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Category: Living Well

The Best Seed Collector

Published on July 5, 2021

Idea gathering is addicting. It’s motivating. It’s exciting.

…It does nothing for you.

Gathering ideas is about as useful as gathering seeds—and I’m not talking about the kind you can eat.

Most of us have an incredible store of seeds that are doing nothing more than taking up space. And yet, what so many of us continue to do is carry on collecting more seeds for our store.

For what? Why? Because you want bigger ones? So you can collect them all? This isn’t Pokémon.

The thing about seeds is that they’re wildly inexpensive and abundant—like ideas. But, even just one seed planted and cared for well, can lead to something valuable. Certainly more valuable than the seed itself.

And it’s in the process of nurturing seeds and bringing plants to life where you learn the most and get the biggest return on your invested time anyway—not from seed collecting.

So, before you go searching for other seeds to collect, how about you plant and begin cultivating some of the seeds you already have?

What if, instead of being a well known collector of inexpensive seeds, you became a well known grower of increasingly valuable plants?

Hope Is Not A Strategy

Published on June 25, 2021

Hope is not a strategy.

  • “Hopefully, I’ll wake up on time.”
  • “Hopefully, I won’t get too busy.”
  • “Hopefully, I’ll do better tomorrow.”

Strategy is action-oriented.

  • “Here’s how I’m going to wake up on time.”
  • “Here’s how I’ll manage my tasks.”
  • “Here’s how I’ll do better.”

Hoping for change is about as helpful as praying for luck—it isn’t strategy, it’s lazy.

Even if change did happen luckily, wouldn’t you prefer to be the cause of change in your life? Rather than supernatural forces and serendipity doing the work for you?

The most successful among us don’t rely on hope or luck, they act. Will you?

Where Ripples Ripple Best

Published on June 19, 2021

Where’s the best place to make a pond ripple?

Answer: there isn’t one.

Where’s the best place to make a difference?

Answer: there isn’t one.

Right where you are is as good as any.

Just start turning your ideas into actions and toss them into the pond.

The ripples will follow.

The Creators Of Tide

Published on June 17, 2021 
Every act of creation
 adds a drop to the tide

 every compliment made from nothing
      every thank you properly shared
 every smile gifted to another
      every work of art created with care
 every loving embrace
      every bridge made from here and there

 adds a drop to the tide
 that lifted us from down there


 Every act of destruction
 takes from the tide

 every comparison made
      every expectation shared
 every frown imposed upon another
      every opportunity for work, done without care
 every embrace avoided
      every bridge burned leaving some here, some there

 takes from the tide
 that lowered us from up there


 From nothing to something
 we are the creators of tide

 From something back to nothing
 oh, don’t you damn hide

 It’s you and it’s me and it’s all of us together
      creating and destroying
      lifting and lowering
      caring and not caring
 that results in the tide that we
      like it or not
 all have to share

60 Minutes vs 600 Minutes

Published on June 16, 2021

While working out, I think about how I don’t want to workout.

When I don’t workout, I think about how I should’ve worked out.

The first burns ~60 minutes of thinking from my day.

The latter burns closer to ~600 minutes.

Get it?

Now go get done what you know needs to get done.

With the possibility of a 10x return on your investment, you’d be crazy not to.

If You’re Miserable, It’s Not Sustainable

Published on June 15, 2021

“The MOST IMPORTANT feature of a sustainable habit: You don’t hate doing it.”

Mark Palmer, Twitter

This doesn’t mean you have to love doing each of your daily habit tasks, just that you don’t hate doing them—there’s a difference.

Moving even one tick back from “miserable” to “don’t like it,” can remarkably lengthen your habit’s lifespan and prevent you from burning out altogether.

Like when you move one tick back from “red zone” to “yellow zone” while running. That minor pace adjustment can give your legs a major boost in life. And you’ll last far longer than you ever would’ve if you stayed in “red.”

While “red” is what moves you fast, “yellow” is what takes you far.

This is how I approach all sustainable habits. Fast isn’t what I’m after—far is what I want. The question I often ask myself is, “How can I make this more like an enjoyable run and less like an all out sprint?”

And I move things a tick back wherever I find myself in “red.” Similarly, I move things a tick forward wherever I find myself in a “green.” Because being in “green,” of course, doesn’t take you anywhere far or fast. It keeps you comfortable where you are.

And even though I don’t like being uncomfortable, I make sure that what I’m doing never makes me miserable. Because not only is “miserable” bad for the run—it’s bad for all future runs! And if you want to go far, going in misery is no way to go.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t “Crutch” It

Published on June 12, 2021

When we confront challenges in life, it’s in our nature to seek the path of least resistance and to look for ways we can make those challenges easier.

One such method is by dumping our challenges on other people. Because if someone else will confront the challenge for us, who is presumably stronger, why not let them? (1) They’re stronger and (2) it’ll be easier for us! Well, this is precisely why we shouldn’t.

While it’s quite admirable that someone would do such a kind thing for another, here’s what we have to remember: borrowing strength builds weakness.

People who confront other people’s challenges for them become nothing more than a “crutch.” And while being a crutch is okay when someone is really broken—like how crutches are used to rehab a broken leg—at a certain point we have to take the crutches away. If we don’t, the muscles will continue to atrophy and weaken.

The challenge is precisely what’s needed for growth.

Likewise, at some point, we have to stop seeking “crutches” and stop being other people’s “crutch.” We have to bear the full weight of the consequences associated with our actions. It’s the only way we’ll ever build up the strength we desire so badly to have.