Resilience. Grit. Perseverance. These are the X-Factors and the superpowers that I come across in so many famous failure stories. The elements that level the playing field. The characteristics that trump talent time and time again. Continue reading
Month: March 2021
During these extraordinary times, I have found an abundance of comfort in reading books and quotes that fuel my soul and fill my cup.
Some quotes that I’ve encountered lately include… Continue reading
I’m currently reading Adam Grant’s book Think Again and it’s such an eye-opener. He talks about mental fitness and the value in being able to pivot our thinking. He says that often we have a belief and when we speak of it, we become a preacher, a prosecutor, or a politician. He writes, “We go into preacher mode when our sacred beliefs are in jeopardy: we deliver sermons to protect and promote our ideals. We enter prosecutor mode when we recognize flaws in other people’s reasoning: we marshal arguments to prove them wrong and win our case. We shift into politician mode when we’re seeking to win over an audience: we campaign and lobby for the approval of our constituents. The risk is that we become so wrapped up in preaching that we’re right, prosecuting others who are wrong, and politicking for support that we don’t bother to rethink our views.” Continue reading
Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired Magazine, has a weekly newsletter called Recomendo. This week he wrote, “Most overnight successes take at least 5 years. As Dave Perell notes in his newsletter Monday Musings, ‘[Marques Brownlee] is one of the most popular technology-focused YouTubers in the world. As I write this, he has 13.6 million subscribers and his videos have been watched 2.4 billion times. But when he recorded his 100th video, he only had 74 subscribers.’ In other words, he made and posted his first hundred videos with the tiniest possible audience. To make something great, keep showing up! As Perell noted in another of his issues: ‘If you create something weekly for 2 years, you will earn an audience.’ That is, make 100 creations before you have a big audience. Every ‘overnight’ success I’ve ever seen was preceded by years of relentless, and sometimes unappreciated, hard work.” Continue reading
Who knows what will happen tomorrow? I mean, just a year ago we were doing wild things when greeting others including shaking hands and hugging. How things have changed.
I was listening to Dan Harris, author and past news anchor, on The Tim Ferriss Show. He spoke about having a panic attack on-air on Good Morning America in 2004 and how that changed his path and helped him find meditation and life balance. He grew up living with a mantra that his father taught him which was, “The price of security is insecurity.” So, he believed that you had to be stressed to climb to the top of the mountain. That was the price. Continue reading