Category Archives: Life

Own It

How would your friends describe you?

Or your store?

Or your website?

Or your house?

Or your kids?

Or your dog?

Or your whatever?

However your friends would describe it, that’s what it is.

Doesn’t mean it matters.

But that’s the reality.

Own it.

Better than Longevity

Longevity is not a great incentive for most.

It’s abstract. It’s far away. And most demotivating of all, it still implies absolute and certain death.

But what if there was a cut-off date? A date where all of those still alive got to live forever?

Now that’s an incentive to stay healthy and well!

And while it’s incomprehensible, so was the internet in 1975.

And we’re moving faster and faster.

Moral of the story?

Eat plants and move your body for a chance to live forever.

[HT: For the most mind-blowing article you will read all year, cozy up for an hour with this two-part masterpiece on artificial intelligence from Wait But Why (aka my new favorite blog (yes, trumping my blogs))]

Laziness and Busyness

Telling people you’re busy is one thing.

Telling yourself you’re busy is another.

That, my friends, is probably just laziness.

Spending time on the wrong things means you’re not spending time thinking.

Don’t be lazy.

Think.

You’ll feel less busy.

A Consultant’s Family

Life on the road is a grind. The people who do it with you become your second family.

  • Your colleagues.
  • Your clients.
  • The flight crew.
  • The hotel staff.
  • Everyone.

But what happens when they’re no longer your second family? When they’ve been upgraded to your first?

Then, you know it’s time to go home.

Boyhood

Everyone can find something in the movie “Boyhood” with which to identify.

Perhaps that was the goal.

Certainly, though, that’s why the movie did nothing for me.

I’d prefer to make things that you either love or don’t appreciate.

Shreds of appeal for the masses? I couldn’t even get past the first hour.

Moral of the story: Don’t be like “Boyhood.” Resist temptation to make something for the masses. Appreciation is not enough.

Cost

“How much does it cost?”

It’s a question that doesn’t mean what you might think it means.

It actually means, “How do I avoid this? Is it necessary? Can we find a way to reduce it?”

So, if you’re selling stuff and hear how much does it cost, you’ve already lost.

Three Pieces of Inspiration

Here’s something inspirational to carry you through into the weekend.

Three things, actually:

  • You are alive.
  • You are on Earth.
  • You get to eat bacon (or any other thing you find to be the greatest thing ever. For me, currently it’s pomegranate.)

How great is that?

[HT to Louis CK’s Oh My God]

Strengths

Find ’em in yourself. And your teammates. And your friends.

Focus on those and nothing else.

Because the weaknesses will always be someone else’s strengths.

And building upon what you’re good at is much more productive, fulfilling, and enjoyable than trying to fix the things at which you suck.

Picture Your Life in Weeks

You can use grains of rice. Or, M&M’s.

Or for something more neat, a simple grid, like tic-tac-toe, where every enclosed box represents a week. With that, you could represent your whole life (in weeks) on single sheet of paper.

The points are these:

  • Your weeks are finite.
  • The early ones are up to your parents.
  • The late ones are up to your kids (or, perhaps more your relationship with them and theirs).
  • The middle ones are up to you.
  • Live for today, but not so much where tomorrow is a disaster.
  • Live to make others’ weeks great, but not so much where yours never are.
  • Don’t forget the first point.

So, how’s your week going?

[HT to a phenomenal piece from Wait But Why on visualizing your life in weeks]