Mistakes

A List Of 30 Lists

Garth Beyer

Lists

A list of…

  1. What you are thankful for
  2. The moments in life you felt most alive
  3. This week’s goals
  4. Goals to be met within five years
  5. 99 ridiculous things you want to do before you die (no limit on possibility)
  6. What is stopping you from doing what you need to do
  7. What is stopping you from doing what you want to do (yes, they’re different)
  8. Every book you have read (not a list of every book you want to read!)
  9. Sources of inspiration
  10. Places you want to visit (test: can’t be on the first page of a Google search)
  11. Websites/podcasts that you must visit weekly, if not daily
  12. Your top 10 bad habits to break
  13. All the contacts you have made and something special about them
  14. Songs that get you moving
  15. Every source you have been quoted or mentioned
  16. What you want in a significant other
  17. Ideas that have been rejected, laughed at, or you didn’t deem as “good enough”
  18. Things to feel okay about (here is a start)
  19. What you don’t need to make a list for (things you do naturally, habitually)
  20. What you want your kids to know that you didn’t know growing up
  21. Mistakes you have made
  22. What you learned from those mistakes
  23. Things to admit now that you will later, anyway (here’s some ideas)
  24. Hurdles that have stopped you in the past
  25. What you love
  26. How you are different from other people, what makes you a niche
  27. What is happening right now without your effort that is building your brand
  28. People you want to meet in the next 10 years
  29. Your personal bests (running, blogging, audience count, viewers, subscribers)
  30. What is stopping you from making these lists when you know it will only help you

Stay Positive & Get Going

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

Terms And Conditions

Garth Beyer

I made a bet with my dad while hiking and stumbling upon a pile of deer feces. I bet him $10 that he wouldn’t eat one of the “berries.”

We shook hands and with a smile on his face, he picked one up, investigated it like it was the most important material at a crime scene, then downed it. Destroying the evidence.

It was over in a second. I was out 10 bucks. And it was as if he didn’t even do it. Because the thing is, he didn’t even chew it.

I forgot to establish that in the terms and conditions before we shook hands.

See, even the smallest, unconventional, and completely miscellaneous circumstances, you can learn something monumental. Being weary of future terms and conditions isn’t the point though.

The point is that I made a mistake. While I may not have gotten as much enjoyment out of the bet as I expected (don’t get me wrong, it was still nasty, and I never let him forget what he did, obviously), I learned a valuable lesson.

I’ll be sure to make more mistakes, in the business world and out in the woods. Will you?

 

Stay Positive & Make More Mistakes To Strengthen Future Terms And Conditions

Garth E. Beyer

Two Options To Productivity

Garth Beyer

The real worker, the true productive worker gives herself two options when in the zone, in the workplace. Break or Hack

Break a few rules. Break the status-quo. Break the task into smaller steps. Break the consistency and add some more mistakes. Break her back to make it work. Break it down to understand it better. Break away from reality.

or

Hack the job to make it more efficient. Hack your work so you can do more of what makes you happy. Hack away at everything that is holding you back. Hack into the flow.

Both options lead to a productive – very productive – work day.

 

Stay Positive & You Just May Not Even Consider It Work

Garth E. Beyer

You Don’t Have The Experience

Garth Beyer

That’s the biggest problem with people looking to start at any rung of the ladder beside the bottom. It’s a universal problem that prevents us from doing the work we know we can do well.

Why is it then, that although you know you can do something, you’re still not allowed to do it? Because you don’t have the experience. And why is that?

Because experience doesn’t mean that you know how to do something or even do it well.

I think it’s a fair moment to share a quote from Oscar Wilde,

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes“

It’s actually easy to start half way up the ladder and even sometimes closer to the top. The only way to be granted that spot, though, is through humility, through sharing all the mistakes you have made and what you learned from them.

I could write for the New York Times, easily. They have editors,  I don’t have to worry too much about the details, just write as best I can. Why don’t they hire me then? Because I don’t have enough “experience.” I haven’t made enough mistakes, don’t have enough stories, I wouldn’t be a good enough teacher because I have yet to learn everything (the hard way).

It’s the mistakes that make the experience and the experience that delivers you to your dream job.

I guess that means there’s only one thing for you to do if you want what you want. You have to do the hard stuff, the humiliating stuff, the emotional labor. You have to make more mistakes.

Stay Positive & No, It May Not Be The Only Way, But It Is The Best Way

Garth E. Beyer