Category: Life
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“But I haven’t been able to force myself to…”
Every time I hear the words, “Force myself,” I wince. I hear it in sentences like: “I want to do personal branding and more tweeting, but I haven’t been able to force myself to…” “I want to apply for more jobs, but I haven’t been able to force myself to…” “I want to eat four…
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Same word, different meanings
Writing. Writing a blog post is very different from writing an email, a deck, a memo, a book, or a comment. Compare this with St. Bonaventura’s description of making books: 1. Scribe: Write the work of others, adding/changing nothing 2. Compiler: Write the work of others, with additions not your own 3. Commentator: Write the…
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Show up early, leave late
That’s one way to make time in a packed schedule. If you can’t move things around, you’ll need to make the time. End a session 15 minutes earlier. Delay the next one by 15 minutes. Now you’ve got an extra half hour to do the thing you really should be doing.
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“If I were actually smart, then I would…”
… not be working this job. … be the person who’s my boss right now. … be making a lot more money. When framed like this, thoughts are an end point; because you’re not smart enough, you’re not going to do it. In other words, you can’t. That’s one way to appraise your work, self,…
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From 49% to 51%
I joined a podcast recently, and referenced this post I once wrote: don’t make “Bad” the enemy of “Good.” The editors at Fast Company picked it up a couple of weeks after I first published it. The gist of the post: Many times, “Good” things start out “Bad.” Thinking about it, getting feedback, looking for…
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Confessions of another recovering frog eater
Adam Mastroianni wrote a really cool piece, “Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs.” Mastroianni is referring to the analogy likening eating a frog to doing something that feels difficult every day. In this sense, I’m a frog eater myself. I started frog eating in the early 2010s in college, because I…
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Outer scorecard, or inner scorecard
Make something to sell, or make something you like. Write something to get attention, or write something to express yourself. Care about the outcome, or care about the output. Focus on the future, or focus on the present. Serve your ego, or serve a person. Appear like you’re winning, or be happy with what you…
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The Doing Thinking Flywheel
A few days ago, I tweeted a quote from Austrian American scientist Heinz von Foerster, “If you want to think differently, first learn to act differently.” Foerster was also known as a pioneer in the field of cybernetics, which investigates communications and automatic control systems in machines and living beings. I’d included this in my…
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Grass is greener syndrome
I originally heard the phrase, “Grass is greener syndrome,” from my friend Peter Kang, when I talked to him about this tweet: It’s easy to want to pick something new to do—a different ladder to climb, a different game, a new project or venture—because it seems easier. Better. More rewarding. Smarter. That’s why we want…
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Cultivating honesty
One nice thing about posting every day is there’s no time to be dishonest or inauthentic. If you have fewer than 15 minutes, you can’t dawdle. You can’t tinker around, or worry about your legacy, or how you’ll come off to your reader. Every minute you spend not writing is a chance you risk not…