…look different depending on if you’re:
Starting up (0 to 1)
Growing (1 to 10)
Seeking Mastery (10 to 100)
Which phases have you moved through before? How? Was it the best way? Where are you in different areas now?
“He’ll be a billionaire, just give him a few years.”
“It’s so amazing that you got in on the ground floor.”
“I’m so happy you’ve found success!”
Generally it’s completely innocent, even well-meaning. Oftentimes it serves to put us in a box. To discourage us from exploring other paths that might be more meaningful.
After years of being rewarded and encouraged for arbitrary measures, it can be a struggle to understand what you actually want. Inevitably we need to rescript our thought processes- route out how we’ve been encouraged to think for years and discover what we actually want.
Good questions to start with are right there- “What do I actually want?” “What makes me happy despite no one encouraging me for it?”
I think businesses have been getting really good at asking the question “What is it for?”. We hunt down who’s using our product, find out what they’re trying to do with it, and make it even better for them. The dream is to build something that seems fundamentally necessary to the person employing it.
A question that might be missing— Is it good for us?
No, there won’t be a clear answer. The power lies in the question. What happens when businesses ask if what they’re doing is good for the person using it?
Not optimizing an area in their life.
Not doing what they’re trying to use it for as well as possible.
Actually enriching their life in a net positive way.
Good to ask for both people it employs and the people it serves. And in the meantime, when you’re using something, why not ask- Is how I’m using this good for me?
For being so young and naive, children have a hell of a lot figured out:
- They always ask why. Children know better than to do anything without investigating what it’s for.
- They never dwell on yesterday, and certainly aren’t worried about tomorrow. There’s too much to be occupied with now, and that is far more important.
- They play, because they’re alive. What is the point of life but to enjoy while we’re here?
“…until they think that you care.“
One of my favorite quotes. Important to note the process involved:
- Care
- Speak and act in alignment with that sentiment
- People think you care
And, if you’re so fortunate- focused in your intention, articulate in your speech, relentless in your execution:
- People know that you care.
Half-heartedly commit to any of those steps and you’ll probably fall short.
It’s a new mantra of mine: “Make Shitty things.” Why? Well:
- I want to make things
- In not specifying the state of the things, my brain naturally imposes “good” onto them
- My brain subconsciously translates “good” to “perfect”
- I get anxious while striving for perfect, and I don’t make things
As a solution to this, I’ve committed myself to making shitty things (in this case, blog posts), every day. I’m hoping they won’t be that way forever, but you have to start somewhere.
One of my favorite stories to illustrate this point (I’ll share the video where it comes from soon)-
A woman, when asked the question “What do you want to do but just can’t seem to follow through on right now?” responded with, “Run three times per week.” The questioner replied, “Why don’t you only try to run once per week?”. Her answer— “What’s the point of that?”
A question to ask yourself: What aren’t you doing because you’re afraid it “won’t be good enough” or some other “all-in” excuse? How can you get around it and just start?
It’s a tremendous challenge, doing work you care about. Even discovering what that is. It demands a series of leaps, each one as daunting as the last. There’s no blueprint for going about it, each of our journey’s has to be unique.
Despite this, there seems to be one necessary step in the process: Making things you care about and sharing them with the world.
I’ve made things in the past. Funny things. Interesting things. Witty things. But rarely have I made the decision to really try and create something I care about. And so I’m launching a new project to change that: A daily blog.
For (at least) the next 180 days, I’ll be posting and emailing out a blog post, Every. Single. Day.
They’ll cover a range of topics, but I assure you of this much: They will be heartfelt, and they will be about things I deeply believe in.
So welcome aboard, my new accountability buddies. For today, I leave you with this quote from Theodore Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
I’ll see you again tomorrow.
P.S. If you signed up for general updates from my website, I’ve automatically signed you up for the daily blog. If you don’t want to receive an email from me every day, I completely understand. You can change your preferences below to only receive occasional updates.