You can spend your time dissecting people’s actions.
Why are they doing that? What are they up to? What are they gonna do next?
Should I be doing that, too?
But, c’mon.
Do the thing you set out to do.
Dissecting people’s actions, I’d imagine, is not it.
What are you seeking in life?
Fame? Fortune? Recognition? Revenge? Remembrance?
You might get them.
But eventually, inevitably, they all fade away.
The truth, knowledge, and understanding, however, do not.
Seek those.
You know, sometimes there are so many reasons to hate a day.
You can’t believe THIS is how you’re gonna spend it.
The day is gonna be gone forever.
You’re never gonna get it back.
But what about the three or four lovely things that happened?
A laugh with a coworker?
A good meal?
How about recognizing that most days of yours are hardly like this?
On those hateable days, the tiny, sweet things are extra special.
Perhaps they make the hateable days actually wonderful?
It’s your status call. Or your workout. Or your breakfast. Or loving on your spouse. Or playing with your dog. Or hanging with your kids.
Those things.
They might not seem like the priority right now.
After all, you’re busy. You’re stressed. You’re under pressure. You’re on deadline. You’re whatever.
But just then, that’s when they ought to be.
It’s lonely at the top.
And unattached.
And on the road.
But that’s what you wanted.
And that’s where you thrive.
So get over it.
And get a dog.
You could see it. You could smell it.
You could hear the engine pouring it through the open hood and rear.
It was clouds of old, broken down car emissions.
It stopped my dog and me in our tracks.
Poor guy. His car was giving him trouble.
If he only knew, though, how grateful I am for the perfect image of how real this global warming thing is.
I hope he fixes his car.
I hope we fix all of our cars.
How do you decide if something’s worth your time (or not)?
Ask yourself some questions.
Each of these questions is a sufficient condition. So yes to any of them means it’s worth your time assuming one thing: It doesn’t hurt your relationships with your friends or family.
What does that mean?
Aimlessly scrolling social media, working too much, watching sports alone, etc. are probably not worth your time.
It’s the foundation of long-form improv.
Yes, and…
Agree and add to it, basically.
Makes fun conversations more fun. And makes annoying ones less annoying (by essentially mocking and one-upping the annoyingness).
Try it.
Your friends, family, and coworkers might appreciate it.
And, I guarantee you will.
Sometimes things stick with you.
Those things.
When they’re genuine, they’ll win your heart and mind forever.
Need to create a proposal?
Want to write a book?
Have a party to plan?
Outline it.
Then outline the outline.
Then outline the outline’s outline.
And so on.
Now your thing is created, written, planned.
And wasn’t that pretty easy?