If you want a flower, you have to plant it.
If you want to write a book, you’ve got to type it.
Something from nothing just doesn’t happen in nature.
There is no Tooth Fairy bringing a solution to all your problems.
If you want to bring anything great to pass, you have to put in the work first.
Sure, there are times we have to put up with things we find uncomfortable.
But hate?
Hate a job/boss/class…
If you hate it, change it.
Life is too sort to be doing something long term that consumes your soul.
There is no such thing as good work or bad work–just your best effort.
Because once we commit to a practice of creating something new frequently, eventually two things begin to happen:
There’s no promise with how many. There’s no promise when. There is no promise you will make a living with it or go viral.
But the good news is to change the world doesn’t require us to change the whole thing. Just one little part of it will suffice.
There is a story of an old farmer whose only horse he counted on to plow the fields ran away. That evening the neighbors gathered to commiserate with him and his wife. They said, “Your farm will suffer. You cannot plow. How will you survive? Surely this is a terrible thing to have happened to you.”
The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
The next day the horse returned but was accompanied by a mare. And the neighbors came to congratulate him for his good fortune. “What good news! Surely this has turned out to be a good thing for you.”
The farmer again replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
And then, the following day, the farmer’s son tried to saddle and ride the new wild horse. He was immediately thrown off and broke his leg. Because of his injury, he couldn’t work on the farm. The neighbors came to offer their sympathy again saying, “There is more work than only you can handle. Surely this is a terrible misfortune.”
The farmer repeated, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
The day after that, a conscription officer came to the village to seize young men for the army. Because of the son’s broken leg he wasn’t recruited. When the neighbors came again, they said, “How fortunate! Things have worked out after all. Most young men never return alive from the war. Surely this is the best of fortunes for you!”
The farmer replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
…
2020 has been an unfortunate year for many. Disproportionately effecting certain parts of the population over others. So many lost and so many disrupted.
And as bleak as things make look:
“Maybe yes, maybe no.”
Your push could be four years of college or it could look like 18-months to launch a business or even cramming for finals. These are finite projects with a beginning, a middle, and most importantly, an end.
By contrast, there are infinite games. Infinite games are different. You play the game to keep playing. This can look like a relationship with a spouse or kids. But it can also be a practice like veganism or writing.
You don’t stop until it’s impossible to keep going. That’s a commitment.
Commitments also help us find the edges. And we don’t know the boundaries we can push until we decide to step over.
There are many definitions of resiliency. But my favorite way to describe it is to tell a better story about adversity.
The way to do this is to move from reacting to responding to the trials we face.
When we can make a conscience choice and not simply proceed without any thought from emergency or urgency to the next, we open the door of possibility.
We don’t know what comes next but we can choose what cards to play.
2020 was a tough year and it’s safe to assume that almost everyone is grateful this year is over.
It’s 2021, it’s time to reclaim your agency. To take the adversity of 2020 and tell a better story about possibilities ahead.
Choose to act–no matter what comes next.
Before The Lord of the Rings was a movie, it was words on a page. Words on a page leave you to imagine the worlds Tolkien wrote.
There’s a reason why books turn into movies and movies are not turned into books. Because once we see Elijah Wood play Frodo we have a hard time imagining anyone else, effectively squashing our imagination in the process.
And it isn’t just with books or movies either. When we take away people’s crayons we are taking away their ability to make art. It’s easy to give that responsibility away. Much harder to do the work of imagining what we can’t see.
It’s worth noting here, most people that read the book, hate the movie. That’s because what they imagined was way better than what they saw.
Imagination has no boundaries.
I didn’t choose which language to learn when I was a baby.
I was taught what I was taught.
That is what the expectations of the culture were.
“People like us do stuff like this.”
Even without choice we are still surrounded by expectations.
Invisible rules each of us follow to thrive as a collective.
Bending these norms unlocks the future we strive to build.
A six-year-old pushes buttons on a laptop out of curiosity.
They are not sure what will happen next. But they’ve seen it can work even if they are not sure how.
So, without formal training how do kids learn to use a computer?
Because they are not afraid of making mistakes. And if you’re not afraid what others may think you can act differently, perform boldly and ask questions.
Imagine doing your best work at school or work without being worried what the teacher/boss might say?
So different from the work environment we are used to working in.
Rohan Rajiv made a great point the other day about the story of Moderna.
“Two days after the COVID-19 genetic sequence was released on January 11th, the Moderna vaccine was ready. By the time the first American death from COVID-19 was announced, the vaccine was already manufactured and shipped for its Phase I trial. That vaccine was approved by the FDA today (December 19th). It is a giant leap forward for the Moderna team and for the many scientists and technologists who’ve been championing the potential of biotechnology for over a decade. The future is here.”
Until now, the fastest vaccine ever developed was the Mumps vaccine in four years. The COVID-19 vaccine is already being distributed as this posts and it took a fraction of the time. This pandemic is obviously not over but for many we can imagine a light at the end of the tunnel.
As we close the book to 2020, I just want to thank all of the impresarios making history. Their example has showed us:
When we want to work together, we can solve problems.
I choose to believe (and there is plenty of data to support this) that the future is filled with abundance and the arc bends towards justice. As we look ahead, this won’t be last pandemic we face nor is this the end of a whole slew of challenges that we must face (income inequality, civil injustice, climate change, dark patterns of the internet). And yet…
As time progresses, we also become more efficient at solving problems.
