How positive is your vision?

Some people think the only thing that can happen next are things that are the same as or rhyme with what has happened in the past.

This is an expectation.  Typically we get what we expect.  So be careful what you expect.

The highest performing people who live adventurous lives have a blinding vision of a positive future.

See magic, and magic is what you’ll get.

Master yourself.

People, including us, have animalistic instincts that must be controlled if we are to live well today.

We defend our ego by being nasty when we don’t have to.

We compete for resources when we don’t have to – there is abundance.

We want to fight (whatever form that may take) when we don’t have to.

We are jealous and envious when we shouldn’t be.

We eat too much when we don’t have to.  There will be food tomorrow.

So many of these tendencies are in us for survival from a time with conditions that no longer exist.

Master yourself. 

Let go of these parts of yourself and walk lighter through life.

Consistency and Persistency

All of us have talent.  Some people are wildly talented, able to easily do that which is hard to most.

But those who are consistent with their positive daily habits and persistent when it gets difficult or things go wrong will outperform those with greater talent if they are stop-and-go flavor-of-the-month people.

Are you consistent in pursuing mastery in your craft day after day, year after year?

What did you do with your life?

What did you do with your life so far….

How will the end of the story go?

Are you the most successful person you know?

Hopefully not.

You can’t learn much from yourself.

The World Wide Mirror

Online, which is most of what is presented to us, the world is as we think it is – and that is a problem.

Because of algorithms, Google and other platforms know what we are interested in.  They know what we’ve searched for.  They know what we clicked on and how much time we spent there.  They even listen to us talking when we are not using our devices.  

Then when we go to our device it shows us what we already have looked at with the same world view.  This is nice, but it’s problematic too.  We don’t get a diverse view of the world.  We get reinforcement that the world is the way we have thought, even though it isn’t.  We are looking at the world in the mirror, our reflection coming back to us.

Our internet experience is not representative of the real world or the whole world.

Happy Birthday Think Daily!

I wrote my first Think Daily message in April of 2009 – 13 years ago.  This first Think Daily for Businesspeople message went out a month later.  That’s 13 years at 500 messages a year!

6500 times I sat down with my laptop and said “what am I going to write today?”  The process of “teaching” has made me a far better student.  I don’t want to say anything dumb, false, not useful, or insulting, though I am sure I have done all of those things.

To get better is to change.  But our egos don’t like change.  They are fighting to defend your identity that you act out each day and they don’t want to be challenged, exposed, called out or replaced with a new one.  But real change demands it.

Helping someone else change from afar without upsetting them and having them simply unsubscribe is a delicate matter.  

Walking my own talk has made me better.  But one thing has gotten easier.  Deciding what to do, or rather knowing what to do when the chips are down and the tests come.  By being a student and learning each day, when the occasion or crisis comes you know how to act ahead of time.  

Knowing what to do in so many of the situations life brings is not the result of reading (learning) it one time, but from repetition and being a practitioner to master ourselves.

I will keep going because the sun keeps coming up and you are still there.

Happy 13th Birthday Think Daily!

You can't fix it all

“You will never accomplish your goals if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.”

These days you can find lots wrong with the world, especially against the high standards of civility we have established.  But if we spend all our time focusing on ALL that is wrong, we become bitter, seeing the world through poorly colored glasses.

Make a difference in your area, your community and areas you can control – and be proud you are making the world a better place.

You are abnormal…hopefully.

Being normal in all areas is not a good life plan.  You’ll die with your talent left unused, and your joys left unrealized.

In what area are you abnormal?  Where do you spend a disproportionate amount of time and energy developing a talent (interest) that makes you a confident expert/pro who can teach or serve others?

Double down on something you would do even if you weren’t being paid.  Go deep on the things that are hard for others but easy for you.  Deviate from everyone else and become a freakish expert on something.  

Be proud of your abnormality.

Who do you want to be?

For some of us, it’s an easy question.  

For others, who might say “I already am who I want to be”, you should probably be asking “Can I be better?  Do more?  Serve more?  Become more?”  Don’t get stuck.  If you are breathing, you can continue to grow and make more of the potential you had put in you.

For others, “Who do I want to be” is a question that they have never answered.  Is that you?  If you don’t aspire to a higher ideal, then you have no reason, no aim, and your days will be wasted in distraction without purpose.

Who do you want to be that you aren’t yet?