What to aim for

The biggest problem with self-help books, business reviews, parenting blogs, marketing podcasts is that they give you a kick when your mind is at peace and make you feel awful the exact same moment things get hectic and you fail to follow their advice.

Hearing about what somebody else has done in similar circumstances is not going to shield us from pain, frustration, anger, and thousands of other feelings when the situation comes to us.

Life is tough, no matter what.

Finding your way, the way you can call your own and be proud of, is what you should aim for.

Within a stone’s throw

Your urgency is not your customer’s urgency.

You might have a plan, investors that demand that you grow, the idea that 30% year-over-year is the only measure of success, a team that is competitive and wants nothing more than their bonus at the end of the quarter.

But that is you. And honestly, nobody cares.

Think about your customer’s plan instead, what their investors want from them, how they define success, what their team wants to achieve in the next 90 days.

And if your first thought is “it depends”, you might be right. Most likely, though, you are just trying to sell to anybody who comes within a stone’s throw.

Focus. And learn.

Nothing personal

Other people’s success is nothing more than what it says it is: the success of someone who is not you.

It’s not your success, neither it is your failure. It’s not a missed opportunity and it is not less opportunities. It’s not your merit, it’s not your fault, it’s not your reward, it’s not your punishment.

It’s nothing personal.

Cherish other people’s success as vividly as you cherish your own.

The two go hand in hand.

Good at something

If you are really good at something, there’s no reason to make others feel bad for not being at your same level.

Lift them up instead, or at the very least show them a new way to think, to act, to relate, to commit.

You’ll make your good worth it.

Grounded

We are bad at estimating and predicting. Our gut feeling is nothing more than a feeling. We have opinions and ideas that are, for the most part, pretty average. In almost every situation, there is at least someone else who is more prepared, more qualified, more worthy than we are. When we think we are giving advice, we are actually mostly telling others to do what we have not found the courage to do ourselves. We are different and unique, yet not necessarily better, more prepared, or smarter.

When we remain grounded, it is much easier to appreciate ourselves and others.