The Freedom of Journaling + Weird Happiness + Purposeful Connection

I love a good vacation. It hasn't always been that way, especially with my long standing disposition for grinding it out in my work rhythms. Over the last few years though, I've really come to appreciate what the reset and perspective change that a week or two away can offer. This last week I got my "working" vacation at FR22 and my "true" family vacation in Puerto Rico. Both gave me lots of great input. In those days, here's what I was:

Reading - Journaling has been a hit and miss practice throughout my life. I write for a while then my consistency peters out. Part of what's held me from consistency has been the nagging question of "when am I actually going to read or use this stuff?" Once in a blue moon I'll pick up an old journal and flip through it, asking myself why I ever got so wound up about such trivial or finite things and the purpose of logging thoughts and emotions. This week I read a piece called Notes Apps Are Where Ideas Go to Die and I had a radical mind shift. Journaling doesn't have to be done so that you can reread your epiphanies later. It doesn't need to be a collection of your amazing insights and ideas. It can simply be a way to take the mental mess in your brain and release it by putting pen to paper. Kinda freeing... 

Watching - The keynote address of Family Reunion 2022 was delivered by Shawn Achor. If you missed it, here's an abbreviated version from his 2015 Ted Talk (which is part stand up comedy, part positive psychology) and a longer piece from 2017. I love the main premise that success doesn't equal happiness (in fact using success as a metric almost guarantees unhappiness), but happiness is what fuels success. What I love even more is the focus on statistical outliers. By focusing on the "weirds" -- the outliers who are above the trend lines -- we can learn about yielding incredible results by focusing on actions that choose happiness. By seeking out and surrounding ourselves with these "weirds" we can create a community that lives an average that's of stratospheric proportion. That's the social cohesion we want, and social cohesion is what predicts happiness. 

Thinking - Connections are easy to make but take work to maintain. Chance encounters can be sparks of joy or can spark a fire. This week I was lucky enough to see dozens of people that I've missed for months or years. I met new people that I've meant to meet for even longer. A few of these reconnections could lead to life changing partnerships. If I choose to appreciate the encounters and know that I'll see these people again, we will certainly build deeper bonds. I love that natural progression. I can also choose to reach out to a choice few and lean into faster and deeper connections, creating purposeful progression. Connections inspire me, but true inspiration leads to action, and valuable actions lead to true reward. 

Have a free, connected, happy week. 

Theory of Creativity + Art of Learning + Let Go to Scale

This week I joined 11,000 friends and colleagues in Orlando for Family Reunion 2022. It was the first large in-person work event I've been to in almost two years, and the energy was palpable. Reunion is also one of my favorite places to pick up new ideas, rekindle old friendships, and keep the motivational tank full. I hope you find these few takeaways helpful. 

Watching - Duncan J. Wardle is the former Head of Innovation and Creativity at Disney. He gave the keynote at a CEO Mastermind that I attended on Friday. The address started with a story that underscored how we go from expansive thinking to reductive thinking throughout our lives. We don't start out creative and lose our imagination as we age; instead the people around us tell us we aren't creative as we grow up. As we move into school, jobs, management, parenting, pretty much all parts of adulthood we start hearing and saying "no, because..." to ideas. Instead we should say "yes, and..." during our brainstorming sessions. When coming up with possibilities we aren't making decisions, but setting the stage for options. We should work from the place of most opportunity, not the least. It's easy to take a big idea and make it smaller; it's really hard to take a small idea and make it bigger. There were a ton of other wonderful ideas and stories in Duncan's keynote. I'd encourage you to check out a shortened version of his Theory of Creativity talk from 2018.

Reading - The Art of Learning is a book by Joshua Waitzkin that I've been loving. Waitzkin was a child chess prodigy who became an eight time National Chess Champion and was the subject of the book and movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. He spent the first 18 years of his life building a mastery of chess that's very near unrivaled before the pressure of fame burned him out on the sport. He then discovered Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands and became a 21 time National Champion in the meditative and martial art form. Throughout the book Waitzkin spins fabulous tales awhile also unpacking the understanding of his successful study. He reminds us that true mastery of any skill comes from mastering ones own mind as well as breaking down the skill into its fundamental pieces. To achieve excellence we must learn the basics, be specific on what we build, and go tremendously deep before we go even slightly broad. 

Listening - Every time I hear from or speak with Gary Keller I add to the mountain of wisdom he's given me. On Friday we started with a simple exercise: everyone held their phones at arm's length for about a minute. It wasn't long and the exercise wasn't hard, but the point was clear: the more you hold onto to things, the more it hurts, no matter how small they are. The only way to scale your life is to let go. So that begs the question, how do we let go and still get the results we want? The first thing to do is learn how to scale and which levers to use. Time is our worst lever because it demands the most energy and leads to burn out. To let go and achieve more, we must invest in people who share our standards. By combining forces we don't just get additional productivity, we can make an exponential impact. The key is to find the right people, set the right standards, and take the right actions that yield the right outcomes. Who are you leveraging to help you get the life you want? 

Have an inspired, flowing, collaborative week.

Live Like You're Not Dying + Embracing Regret + Improving On the Best

This week I've found inspiration in those both very near to and very far from me. It's been pretty cool to see how everyday life and once in a lifetime opportunities can resonate and teach. I hope you enjoy these reflections.

Talking - Over the last two years I've been moving from acquaintanceship to friendship with one of my neighbors. This weekend our families got away together, and he and I chatted for a while on Saturday. He carries a pretty heavy burden each day due to a lifelong illness. This disease has resulted in three organ transplants, the first when he was seventeen. He's married with two young kids, and has a very full life, but the prognosis isn't great. It's not clear how much longer he'll live, because the illness is unpredictable, and the data isn't reliable as the science around lifespan changes. Maybe he's got a year, maybe ten, but it's clear that his timeline is probably way shorter than most people our age. I asked him how that sat with him: was it motivational, depressing, or something else all together? Was it consistent or did it change regularly? He said it was a mix of all, but it didn't make him subscribe to the traditional "live every day like it's your last" philosophy. This really surprised me...until he explained that what he really wants is just to savor each moment, to be the most present he can. He's not out to "live life at 11" which is how so many people think about squeezing every drop out of every day. It also made me think of something I read this week which hit me with a ton of clarity - the extraordinary life is in the ordinary life. The extraordinary part is about appreciating, living the moments to their truest, not their maximum.

Thinking - I've been thinking a lot about regret for the last few weeks. Regret is something that I've dismissed en masse for most of my life. The rationale was pretty simple. Somewhere in my twenties, I came to the conclusion that I shouldn't regret anything that happened, because whatever I could regret actually brought me to where I am...and I am really happy with this place in life. I essentially applied the sliding doors approach: if I had done something differently, then I'd be somewhere else, and I don't want that. Recently though I've realized that regret is just an emotion, and it's here for instruction. Having regrets doesn't mean that you have to undo the actions that brought you to where you are. It's there to provide instruction so you do things differently in the future. Regret is about how you impact others, and how that makes you feel. Regret is a guide to being a better person. With some close listening and better perspective, perhaps past regrets can lead to a future of no regrets.

Watching - Most nights this week I've sat with the kids and watched a little of the Winter Olympics before we moved into their bedtime routines. The Olympics are great because of the unique storylines and the alternative sporting events. I love seeing things on TV that we don't get to watch all the time. This year, the Men's Halfpipe has been my favorite story. Watching Shaun White compete in his fifth and final Olympics was special. He's a true legend and game changer. But seeing Ayumu Hirano win gold in the fashion that he did was even better. Hirano was seemingly flawless on his second run, landing a series of incredible tricks including a triple cork (three full flips performed on axis) which is something that no other rider even attempts. That ride was immediately hailed by TV commentators and the public as "the best run on a halfpipe, ever". But the judges disagreed. In fact they didn't even think it was the best run of the day. They scored Hirano second. He could have been angry, or disappointed, or outraged -- heck, maybe he was, but he didn't show it. He could have quit, or been rattled to the point where he fell on his third and final run of the day. He didn't do that either. With incredible poise and fortitude, Hirano dropped in and performed even better on his last run. He landed the same five tricks, just with bigger air, tighter rotations, and smoother landings. And he gave the judges no choice but to hand him the gold. It was flat out awesome! If you haven't seen it, go watch it.

Have poise this week. Go big and don't get rattled. Here's to your unrelenting commitment.