Josh Allred's Blog

Errors don’t lead to as much harm when discovered quickly.

Routine maintenance, pulling of the weeds, whatever it is you want to call it; should be done everyday.

There are days you don’t feel like doing the work. But those are the days that divide the amateurs from the professionals.

Professionals don’t stop working on getting better just because they don’t feel like it.

They fall down, then get back up. They say, “I will try again tomorrow.” Their work is criticized but they know it’s not for them.

Not everyone is going to embrace this.

But anyone that spends one hour a day watching television has just demonstrated that they can spend an hour of their time making something that needs to be made, helping someone who needs to be help, making better art.

Guilt is the souls call to change.

But change isn’t easy nor prudent.

The trick is to see beyond what you can see.

Maybe right now, that is just taking the first step into the unknown.

Be assured the light will follow.

The paradox of good judgement: Good judgment comes from experience. But experience comes from bad judgement.

It’s good to learn from our mistakes but it’s even better to learn from others.

Alas, to err is human.

With enough social pressure, we can talk ourselves into believing that we are exempt from the consequences of our actions.

That’s why we see people get behind the wheel after too many drinks.

That’s why we see people playing the Powerball.

The only way we can reduce our mistakes is to admit that we are making them. Only then does the door to change and possibility open up for us.

It’s easy to look back and see when we overreacted: Hindsight is always superior to foresight.

But at the time, it’s difficult to understand what’s real and what’s fake.

We end up making current decisions based on previous experiences. Too often, our perceptions are incorrect. We really don’t know what’s actually happening. And too often, we simplify something that requires a complex solution.

It turns out, social media is a great place for people to hide. Deep down you will discover that most people you talk to that are afraid or angry or stuck, you will find fear at the center. In addition, everyone has a platform and a microphone to amplify their message of fear. (This is what most news outlets sell.)

And because we are afraid, it easy to hide behind computer screen. It’s easy not to put your name on something. But that isn’t connection. That isn’t going to make the fear go away. (When was the last time a Tweet actually changed us and made us a better person?)

All of this causes us to be distracted by the things that matter most because we bite the hook.

We have a choice though. We can choose to delay.

We don’t have to agree with people trying to get under our skin. We don’t have to teach everyone a lesson online for being wrong. But the delay helps us move from a place of anger, resentment to a place of clarity. It moves us from reacting to a situation to responding.

If we can delay—and not engage with people who are not ready to listen—it opens up a door. A door to initiate and do something that matters for those ready for a connection.

The bottom line is people will say a lot things to get your attention. Don’t let the trolls and the critics have that much power over you. Attention doesn’t necessarily lead to trust.

[My advice: It’s very hard to take back something once it has been posted online. But if we can choose to delay, most of the time we look back and are glad we didn’t write something out of anger. We’re glad we didn’t write something out of resentment. Slowly, we can turn the conversation to a more productive one. One that is away from each other to the actual problem that needs to be solved.]

Three centuries ago, it was a fact that the world was flat and that the universe revolved around us.

A 150 years ago, no one knew that washing your hands significantly reduced the spread infection.

50 years ago, doctors were prescribing cigarettes to clear a patience’s cough.

It turns out, people are wrong. All the time. We are not as good as we think we are at knowing what’s real and what’s fake.

Here’s the thing: We cannot fix problems unless people admit they exist.

It’s easy for people to blame themselves or to point the finger at others for incorrect perceptions of how the world really is. But human error isn’t the root cause of the problems we face today. No, if you look hard enough and deep enough, you will find the true cause is a system that allows these type of problems to keep re-occurring.

(History loves to repeat itself.)

When we blame people though, it makes it difficult to convince governments, organizations, corporations to restructure and eliminate these problems. It makes it even more difficult to build a culture we can be proud of.

The good news is with more time and more knowledge, history has shown that people want to move from disorganization to a place of clarity. But it doesn’t happen without first destroying the perfect and enabling the impossible.

The amount of knowledge and information and the level of access is un-paramount then any generation before us. It’s right there at our fingertips to do something remarkable.

We just need to dig deeper: Moving the blame away from each other and focusing on solving the actual cause of the challenges we face today.

The difference between questioning and doubting is action.

It’s okay to question something. You should ask questions. And yeah, there may be some apprehension before we decide to act (especially if you are doing something for the first time).

But doubt, on the other hand, is an inability to act. At its root, you’ll discover its fear.

Doubt your doubts before you ever doubt your faith.

[“My favourite word? It’s act.” – Ai Weiwei]

Your first shot is not your last shot.

Change does not happen overnight.

The kind of change that last is slow and incremental.

Drip by drip. Step by step. Here a little. There a little.

At the center of anyone that is angry or stuck is fear.

Instead of spending our time trying to make the fear go away, learn to dance with the fear.

Sometimes courage is the still quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.”

The person that fails the most will win.

We have more access to more information than anyone ever before in the history of the world. For the first time ever, we have tools to connect 3 billion people in one network.

Ok Google: What are the top Google Searches of 2016?

1. Powerball
2. Prince
3. Hurricane Matthew
4. Pokémon Go
5. Slither.io
6. Olympics
7. David Bowie
8. Trump
9. Election
10. Hillary Clinton

By the way, the chance of winning the Powerball is 1 and 292 million. (Of course, I had to Google it.) So why are we spending so much time obsessing over something that will clearly never happen?

Because there is always a chance.

Unfortunately, we are wasting it on things that are distracting us from solving interesting problems.

It’s becoming clear that the key to learning is not about finding answers but to ask the right questions.

We are all designed to connect.

Life is best when shared.

Here is how I can prove it to you: Anytime anyone experiences joy, the first thing they want to do is share it.

Because it’s too good not to.

It’s happiness when shared.

The future is bright.

It’s bright because every day we move closer to more dignity, equality and opportunity for those who have never had it.

It’s bright because every day we take a step towards greater clarity and respect.

We cannot agree on every controversial issue or piece of legislation. But we can hold each other to the highest standards. We don’t have to see each other as we are but as we become.

We can disagree. But let us not be disagreeable. Each of us has infinite potential and infinite worth.