Tag: empowerment

What we are not

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What we are not helps define what we are.

Yet certainly, that cannot end there. This is particularly true when we compete, when we try to influence, when we run against something that is already established.

We need to differentiate, and that cannot be done by merely saying “not-the-other”. The more you let this message run, the more steam you are transferring to your adversary’s engine.

Building movements that matter is hard job because they require self-reflection, deep knowledge of the playing field and story building.

All the rest is a shortcut, and short is the breath that will sustain it.

The metrics that fit

Fabrizio1 Comment

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

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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

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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.

Not everything

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Not everything is urgent. Not everything is important. Not everything is newsworthy, and not everything that is newsworthy is a tragedy. Not everything requires your attention. Not everything demands that you change your plans. Not everything is a debate in search of a winner. Not everything is worth your time.

When we lose the ability to look at things with perspective, the world becomes flat.