We wrapped up the first quarter of the year last week. When it comes to increments for reflection a quarter of a year is a really nice time chunk for me. It's not as massive as a year, where so much gets sifted out. And it's greater than a single month, where the establishment of habits, or the progress toward a big goal are harder to see. As I get older it seems that each month, each quarter, each year goes by faster. I guess that's inevitable since time is a relative reflection of where we've been. The longer we've been here, the shorter the increments seem in comparison. It's a good reason to stay as present as possible. By living in the moment, you remove yourself from the passage of time ever so slightly.
Here's what else I've been:
Thinking - as I recover from my little snowboarding slip last week, I've been reflecting on an idea called Type II fun. I love this sketchplanation of the fun scale. (By the way, I definitely snowboard in the Type I fun category, so I probably shouldn't be as sore as I am!) The term Type II fun sprung up in the outdoor adventure world a while back and it basically boils down to things that are really difficult (maybe not even fun) in the moment, but are fun in reflection. Think about running a marathon, competing in a triathlon, climbing a mountain, maybe even your morning workout. Another way to say it is that they are rewarding, rather than enjoyable. The idea correlates pretty well with one that I use a lot at work: the urgent / important matrix, sometimes known as the Eisenhower Matrix. Type II fun is that upper right quadrant of important and not urgent. It is critical for our growth and personal success. It's the stuff that would be important but not urgent at the office. Type I fun is great; it's needed. It's the stuff that makes us smile and laugh. It puts out the fire, but Type II fun is the stuff that makes us glow.
Reading - A friend recently recommended that I pick up something by Martha Beck, so I perused her catalog and chose
Finding Your Own North Star. The premise is that each of us have two selves. The first is our essential self; it's who we are deep down, our best, most focused, flowing, centered, joyful self. The second is our social self; it's who we become because of outside forces in our environment, whether we want to or not. This idea isn't a new one, and social pressures are something that we all take on whether we intend to or not. Beck calls this social force the Everybodies. They're the groups of people that we select to represent the larger segments of society that are important to us. In reality they are not a true representation of the general public; they're usually not even a true representation of our environmental influencers. Because of that disproportionate imbalance, we put too much weight on these social opinions of who we are -- and who we are told we should be. Beck also talks about an Everybody that nourishes our essential self. These are the people that support who we are at our core and who encourage who we want to be in our heart of hearts. When we can find that Everybody, they influence our social self to align with our essential self. And that's when and where we become our best self.
Remembering -
Taylor Hawkins, drummer for the Foo Fighters, died on March 25th. Honestly I was a little too stunned to write about it last week. I needed to listen to all of those anthems before I could reflect on the shocking loss. Hawkins was a true rock star. He went all out, studied his craft, honed his chops, honored his idols, loved his fans, adored his family, battled his demons, corrected his course, and played incredibly versatile, kick ass drums. He had one of the biggest challenges in all of rock music history: he took the drummer's kit in a band behind Generation X's most famous drummer, Dave Grohl. To be clear, he didn't replace Grohl in Nirvana. He created something entirely different as Hawkins and Grohl build the Foo Fighters into the most Grammy winning American band of all time. Here's a little
60 Minutes clip on the two best friends. It's probably been 15 years since I saw the Foos, and it's an experience I'll never forget. I was lucky enough to slip into a show they played at the 930 Club in the mid aughts. Putting a stadium band into a box that's built for 1,200 people is just insane, and a massive part of that sonic insanity was Taylor Hawkins. I'm so fortunate to have experienced that, and the world is so lucky to have the Foo's music to remember Taylor.
Have a rocking, well stacked, essential week.
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