Two ideas from two great thinkers to kick start your week.Since the beginning of human consciousness, our awareness of death has terrified us. This terror has shaped our beliefs, our religions, our institutions, and so much of our behavior in ways we cannot see or understand. We humans have become the slaves to our fears and our evasions. When we turn this around, becoming more aware of our mortality, we experience a taste of true freedom. We no longer feel the need to restrict what we think and do, in order to make life predictable. We can be more daring without feeling afraid of the consequences. We can cut loose from all the illustrations and addictions that we employ to our numb our anxiety. We can commit fully to our work, to our relationships, to all our actions. And once we experience some of this freedom, we will want to explore further and expand our possibilities as far as time will allow us.” - Robert Greene, “The Laws of Human Nature”And,Let us rid death of its strangeness, come to know it, get used to it. Let us have nothing on our minds as often as death. At every moment let us picture it in our imagination in all its aspects…. It is uncertain where death awaits us; let us await it in everywhere. Premeditations of death is premeditation of freedom…. He who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave. Knowing how to die free from all subjection and constraint.” - Michel de Montaigne. It feels morbid because we have been conditioned to see it as morbid - to fear it, to not talk about it, to see it as a dark. Truly, it’s not. If you have been a faithful reader of this blog, you know that during October-November, I have stopped writing. That often happens because I lose motivation… and it appears I lose motivation during the season change. Is that a medical condition? Who knows. During this month, I decided to meditate daily on my mortality. I remind myself, each night, that I might not wake up, and that the relationships most dear to me may end at any time. I find that when I wake up, I am filled with a tremendous amount of joy to be alive and motivated to do the next thing. Then, when I’m doing the next thing, such as writing, I remind myself, “the next second is not guaranteed, and that I must pump out as much of my consciousness as I can leave behind for others.” Through that meditation, I realize the energy needed to focus and ship work. I am a slave to what I avoid, and I choose no longer to be a slave.The thing you and I share in common is our mortality - we will eventually die. That also means we also share another thing in common - a desire to live life to its most, to be our most effective selves each moment of each day. You don’t have to be a slave to what you avoid. Welcome fate with open arms - love life.
Robert Greene, in The Laws of Human Nature references a quote from a Babylonian clay table that reads: “Today’s youth is rotten, evil, godless, and lazy. It will never be what youth used to be, and it will never be able to preserve our culture.” Nearly 1000 years later, Aristotle would say (in Rhetoric), “[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances. They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.” And then a few thousand laters, Disney would add their thoughts by way of the movie, Up. All of this to say - history rhymes. Try not to get caught up in 24/7 news cycle. Take several thousand steps back, reflect on where we are, and tell yourself, “we’ve been here before, and it will be okay.”Carl Fredricksen is likely going to be me a few years from now ;-)
“Do hard things, but don’t overextend yourself. Life’s a marathon, not a race.”… is what I should have told myself as I overdid this morning’s hike.Good morning!
Another word to write,An errand to run, A person to help,A thought to entertain.Don’t allow yourself to get complacent. Seek and strive to serve.
When you start the day - you set the pace.If you want to run, you can run.If you want to ease, you can ease.If you want to stall, you get to do that too.You set the pace.
I revisited this post from a few years ago - “What do you want tomorrow to be about?”When tomorrow is a potential blank piece of paper, and motivation is low - what should tomorrow be about? Waking up? Making your bed? Making coffee?When motivation is lowest, make tomorrow about something small - one small action. Nobody likes to aim high when they feel drained - aiming high can be draining. Instead, “aim small, miss small.”
Good vs EvilRight vs LeftCommunism vs Capitalism Woke vs RacistAnxious vs RelaxedHow much better might life be if we simply focused on achieving some type of equilibrium?LoveCenterConscious.Human PresentSounds like a happier life.
“No [person] resolved to make the most of [themselves], can spare time for personal contention.” - Abraham LincolnThere is no time for doubt or for fretting what will happen if you do or don’t. There is no time to put off acting your best you can with what you have right now.If you want to make the most of yourself, do it.
Failure that comes from planned, methodical testing is simply how you learn. It moves thing forward in the end, it’s how you avoid the big-F Failure.” - Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz, Lean Analytics. ‘nuff said.Happy Friday.
“Everyone faces up more bravely to a thing for which they have long prepared.” - Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, CVIIWe best attack our fears head on when we’ve prepared ourselves to deal with it. How do we prepare?Understand your truth and your fear, ask “what they’re for?”Determine how resistant you is rearing its ugly head and create a plan to silence it.Reflect: How might I attack my work, life, and everything more like a professional?Decide how you will confront fear - consider a decision journal.Visualize: yourself letting go - now that you’ve prepared, let go of everything and effortlessly perform. (thanks to my college professor, Charlene, for making us read, Inner Game of Music).Execute. Put that way, being “brave”, feels more like a preparation and visualization process and less like a feeling summoned during times of stress. Put that way, you get to decide now how you will prepare. People Leaders: I cannot overstate the importance of creating and keeping a discipline around preparation and visualization when it comes to leadership and pushing through change.