The metrics that fit

We obsess over the short term.

Will this title get me more clicks?

Will this project get me the promotion?

Will this topic be on the test?

Will this cover letter get me the job?

And perhaps we should spend more effort understanding if we are measuring the metrics that better fit. Is clicks what I really want? Is that promotions truly good for me? Am I in this for the piece of paper only? Do I just want a job?

If you don’t take a wider perspective, it’s going to be one chase after the other, one hustle after the other, one hack after the other. Of course you are exhausted.

Redesigning life

If your life is designed in such a way that over time, consistently, you can’t:

  • take a number of days off to recover from a flu
  • take a number of days off to prevent the spreading of a disease
  • take one hour or two to recover from a bad headache or go for a walk
  • cancel a business trip
  • reschedule a meeting
  • go offline for a period of time without fearing something will be wrong when you are back
  • ignore an email or a call that comes out of your normal business hours

Then it is perhaps time to consider redesigning your life.

Motivation and method

The outcome of the things you do is heavily determined by your motivation and by your method.

Motivation is what gives you the reason why, what makes you feel all ecstatic, what gives you the kick to get started. Motivation is powerful yet fragile, and very often it is dependent on the feedback we get from the environment around us. If people don’t like our work, if we do not get the reward we were expecting, if things do not work as intended, motivation fades and leaves us wondering why we got started in the first place.

Method, on the other hand, is unexciting. It is a system, a discipline, a practice to obtain what you set out to obtain. Method is not as powerful as motivation, it is more of a muscle that needs to be trained, over and over again. Yet it can become solid, and when it does, you can fall back on method when motivation falters. It becomes a given, a reason in itself, not something others need to acknowledge for it to exist.

Motivation and method do not often go hand in hand, and when they do they are unstoppable.

60 seconds

What would happen if we could wait?

Before judging our neighbor who is still up at 4am. Before shouting at our kids who are trying to figure out something complex. Before sharing the advice nobody has asked for. Before answering to the instant message of somebody who is dealing with their own challenges. Before going on a rant about something we have misread in a conversation. Before clicking the comment box to leave some vitriolic words for somebody who does not share our worldview. Before beating ourselves up for not achieving what we so desperately wanted. Before rage quitting the place we have invested so much into. Before following that shiny little object that is going to take away from our lives.

If only we could wait 60 seconds, what would happen instead?

No excuse

By participating in that head-to-head discussion on Twitter, I have changed minds and inspired hundreds of people.

Every time I like an Instagram post, I am closer to feeling fully accomplished.

A turning point in my life was that time I watched all of the YouTube videos by that influencer in one sit.

The constant flux of notifications I get on my mobile throughout the day exponentially improves the quality of my work.

said no one ever

By all means, use your free time however you prefer.

And make sure when it’s over, it is really over.

There’s no excuse nowadays to not go about finding and fulfilling your purpose. Yet, never before have so little people been committed to do just that.

Go make the change you are here to make.