“When I get nervous before an Olympic Trials or a big meet, I try to zoom way out, and remember that it’s just track. And in the end, no one really gives a shit about track.” | Phoebe Wright,NCAA track champion
Applicable to most things we do.
Be selective about what you give a shit about.
We live in an area with a few small hills. The terrain turns out to be perfect for a short morning run as you can cover two fairly steep hills within a 15 minute run.
Now the steeper of the two hills has a beautiful home on the top of the hill. The views are majestic.
During one of these runs, I found myself gazing at this house and thinking – “Wouldn’t it be cool coming home to that view?”
The next time I had that fleeting thought, I thought about it for a couple more minutes. As I paused, I realized that I could clearly hear the sound of vehicles from a nearby highway.
It turns out that being at that height removes all the barrier between you and the sound. So, as pretty as the view might be, you’re going to also have to live with the sound of the highway.
Of course, that could be a perfectly acceptable trade-off for someone.
But the more important reflection was that every dream has a downside that we often overlook.
One of the oldest ALearningaDay classic notes to self is – some days you’re the pigeon and some days you’re the statue.
When you’re going through a day or a stretch of statue days, don’t over analyze or attempt to salvage them. It doesn’t help.
Go to bed and try again tomorrow.
The first step to having a successful conversation is being clear what the conversation is really about.
Often, this isn’t what it says on the agenda (if there was an agenda) and it is also not what is first said.
And if that doesn’t went hard enough, sometimes it isn’t even clear to the others in the conversation.
It is why great conversations start by clarifying the real objectives for everyone involved.
One of the lessons I’ve learnt from following careers of footballers (/soccer players) over the years is that we frequently overemphasize the role of individual talent.
In reality, there’s a certain alchemy when we bring together the right player in the right team under the right manager.
Talent – especially of the precocious nature – helps a footballer get noticed and give them options. But if that mixture goes wrong, even the best of talents can flounder.
The opposite is also true. Players with mediocre relative talent can push close to world class in the right environment.
Applicable well outside football of course.
The difference between experiencing flow and feeling overwhelmed is often just prioritization.
Developing a system that just helps us continuously decide the one or two things that matters and helps us focus on those till they get done is among the most important investments we make for our mental health.
A few months ago, I’d shared a post about how our Powerwall had made us so much smarter about our energy use. These kinds of numbers are invaluable in understanding trends in energy use. Once we have this kind of visibility, we inevitably become smarter about our use.
I shared last week that I’m on a 4 week stretch with a Continuous Glucose monitor. Once you see how your body responds, you can’t un-see it. It changes you.
I’ve been looking for an equivalent device for our water. We finally got to installing a Moen device yesterday for our main line. It immediately gave me more visibility into our usage than I have had in years. It’ll be the first of many Moen devices in our household in the coming days.
Once you see the trends, it is hard to un-see them.
We must first see. Then we will understand. And then we will change.
We often talk about giving someone the “hard sell” when we want to convince them.
I’m a big fan of the opposite – the hard anti-sell. With the hard anti-sell, you clearly lay out all the reason someone shouldn’t, say, join your cause.
This isn’t about being negative. It is simply about laying out all the trade-offs explicitly so they have a clear understanding of the deal.
If they still decide to do it, you know you’ve found the right person
A Learning a Day 