Month: January 2025

Is to create an emergency.

Yelling there is a fire when there isn’t can get you in trouble. For good reason.

Yet, it doesn’t stop us from posting or sharing the metaphorical fire.

Urgent matters that need to be addressed are not the same as emergencies. Too often, we conflate the two, whether to fulfill some kind of need we have or to gather the attention we think this deserves.

In a vacuum, it could work. But in the digital world, where noise is loud, you won’t get the attention you seek.

Creating the next emergency is a sign of uneasiness.

Feelings are so powerful that they can be misconstrued as facts.

Facts are not enough to tell a story. Citing a number isn’t enough to get us off the couch and moving.

Feelings do. Figuring out how to convey the feeling behind these facts is a good place to start making a change.

Throwing away a bad strawberry out of a bowl of fruit makes it more delightful.

Cutting a dead limb off a tree allows it to thrive.

Trading away a player with a bad attitude allows everyone else to take a breath.

Everyone understands the concept. But it is much more difficult to see it as an option. Because with a fixed mindset, the default setting is to hold on tight to what we have.

Sometimes, “the math ain’t mathing.”

We need AI to replace the tasks humans don’t want to do.

Email. TPS reports.

In hopes of giving us more discretionary time.

To do what?

To make art.

We don’t need AI to replace our art. We need AI to replace the tasks that are the opposite of art.

Truth is hard. That is why we don’t often seek it out. We run and hide from it. We walk away offended. And we accrue intellectual debt with every lie we tell ourselves or those around us. Like any debt, it gains interest. Until one day, the debt becomes so crushing that you can’t repay it.

Some people are better in peacetime, and others are better during war.

When things go wrong, that is the time for the wartime consigliere to step up.

The problem is that there isn’t always a war to fight. And we are trying to stay at peace as long as we can.

The trap is when a wartime consigliere won’t stop looking for the next fight to pick.

Of course, talking about complex topics doesn’t mean you actually want to puke. But the feeling makes it difficult to talk about hot-button topics if we can’t control our natural response when we wholeheartedly disagree with something.

I get it. Even when we are in alignment, it is better to separate our emotions in controversy to better understand what is actually happening. This is not because your emotions don’t matter. It’s because, in this instance, they aren’t productive.

The question is, what do you want to signal every time something is brought up that doesn’t align with how you see the world?

And…

If you can’t stomach the conversation, how can you stay in the room to contribute to a resolution?

We need you. Not when things are easy but precisely when things are hard.

Good advice may be worth paying for, but most advice isn’t. (That’s why it is so abundant and free.) What we need isn’t more advice; what we need is action. Deep down, we know what it is we want to do. And the temptation is to find someone to help us do it. In the end, we must decide. If not, someone else will.

Its tempting to read it enough you might actually believe it. But the truth is, the sky isn’t falling.

The world is indeed a dangerous place. But it has gotten better. It still is a dangerous place with plenty of room for improvement.

Learning to connect one ski turn takes time.

Then you connect two or three, then four and five, and so on.

Until one day, you learned to ski. No one gave you a prize or a certification. And in that moment, it is so clear:

We are designed not to do things because of silly trinkets but because of the joy it brings to do something that’s hard.

It isn’t just with skiing, either. You can do this in every facet of your life.