It’s when opportunity meets preparation.
Luck had nothing to do with it making a breakthrough.
It’s just the narrative, the story we tell, in order to preserve ourselves.
Because most of us are not willing to fail at it for a long time before we make it.
Social media.
It’s a trap for comparing yourself to others.
“Why can’t I be happy like them?”
“What’s wrong with me?”
To make matters worse, we measure it with thumbs ups and emojis.
It’s already innate in all of us to not ever feel quite good enough. Social media amplifies these feelings.
It’s not healthy to always feel the urgency to catch up.
Self-improvement is not about making up for lost time.
That’s how burn out occurs.
Instead, we should focus on the day-to-day.
The results of working many days leads to days with many results.
It’s about the direction you are going, not where you came from.
It’s best to develop productive habits early but it’s never to late to start.
No one cares about the foundation.
Why?
Because we can’t see it.
We just see the beautiful house that sits on top, not the countless hours of work that went in below.
The work is intense, making it tempting to looks for quick, easy to use, short-cuts to skip the groundwork.
Except when things fall apart, everyone will blame the foundation.
But when done right, it can do anything that it was designed to do.
Maybe when things are not working, it’s important to ask,
Is this a foundation issue or cosmetic?
The idea of a sprint is to move as fast as you can in a limited amount of time.
Of course, you can’t sprint forever, so you must choose a beginning with an intention to end in the near future.
Once we make a conscious decision to switch from a marathon to a sprint, our tactics change.
No longer are we stopping and re-assessing each situation. We go. Fast. If we stumble, we get back up and keep moving.
How long should a sprint be?
I’ve found that “in a day” is good length to have a productive sprint.
Anymore and the productivity starts plummeting.
What could you do in a day?
It’s not a bad mantra.
Good stories tell themselves.
No need to qualify or change them to fit the narrative of those around you.
When we water it down to appeal to the masses, we end up helping no one.
Speak your truth.
And let what sticks stick.
But maybe yours is set so high that no one could ever pay.
Because, your movement is far too important, far too pure to be sold for magical digits and bits on a screen.
When you can make that choice, you’re no longer operating under the same rules as everyone else.
And that frees you to do the things the rest of us can’t do.
Thank you Banksy for reminding us that it isn’t about money.
Sometimes it’s worth destroying what you love in order to protect what is important.
Going, going, gone…
It’s not forever.
The world record is held by a German free diver, Tom Sietas, who held his breath underwater for 22 minutes and 22 seconds.
That’s an incredibly long time. And yet, everyone, must stop and take a breath.
The same can be said about working a dead-end job. You know, the one you have not the one you deserve.
How long do you go without feeling appreciated?
How long before you realize you did exactly what you did yesterday only faster and cheaper?
How long are you going to be a cog in a machine?
How long can you hold your breath doing this type of work?
If one person is high jacking the conversation by refusing to stop talking, you’re having a lecture not a discussion.
If someone must lose in order for you to win, you’re having an argument.
Discussions fall right in the middle of these two engagements.
The best discussions, however, end with the chance of someone changing their mind.
Something to think about: Has anyone ever changed their mind after an argument or a lecture?
To avoid an argument or a lecture, maybe we should be clear what kind of dialogue we are about to have:
If no one is willing to move then there is no way we are going to have a discussion right now.
From the outside: You can change your circumstance.
Or
From the inside: You can change how you view your circumstances.
Difficult to change what happens to us since we live a life that is so fragile and unpredictable.
But there is always a choice how we view or perceive what happens to us.
