Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
We learn when we stretch and we stretch when we ask tough questions.
But don’t be flabbergasted when after you ask and answer the questions, that more arrive.
As Bernadette Jiwa has written, “the path to success is progressive and iterative.”
We need to keep our courage after answering tough questions to ask even more.
Stay Positive & Might As Well Enjoy The Ride
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Nearly everything on your to-do list can be done at half the time you expect.
We often blow the investment out of proportion because it gives us the chance to cop out of doing the work right now.
“It’s going to take too much time, so I’ll do it later.”
“I don’t have the hour of focus to do the task.”
“It’s going to take me too long to catch up on the email chain.”
It’s simply not true.
And rather than argue it. Go ahead and start the task you think you don’t have time for and see what happens.
Stay Positive & It’s Time We Stop Using Time To Hide From The Work
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Anyone with a passion can be viewed as a little weird.
If you have some fans that others label as such.
It’s a sign you’re onto something.
They clearly have a passion for your passion.
Stay Positive & Embrace ‘Em (It’s How You Build A Tribe)
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Don’t you want to know why the color red is different on one screen than another?
Don’t you want to know what the deadliest drug in the U.S. is?
Don’t you want to know what goes into the selection of product at Trader Joe’s?
Don’t you wonder why people still top off their car tank?
Curiosity can be a wonderful thing.
Sure, we learn because of it, but we can also connect around it.
Stay Positive & What Have You Been Curious About?
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People don’t intend to be assholes by arguing that you don’t really know something until you experience it.
As much as I get frustrated by it, as much as I say I have friends who have had experience X and shared it with me, as much as I can say I’ve written about experience Y … no, I truly don’t know about it until I experience it.
Crazy to think the argument is even used to stop people from chasing dreams.
“You want to open a book store but have never worked in one?!”
People are cut throat about experiences because they know connections are stronger, empathy is more authentic and it’s easier to provide added-value if we’re seriously aware of what the real experience is for others.
We can argue back. We can say that we’re going to do what we want without the experience. We can say third-party info is good enough.
Or we can remember it’s all a journey and we have time to experience different lifestyles and jobs and relationships. A lot can be experienced in thirty years.
And the most beautiful part about achieving success and experiencing all you need to get there is that you can share the experience with others.
Go ahead and take a job at your local book store. Start a podcast. Go a day without eating.
And document it all.
Not to shut the naysayers up, but to build confidence in yourself. It’s inevitable the more you experience, the more you’ll succeed.
Stay Positive & People Buy Confidence, Anyway
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The race to the bottom is a scary one.
Consider bags of cereal. They once were completely full of sugary goodness.
Now? Now they’re half filled, and some, even less.
10 years, 5 years or 3 months from now there will be even less cereal.
The race to the bottom is to blame.
“If our competitor shaved a few ounces off, so will we. In fact, we’ll shave another ounce off because no one will know the difference.”
Except, of course, the competitor, who will then retaliate. And so we have a race to the bottom.
But the market is shifting, from those who want cereal to those who merely want less air.
They want a brand that steps away from the race to the bottom to invest in customer service and story and value and generosity – not because it makes them money, but because they can.
Stay Positive & See You At The Top
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Difficult is when we learn the most, have the most impact and can create the most value.
As long as we believe in thinking about difficulty that way.
We can also see difficult as a burden, as the world hating us and as something we just have to deal with, whatever.
Maybe we need to seek more difficult, not less.
And believe in the value we can give by dancing with it, than not.
Stay Positive & It Won’t Get Easier But It Does Get More Worth It
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