Month: July 2024

We have to let go of what was and what could have been to have a shot at enjoying or making the most of what is.

A reminder for today – take a few minutes to turn off all the technology and smell the roses.

When we stick with problems over long periods of time, every once a while, we have a moment of clarity. Dots begin to connect in ways they didn’t connect before.

Moments of clarity are rare. There’s a reason they’re often depicted as bolts of lightning in books.

My biggest learning when such a moment arrives is to put everything else aside and take the time to write it down. I treat it like a burst of energy – it needs to be harnessed right. Once harnessed, that flash of energy can inspire a period of sustained productivity.

Earn them by staying with meaningful problems for long periods of time.

Then, make them count.

We recently switched checking accounts to Schwab after a decade with Bank of America. There’s a lot to like about Schwab – no fee ATM withdrawals globally, some interest on that checking account, and so on.

But two months in, I’ve loved one feature most – they pick up the phone.

Calling Bank of America to get things done was a chore I hated. It typically involved an hour’s wait (no callback options) and I only did it if there was no other option. The Schwab team picks up within seconds and is always helpful. So much so that I’d move more business to Schwab in a heartbeat.

Most financial institutions see customer service as a cost center and spend years relentlessly watering down service to cut costs. Schwab clearly sees it as a way to drive retention and new business.

It shows.

I rented camera lenses from Lensrentals.com. The rental logistics were seamless. But what impressed me was the box.

It started with the message on the tape in the middle. Simple and nice.

It then had a note reminding me to double check the contents. “We’re the best, but no one’s perfect” was hilarious.

And then came the note on the tape they left with the return label. Epic.

A beautiful example of craftsmanship and doing small things with extraordinary care.

Well played, Lensrentals team. Thank you for the inspiration.

“Might be time to get some fresh air, start paying attention to the details. Some of those details might need your help” | Blake to Bruce Wayne

One of my favorite lines from Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy was this line from Blake (who would go on to become Robin) to Bruce Wayne. It is just as relevant for every organizational leader* as it was for Batman.

As you lead larger organizations, it is important to be able to delegate. But the ability to dig deep into the details conversely only increases with time. And it is especially when it is accompanied by good judgment that helps you understand which details are worth digging into.

I heard the term “Nomophobia” or “No mobile phobia” for the first time a few weeks ago. It refers to the anxiety of not having a working mobile phone. It is considered a behavioral addiction.

Given how ever present my phone is in my life on daily basis, I was curious if I was Nomophobic. So I took the opportunity to disconnect completely over two weeks this summer. On past breaks, I’d still check my phone once or twice a day. This time, it would be a complete switch off.

So I scheduled 14 days worth of posts, switched my phone off, and put in my bag.

The ability to completely disconnect from all kinds of information/news felt… wonderful. I came back more refreshed than ever.

I’d like to do it more often.

“It is hard to make that boat go as fast as you want to. The enemy, of course, is resistance of the water, as you have to displace the amount of water equal to the weight of men and equipment, but that very water is what supports you and that very enemy is your friend.

So is life: the very problems you must overcome also support you and make you stronger in overcoming them.”| George Yeoman Pocock – legendary row boat builder

Wise and powerful.

It resonated.

“Joy, you’ve made a lot of mistakes and you’ll make a whole lot more in the future, but if you let *that* stop you, *we* might as well lie down and give up.” | Anger, Inside Out 2

“Inside Out 2” was chock full of beautiful quotes and lessons. Perhaps the most important of them all was the importance of taking all kinds of experiences – good, bad, disappointing, frustrating, and the like – in our stride. Embracing the many emotions that come with these experiences helps us build a healthy sense of self.

And it is only when we learn to face our mistakes and embarrassments head on do we realize the wisdom in Anger’s words above. We’ve made a lot of mistakes… and we’ll make a whole lot more.

Can’t let that stop us.

Brad Stulberg had an insightful post on appropriate loading on his newsletter that I thought I’d share in full.

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A fews weeks back, I tweaked my calf on a deep pendulum squat. I proceeded to have a brief conversation with a physical therapist who trains at my gym. He recommended two rehabilitation exercises. I thanked him and, without really thinking, added, “I’ll do these exercises and otherwise rest it for a bit.”

He almost immediately corrected me: “No, you’ll do these exercises and appropriately load your calf otherwise.”

Over the last decade, there’s been a shift in sports medicine away from straight rest and toward appropriate loading. The gist is that when you experience an injury, instead of shutting things down completely, you want to continue to use that body part to the extent you can, even if it causes some acute discomfort. So long as the pain doesn’t increase the next day, you’re on the right track.

Appropriate loading does two important things: the first is that instead of creating a mindset of fragility and fear (e.g., I need to protect this body part or else) it creates a mindset of strength and progress (e.g., I am strong and resilient and can continue to use this body part, albeit with adjustments.) It’s a significant shift, especially since we know that pain is not just in the bones and tissues but also in the brain and central nervous system. If you completely shut down an injury, you are telling the brain and central nervous system to turn the alarm system on high, predict pain with any usage, and immediately label that pain as bad. This often leads to increased pain once you finally resume using the affected body part, even if the injury is “healed.” By continuing to load the injured area, however, you are preventing the alarm system from becoming overly sensitive.

The second benefit of appropriate loading is that it gives the affected tissue or bone a stimulus to respond to. Instead of letting an injured body part sit there and atrophy, you are maintaining at least some strength and helping to promote the recovery process by increasing blood flow.

To be clear, if you’ve suffered a major injury and are experiencing uncontrolled inflammation, you may very well want to shut things down completely for a period of time. But even then, current best practices would likely have you begin loading the injury sooner than you may think.

Appropriate loading is a useful concept beyond tissue and bone. It’s core tenets apply to all the injuries we face in life—from the psychological to the relational to the cognitive.

Whether it’s a failure in the workplace, a fight with a friend or a significant other, or an experience that triggers anxiety and subsequent avoidance, we can ask ourselves: How might I appropriately load this situation?

Shutting things down completely, repressing, or ignoring a problem often makes it worse. Much like the body has an alarm system for physical pain, the mind has an alarm system for psychosocial pain. When you try to come back and confront whatever the situation is, the longer and more fervently you’ve avoided it, the harder it becomes. This can lead to a cycle of avoidance and repression that festers and becomes chronic, no different than physical pain.

But it’s equally true that pushing too hard, pretending that nothing is wrong, or trying to plow through a legitimately challenging or painful situation is also detrimental.

Appropriate loading asks you to take stock of the situation and reflect on the right amount of stimulus to promote progress, even if applying that stimulus is uncomfortable in the moment.

Here are a few examples of how appropriate loading may play out in common life challenges:

• Confronting the other party following a serious argument, acknowledging the hurt, and discussing how best to move forward instead of retreating behind a wall of silence in which resentments and anger fester.
• Getting back to work on the next project within a day or two of a disappointing failure or defeat instead of wallowing in sadness and giving it a chance to turn into despair.
• Facing the causes of your anxieties instead of avoiding them and thus feeding into a cycle of avoidant fear.

No different than a physical injury, the amount of load (and its timing) will differ based on the situation. In some instances, you may need a brief period of complete rest (e.g., a cooldown period to let the equivalent of acute inflammation—perhaps anger, fear or frustration—reside). But what matters is that you start loading the affected area of your life as soon as you can. It’s not blind loading or reckless loading—it’s appropriate loading.

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It is another manifestation of choosing to stretch beyond our comfort zone while not stepping into the panic zone.

It resonated.