I missed a day (or time)

It’s strange that when I have a heavy week of work or obligations, I can nail every blog post right on time. Don’t miss a day.

But then I have a complete routine, even a boring, day. That’s when I miss my upload time for this blog post.

The funny thing about habits is they’re always sliding toward the lazy way, the way that has you doing no work at all, and the hedonistic way, instead of the self-discipline of getting things done and being a useful and productive person.

Habits must be built and maintained. There is no auto-pilot unless you want to crash and burn out. You must maintain and make yourself do the work and learn to love putting in the effort, no matter how big or small.

Focus on the upside

It’s easy to focus on the downside of something, and sometimes it’s worthy to be concerned. Not every idea is a good idea.

However, we must dare to be great. When the upside is far beyond the downside, even if the downside seems fairly certain, it is usually a good idea to take that risk. Dare to be great.

Even if the idea fails, you succeeded in the attempt.

It’s bad when there is a greater downside than upside, or the potential for the idea to fail is extremely high. It’s also bad when you avoid entering into anything because any perceived downside is enough to scare you away. Dare to be great and take your shot. If the upside is great, who cares about the downside. Go!

The good thing about the bad stuff

Great, you just pushed yourself to the max in that workout and discovered a physical limitation, or maybe you just received the devastating news that leaves you feeling mentally or emotionally destroyed.

This stuff can feel crushing at the moment, but the more we are exposed to things that come close to breaking us, the more we shed the loose skin.

What is left in us after any big moment or difficult experience in our life (whether we self-impose it, or not) is a core that is more rock solid and less prone to be hurt or damaged in the future.

Next time you feel defeated or crushed, remember that you’re undergoing a process of refinement, and what will be left is something more resilient and tough than you had before.

 
“Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.”
— Pema Chödrön
 

There is enough for everybody

There is enough for everybody. Be happy for other people’s successes. Be the best you can be and work on being better than that and you will find your own success.

If you can be a “good” person on top of being good at what you do, you will not fail. You’ll probably be content, too.

Pretend that you can win

You’ll face rejection all through your life. Don’t let the man in the mirror also reject you. Believe in yourself even (especially!) when nobody else does. Go out and live your life as if everything is rigged in your favor.

Delayed-gratification is better gratification

It’s not all about this moment right now. By the time you think about this moment, we’ve moved to the next moment in time. Too many of us spend all of our time focused on the moment, but the only way to make the moment better is to use lots of moments to build for better future moments.

Build the business to provide time/schedule freedom and financial freedom in the future. The moment you need that time or money, it’s too late to do the work you needed to do to get the money.

Delay the gratification. It leads to amazing gratification down the road. It’s better 100% of the time.

Let a little slip

Everyone knows you’re crazy because you freak about all the little details. They all say you need to loosen up.

The problem is, when you let a little slip, you want to let more slip. And the problem with slipping is that it’s easy to keep slipping further away from your standards than it is to work hard to uphold a high level of operations.

So don’t stop obsessing over the details and the little things nobody else seems to understand. Success is in the details and the high level at which you want to operate isn’t attainable for the sloppy operator.

Life is hard when it’s going well

That’s right. Even when things are good, life is still pretty hard. So imagine constantly having to deal with somebody who makes everything a hassle or who interprets every event as some big deal.

Life is hard.

Hard life is harder.

Hard life with someone who adds difficulty is the hardest.

To be persecuted…

If I am ever persecuted for my beliefs, I can only hope there is enough evidence to convict me. The famous John Wooden said something like this a while ago and it feels right.

What do you believe in? Is there anything important enough that you would undergo suffering to hold to it?

Excuses for laziness

I’ve come to hold the opinion that a precise schedule makes you a very fragile person. One aberration in your day, one missed task, one job that takes longer than you planned, and your whole schedule is thrown off.

If you’re already fighting procrastination, you will use any excuse for laziness you can get your hands on. So don’t build a tight schedule if you’re trying to break out of a creative slump.

Build loose blocks of time where you can swim and bounce around in a proverbial pool of ideas and if you spend five hours and only manage to answer one email, fine. Set aside another block of time and try again.

Don’t be a control freak with your time and you’ll get more out of it.

Be the wind in your own sails

Don’t let friends OR enemies be the wind in your sails. When they pick you up, you’ll travel too fast and crash in the end. When they let you down, you’ll grind to a halt and become paralyzed. Be the wind in your sails and learn to self-motivate and self-start. That way they can’t hurt you and it’s up to you to help yourself.

Adversity and the professional

An amateur creates lousy artwork and quits. A professional creates lousy artwork and keeps working. To produce great art is to re-create pretty good art. Don't be in such a rush that you give up great work because works that is OK is in front of you. Keep playing until you find the greatness.

To create anything great, whether artwork, woodwork, athletic achievement, children’s education, or scientific experimentation, you much first do and then have the humility to expect it to go wrong and adjust and make it better and better.

Never give up and never let a bad day, month, or year stop you from pushing forward. The amateur fades, the professional finishes.

You must pick a side. You must.

It’s a classic bit of advice, but it’s true concerning opinions you hold and conflicts throughout your life: You must never remain neutral.

Some people are foolish enough to think they can play both sides of the fence, but you’re not as clever as you think and they don’t respect you as much as you think they do.

Never remain neutral. You must take a side. If you don’t pick a side, the winner will never respect you (and probably take advantage of your cowardice) and the loser will despise you.

The best is yet to come

Just wait. Waiting is the hardest part, but if you can hold your tongue and wait, you may be surprised at how good things could be if you could wait. We’re all impatient people, so when you have the opportunity to exercise your patience, do it. Because the best is always yet to come. You just have to wait until it gets here.

That was painful

I was happy for your freedom.

And heartbroken you went free.

I’m happy you don’t have a horrible label that will be stuck with you for life.

I’m heartbroken that the victims will carry their baggage for life.

I’m happy you will see your son grow up.

I’m heartbroken that they might never have the peace that you now get to enjoy.

This conflict of sadness and happiness at once. It does not feel good. I wish the best for you and I hope that the worst happens to you all at the same time. I have no idea what that is, but I wish it would happen.

When something sad or tragic strikes, I have 24 hours to be sad before normal life must resume. So life will go on.

Mercy and justice

I’m watching you. I don’t want to see you suffer. I want mercy to be shown.

But I also want you to be crushed. I want justice to be served and closure to come to the victims.

I hate that you have no remorse and the lies you tell.

I love you because I have known you for a long time.

No matter the outcome, it will be a catastrophe for us all.

Get it out of the way!

You can do work, but are you doing meaningful work? The trap with menial “make-work” tasks is that they make you feel productive, but they don’t move you forward.

These tasks gum up your to-do list and sap your energy that you need for the vital and important things on your to-do list.

Get them out of the way. Move them to the end of your day of work. Trust that you will get the important things done and have an extra hour or two at the end of the day to get this annoying/junk work done.

Get it out of the way and focus on the work that moves your life in the direction you wish to go. Don’t let the other stuff gunk up your days and drain your energy.

Stretching hurts

Whether it’s stretching your limbs, stretching your physical limits by running further or lifting more weight, or even stretching your mental resilience by forcing yourself to do a task you wish to avoid or even waiting an hour after you start feeling hungry just to force yourself to cope with being hungry.

Stretching hurts, but practically all stretching ends up making you tougher, stronger, and more resilient.

Everything you do should not be useful

“Usefulness” is usually pigeon-holed as “doing stuff that makes us money so we can live a more comfortable life.”

But the best ideas come when we play and intentionally spend time doing stuff or building stuff that doesn’t serve some obvious purpose.

Don’t feel guilty taking the time to play a little. Explore ideas, play with words, feel every side of ideas and concepts in your mind. Don’t mindlessly cast stuff away because you can’t see how it helps you pay the bills.

Good moves are usually pretty obvious, but great moves take some thought and willingness to be creative and loose.

So don’t worry about everything being useful, because what you think is useful, is enough to get you by, but not enough to be truly great.