I finished a gig at 1am and headed to a hotel, arrived at 3am. The next day I had to wake up at 6am for an 8am church gig. Is that scenario similar to any other professional musician? Probably. Is it similar to you? Likely.The lesson I learned is that I pushed too hard. I gave 110% of my efforts during the night show, slept only a few hours, and then gave 110% of my effort at the church gig. I’m spent, exhausted, and running on adrenaline. How did I do this when I was in my 20s?Have you learned this lesson before?How often are you going from one thing to the next, staring at a screen, working ridiculously hard, and not sleeping enough? Our younger versions were foolish - that’s my opinion.I’m going to try not to push it so hard. Life is a marathon, not a race.

If you just stop and look at where you are going, you will be amazed at what is before. Being barefoot in an unknown environment, a form of vulnerability, is a way to force your mind and your body to do just that - slow down and observe.I almost stepped on this little entity trekking across a path. Before I put my foot down, my eyes zero’d in on it like a hawk - like it was some type of primal instinct. Instead of putting my foot down, I stopped, watched, recorded, and enjoyed every second.What more could you be seeing if you slowed down a bit?

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, often uses a mental model for decision making that I love. Howard imagines that at his board room table (that’s where he’s making decisions) there are two empty chairs.In the two empty chairs sit the metaphorical employee (Howard calls them “Partners”) and customer. When presented with a decision, Howard asks himself, “would the employee (partner) and the customer seated at the table be proud of our decision?” If the answer is “no,” then he has to go back to the drawing board and re-work the decision. What would change about the decisions you make if you applied a similar mental model? Who would be seated at your board room table? Would they be proud?

Marcel Proust, author of “In Search of Lost Time,” experienced multiple bouts of depression and debilitating illness. He spent a majority of his life reading books, aimlessly moving about society, and trying to find his life’s task. Later, he found some meaning translating the work of John Ruskin into French, and later still he would go on to write a book, “In Search of Lost Time,” which essentially accounts for his life and lessons learned in “wasting” time. “In Search of Lost Time” became one of his most famous works and was published in 7 volumes. Marcel didn’t realize it until later, but studying and writing about our society and the art of living were his life’s tasks, and doing the work of writing and studying brought him out of his deepest holes. What’s the lesson?Reflecting on Proust, I asked myself the question, “Can having a sense of responsibility to ourselves hack depression? Can it take us out of our deepest slumps?” Perhaps it can.Perhaps it can because what if owning a responsibility was a major component of the identity we create for ourselves? And, What if that responsibility (read: our life’s greatest responsibility), was something we could act on every day? And, What if acting that responsibility out every day, even when we would rather do nothing else, activated a part of ourselves that reminds us that we matter? And,What if realizing for ourselves that we matter is key to our feeling good about ourselves? A lot of “what if’s,” but a thought worth exploring. If it worked for Proust, what if it works for us?

All of the great artists in this world were disciplined, methodical, and demonstrated an emotional resiliency to life and their work. The more and more I think about what makes creative people so creative, the more and more I think that creatives are in fact scientists of a different form.The creative process begins with a question or an idea, the artist transmutes the idea into something real, and that something real evokes an emotional response from the receiver. The scientific process is strikingly similar. Modern day alchemy.You are a creative. You have ideas, you transmute your ideas into action, and you pivot and iterate based on feedback you receive from the person who received your idea. You are a form of alchemist.You don’t get better by having better ideas, you get better through discipline, methodical practice, and emotional resiliency.

When I was younger, I used to play computer games. Often times, for me to move my character in the game, I had to spend an amount of energy units or “mana”. Once all of the mana was used up, so was my ability to move until the next turn. When you have used up all of your mana, it’s okay to stop, rest, and wait for your next turn.

Of course you will.All you have to do is start it again, and keep it starting it again every day.

I played at a resort over the weekend.

When I approached the piano I looked across the room and said to myself, “What is the movie that these people are playing in their heads right now? How do they see themselves? How will what I play compliment that movie?”

Our jobs, no matter what they are, are similar.

Those we seek to serve are playing a movie in their heads now, and that movie is about themselves. Our job is to compliment that movie.

My nephew and I took a long hike in the woods today - he and I both needed it. It was a chance to be together, and simultaneously be in our own space. We walked nearly 10 miles for ~ 3 hours, and for as long as it was, time passed fast. We both ended the walk happily out of breath and thankful to have spent a few moments together.All of this to say - don’t underestimate the value of simple things - time to yourself, outside, by yourself or with another human being; that’s time well spent.

“Let the hindsight of your future self be the foresight of today’s self.” - Shane Parrish TKP episode 37I was listening Shane Parrish interview Annie Duke on the The Knowledge Project the other day. During the interview, Shane summarized a point Annie made, and the summary was too good not to write down and share with you. In December, of I don’t know what year, I blogged about “Future You” which was inspired by Annie Duke’s book, Thinking in Bets, and I wish I heard this podcast at the time I was reading the book. What I love about Shane’s summary is the practicality. Imagine this.You are confronted with a decision and imagining how it might end.You project yourself into the future, imagining you made the decision and you’re experiencing that “hindsight is 20/20 phenomenon.”You take advantage of that phenomenon and you identify, “what is the that perfect 20/20 hindsight? Instead of doing what I did, what do I wish that I did?” Take your answers to the “hindsight 20/20” question and bring them to present you. Make that your go-forward plan!Celebrate because you’re winning at making decisions.I wish heuristics was a class I took at all levels of my education. Imagine how many decisions could have been improved through a decades-long study in decision making and bias?What friends to make? Who to date?What classes to take?What college do I go to?What do I major in?Do I take a student loan or not?Do I postpone college?What if I took out a credit card?I could go on. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.