Meetings, phone calls, Tweets can feel productive but what are we really accomplishing?
Anything that is keeping us from doing the work that we are most afraid of doing is a distraction.
Slogging through emails to get to inbox zero can feel productive, but really, this is another form of hiding.
Draw a circle and put a dot in the center of it.
Unfortunately, too many of us think this is how the world works–it revolves around “me”.
That is our hubris.
Until we learn to lose ourselves in the service of others, I’m not sure we are going to find whatever it is we are looking for in this life.
Stuck on a question that can’t be answered or a problem that can’t be solved?
Once you have looked at it from all angles, tested, measured, sometimes it is best to put it on the shelf.
Not in a spot where you will never find it again, where it can be ignored. But on a figurative shelf. Somewhere tucked away safe in our brains that you can go back to and check on occasionally.
Overtime, you will be surprised to discover that eventually the answers sort of pop up out of nowhere.
Have faith–the substance of things hoped for but not seen–that the missing piece of the puzzle you seek will be revealed in due time.
Knowledge is the facts and information we acquire through our experiences. We expand our knowledge by reading books, vigorously testing and measuring, drawing reasonable conclusions from axioms and through mindfulness, intentional day-to-day living.
Truth, on the other hand, is completely different. Truth is universal. It is the same yesterday, today and forever. They are the laws of the universe that can’t be changed.
What is interesting is even with more knowledge available than all the Great Libraries of the World combined right at our fingertips, we live in a culture of picking our own truth.
The two-headed monster of cable news has conditioned us go from one news cycle to the next, social media drives us to check incessantly whether the world has broken, all the while toying with our lizard brain.
Knowledge and truth are not the same things. Knowledge is what we obtain to better understand the world in our pursuit of finding truth. Knowledge is what opens the door to discovering truth.
Did you? Really?
Sure, we worked. No life is easy. But hard?
When what the last time we were down in the salt mines sweating for 15 hours a day with no lunch breaks? When was the last time we went to bed hungry? How far did we have to travel to find clean water today?
It is more likely that we took advantage of the opportunities we were given. We can’t confuse our industrial world as “hard” over the real struggle for survival that too many face every day.
It is important, essential to remember: That we were born in the greatest, safest periods in human history and enjoy the fruits of the sacrifices others made before us. We enjoy many comforts that the rest of the world is still yearning to have.
What is essential going forward isn’t resting on what we did to achieve our current status but what have we done to help others along the way in this short journey.
There are lots of people that work hard and don’t ever make it. What right do we have? What did we do to deserve this?
When there is nothing to lose, you have nothing to lose.
Yet, the older we get, the more accustomed to certain lifestyles we become, it is easy to tighten the hold we have on our artifacts (house, cars, TV’s) we possess.
Loss aversion, endowment effect kicks in, debt becomes ubiquitous, more and more we feel trapped. The lizard brain says, “Don’t be stupid!”
No one wants to risk starting over. But is starting over the worst thing that can happen?
It’s a shame that the system has worked overtime to put a glass ceiling on our potential.
Taking chances feels more risky the older we get but the greatest risk is doing the same things we did yesterday today in a fast, changing world.
Recognizing the false limits we put on ourselves and having the courage to break through is one of the greatest contributions we can make in a culture that tries to dumb down the masses.
You may not feel comfortable standing out of a crowd and leading, but it is the opportunity you have been given.
How many of us are still sticking with our New Year’s resolutions?
How many of us are fighting through the dip?
How many of us are keeping our promises?
If you have fallen short, what are you going to do now?
One month down, eleven more to go.
Hurry.
So what?
Authority is an illusion.
You don’t need a bigger badge to care.
If it is going to help someone take a giant leap or do something they never thought they could do, then why not?
One great misconception about authority: We think that more authority means more control, that you can make more decisions. In reality, most people in positions of authority spend their time making decisions that are popular rather than important.
[That SOP that doesn’t make any sense to anyone in the office, why are you still doing it? Did someone create this procedure to make things better or to keep the boss happy?]
It is wrongly called entitlement, cupidity and materialism. We often clothe it in the equal distribution of resources. But really, fairness is about receiving a turn. An opportunity to have a seat at the table, a chance to show our best work.
One of the greatest economic experiments over the last century is the industrial economy. It created an unprecedented increase in the standard of living for the masses.
Except, since the 1960’s, we have seen the middle class fading. The rich are getting richer while the poor remain the same. Yesterday’s middle class wage doesn’t buy the same life today.
The eight richest people in the world (all men) have as much money as the poorest half of the world. The richest one percent captured 82 percent of wealth created last year while poorest half of the world got nothing.
What does this mean? What does this money buy?
Our souls.
Riddled in debt, this rising generation is looking for answers to be free of this trap. The choice: Take a higher paying job that doesn’t align with your values to live a better standard of living or scrape by doing what you love.
This changes things. The game, the promise that was set before us doesn’t work anymore. But once you see the system is fixed, collectively we can work together to fix it.
(Subsequently, I think this is why Millennials are hoping the Crypto market will work more than anything–a chance to start over.)
It’s easy to charge the credit card, rather than wait to make a purchase with cash. It’s easy to binge watch another show on Netflix. It’s easy to play on our phones, tablets, computers to surf the web and to lose ourselves in click bait. It’s easy to incessantly check our social media feeds.
Of course, it’s easy–that’s why everyone does it.
What’s difficult is to be the one who cares more or to help someone who needs to be helped. What’s difficult is to make something that needs to be made and to ship your work in the world. What’s difficult is committing to a practice like blogging every day or going to the gym.
Habits are not accidental. If you are not intentional, habits will form themselves.
What important work was put off today because you were too busy checking your email?
