boss.

Retire.

And on, and on, and on…

Here’s the question though: To do what?

What are you seeking to make?

What are you seeking to do?

Because we already have more comforts than any generation in human history. Convenience has never been more prevalent. Thanks to the internet, you don’t need permission to create. To just start.

The point, the opportunity of our time, right now, is to connect, to be generous, to make things better by making better things. Not to have enough that you never have to work again.