Embracing change...

Tying all my experience together is the lesson that you can never quit. Sometimes you need to pivot, or let go of an idea you were once certain of, but that makes you a thinker, not a quitter. One door always opens the next. Walk through those doors, but never stop moving.

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Reducing Email Overload

Last month, 18% of my non-spam email turned out to be non-essential. Most of it was social lubricant, the "thank you's", "I'll get back to you's," etc. When my inbox goes below the fold (where it lives most days), it comes at a cognitive cost. To reduce the bloat I put a footer in my email for the month of June that said:

June Experiment // Need Your Help

To reduce the number of daily emails and help me stay focused bringing BetterBack to life, please respond to this email only if you have a Very Important Email to send my way. I’ll trust your judgment. Every email I don’t receive this month will help me be and do my best, so huge thank you!

It was a success! Expanding the experiment to the whole summer now...

Fear = Excitement

When we push beyond our comfort zones, our bodies scream and shout "FEAR!" after us. We become hyper alert, our hearts beat faster, our minds race. But we know that on the other side of fear lives growth and life lessons and a better understanding of ourselves, not a tiger jumping out of a bush like our ancestors faced. So, what if you re-framed your body's calling? Instead of feeling fear, what if you recognized those physiological effects as excitement? As your body building courage? You are so much stronger than even you know. And the only way to find out is by flying in the face of fear and landing on the other side. 

Fear = excitement. 

Self-Experiment: March

What Eat every meal with your opposite hand. If you're a rightie, pass that fork to the left and swap that knife to the right. Go slowly and bring awareness to how different it feels to eat.

Why Nothing scares me more than living life by default. While I think it's miraculous how our bodies automate as much as they can, over time it leads us to accept activities, jobs and relationships by default, rather than by choosing them on purpose. We have to forcefully shake up our patterns; even doing one small thing, like eating with your left, can act as a trigger to re-examine other patterns in your life. 

Bonus It can bring a lot of laughter to a table. Especially with sushi. 

Building teams...

1. You are always competing with yourself, but the people around you will hold you back or compel you to greatness.

2. A team working together can be 10x its individual parts.

3. One person's attitude can spoil the lot. Get rid of a bad seed as fast as possible.

4. Gossiping is the fastest road to performance breakdown.

5. Having a common enemy is a powerful motivator.

6. People like to be led, and given the power to lead.

7. We all have something to teach, and something to learn. Keep your mind and your heart open to feedback and lessons.

8. Never stop reaching for the next level. When you take pleasure in the journey, an accomplishment simply starts you on the next chapter.

Self-Experiment: January

What  Apply the motto "with ease...." to everything in your life -- from the way you type on a keyboard, to driving in traffic, to the way you handle a hard situation.

Why Flow is nuanced at its core, its foundation is fluidity. Like many Type A's, I'm great at applying force. I've worn the all-nighter like a badge of pride, I've said YES to too many things to possibly fit into a day, somehow getting it mostly done. But it catches up to you. There is a time for force, but the way to maximize long-term energy and impact is to find fluidity, to get into flow. So "with ease..."

 

Meditation 23

“Do not love half lovers
Do not entertain half friends
Do not indulge in works of the half talented
Do not live half a life
and do not die a half death
If you choose silence, then be silent
When you speak, do so until you are finished
Do not silence yourself to say something
And do not speak to be silent
If you accept, then express it bluntly
Do not mask it
If you refuse then be clear about it
for an ambiguous refusal is but a weak acceptance
Do not accept half a solution
Do not believe half truths
Do not dream half a dream
Do not fantasize about half hopes
Half a drink will not quench your thirst
Half a meal will not satiate your hunger
Half the way will get you no where
Half an idea will bear you no results
Your other half is not the one you love
It is you in another time yet in the same space
It is you when you are not
Half a life is a life you didn't live, 
A word you have not said
A smile you postponed
A love you have not had
A friendship you did not know
To reach and not arrive
Work and not work
Attend only to be absent
What makes you a stranger to them closest to you
and they strangers to you
The half is a mere moment of inability
but you are able for you are not half a being
You are a whole that exists to live a life
not half a life”


― Kahlil Gibran

Make space....

The rules that society sets, the systems our schools teach us, and the stability of life and character that our loved ones demand don’t encourage the self-exploration required to truly understand who we are and our purpose. Instead,they keep us busy, giving us little time to think and dream for ourselves. Stop and make space...

Hold out for great...

"Good" is the greatest threat to our lives. Hold out for great. 

It's easy to pass on so-so but just about all of us settle for good from time to time. Good to great is the difference between hitting a drive just 2cm off: it doesn't feel like much of a difference at the start, but you end up on the fairway or in the slowest of sands.