This last week I assembled a last minute March Madness fundraiser for the Fulcrum Foundation. It's been blast to connect with people around the event, see a great outpouring of support, and watch the carefully built brackets crumble. Is there anything in sports that tops the chaos of the college basketball tournament?
I also spent a few days adjusting to the new sunshine schedule, taking darker walks with the dog and putting reigning the kids in from the garden a little later than usual. There were also some really cool discoveries and a ton of wisdom pearls in my podcast diet. Here's what I've been:
Reading - Daylight saving time is usually an issue on two days a year - spring forward and fall back. This year it’s taken up oxygen for a week and has even inspired some amazing consensus in Congress (albeit wrongheaded IMO). Last week the Senate the Sunshine Protection Act - a bill to make daylight savings time permanent. I’m all for keeping our clocks consistent, as are the vast majority of scientific studies, but I’d argue that Standard Time is the way to go. I mean…we’ve already gone all in of Daylight Savings Time twice and hated it. Isn’t this just the definition of insanity? As a morning person with kids, I definitely care more about getting AM sun as soon as possible and prefer putting my kids to bed in the dark. Both make life way easier. For the part of my life that I lived as a night owl, I can’t say I recall caring when the sun set each day or if it had been up for two minutes or two hours when I woke. There are arguments for and against. I’m curious, what do you think?
Listening to - I listened to a great podcast with Angela Duckworth this week. She the author of GRIT - the Power of Passion and Perseverance and the founder & CEO of Character Lab. There were so many nuggets of gold in the conversation, but one in particular has been rolling around in my noggin. Duckworth paraphrases game designer Jane McGonigal by saying “play[ing a game] is the voluntary overcoming of unnecessary obstacles.” Duckworth then goes on to offer that maybe work is the feeling we get when involuntarily overcoming of necessary obstacles. It made me wonder: once our basic needs of food and shelter are met, shouldn’t we all be playing instead of working? Is there a space we can find (or create) where every challenge we overcome is chosen? To take it a step further, maybe the shift is a mental one - by choosing how we overcome our obstacles - even when we can’t choose the obstacles - can we make work feel like play? Wouldn’t that be the magic that helps us find happiness on the way to fulfillment?
Remembering - My first work mentor was a woman named Debbie. She taught me about the power of networks and showed me how to seed an idea. She also introduced me to my second mentor, Ken. Ken taught me about inspiration and optimism in the face of big challenges. He exposed me to using models of thinking and organizing, especially in the areas of team, to get massive collective achievement. One of his biggest inspirations was Sir Ernest Shackleton. The story of Endurance and Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition are an amazing tale of teamwork, commitment, and survival. If you've never read Endurance by Alfred Lansing, I'd highly recommend it. You can check out a very cool video and story of Endurance's discovery here.
I hope everyone is well rested and fully adjusted this week. Here's to a sprint of fun, play, teamwork, and endurance.
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