Admit You're Wrong

Ironically, as I was catching up on the end of the weekly podcasts, Daily Stoic had an episode drop today that directly talked about what I was going to ramble about this week: embracing when you are wrong.

We all achieve a certain level of personal or professional success built upon previous experiences, knowledge, trial and error, or just tenacity. Last week, I talked about these things limiting your ability to see the bigger picture.

Expectations come from things we know. It's kinda backward in some ways - the more we know, the more narrow-minded we can become, and a lack clearer sight of "what could be."

But what happens when you are just plain ole' wrong? Or is something in your control is just broken?

Maybe you screwed up, made a wrong choice, and blew it.

I've said it before, and it bears repeating: own your shit. While that earlier call to action was geared towards individuals to take responsibility for their choices in life, it's equally as effective as a mantra for owning the outcome of your actions or problems in your control. Good or bad. Successes or failures.

As a leader, the worst thing you can do is blame someone else for your error or look for lame excuses. "It's on me" are potent words. How many leaders do you know that start to yell or try 'command and control' when something isn't fluid, right, broken, or incorrect, rather than leaning in to own and fix it.

As Ryan Holiday says in the aforementioned podcast:

Every decision lives in the past. In the here and now, they no longer exist. It can no longer be touched.

All that remains is what you do next.

When you take ownership, you can more easily figure out how to proceed next. And while we'd all like to think we're perfect in life, accepting that you're probably going to be wrong more often than right is somewhat freeing.

It's funny, because you'll see how much you can really achieve is often be proportional to your ability to own that shit, admit to being wrong, and act.

If you enjoy these posts, you can buy me a coffee ☕️, check out my store or just share my work. If you'd rather just keep up with my daily ramblings, follow me via your favorite RSS reader, via Mastodon or keep reading my posts on this blog. Your support is much appreciated!

Slow Tech

You never really know what will stick when you put something out there. But I was especially surprised when I posted "Own Your Shit" back in August that one of the most common requests I had was if there was a shirt available.

So, I thought - why not - and it's now available from the incredible team at Cotton Bureau.

If you want to support Makoism, make a statement that you're going to take some responsibility and look good doing it, you can order an Own Your Shit tee right now. It comes in short-sleeved tee-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, etc., which come in three brilliant colors: black, blue, and heather black.

We'll see how this goes - I have a bunch of fun "philosophical mottos" I may launch eventually. Order yours today!

Brain Dump

Here are a few articles and videos that resonated with me over the last week:

• Things I learned today: as a former Disney cast member, I was already aware that certain rides, such as Soarin', use smells to enhance the experience. This one was new for me, though, which discusses the breakdown of the unique smell found on Pirates of the Caribbean. Who knew you could even buy a candle with the unique scent? — [via The Pirates of the Caribbean Scent Edition]
• It's been fun to watch the possibilities of what AI can enable, so here's a look at Whisper and how it's being used to transcode podcasts. I previously was doing this via Otter.AI, but this is super interesting that it can be run locally on a Mac — [via Automating podcast transcripts on my Mac with OpenAI Whisper]
• My favorite quote of the week is "Re-Wilding Your Attention", described as 'the value of paying attention to offbeat things.' If you're going to read one amazing post, this is the one to put at the top of the list. I need to re-read this one a few times as it may warrant its post — [via Rewilding your attention]
• I loved this one; "I don't care what we do. I just came to see you!" is one of the best reasons for travel, ever. Instead of going to a place and seeing all the sites, the idea of going to a place to gather, eat and hang out feels so authentic. — [via Traveling just for the people]
• Another mind-bomb read came across the newsfeeds this week on the beauty of using an old Mac to create an isolated, quiet, fully controlled experience outside of the noise of the modern internet. 'Above all, this computer allows me to step back, take a break, and relax from the stresses of my life and the modern world. I appreciate this computer for what it is and what it provides me, different from what it was or could have provided me in the past.' — [via My Favorite Computer, An Old Mac]
• Super important to maintain a healthy mindset: schedule time to do nothing. — [via By Scheduling Time to Do Nothing Every Day for a Week, I Learned the Secret to Creativity]
• The big question: will technology advancements bring progress? Or just profits. — [via Luddites]
• If you've worked on tech, you're probably familiar with the concept of garbage collection, which is easiest to think of as 'running a program creates garbage, which is the memory that's been allocated but is unused. Garbage creation is unavoidable, so we occasionally pause to collect garbage.'. Now, apply this logic to how to handle any debt, and you have an interesting place to play. — [via Garbage Collect Your Technical Debt]
• We all have arguments, and as this one proclaims, 'it's unreasonable to expect a relationship without conflict.' This read has some great strategies to break through the conversation to understanding. — [via The Art of Arguing]
• Another post on the return of the personal website. — [via Into the Personal-Website-Verse]
• I'm always a sucker for time management hacks, and articles on optimization and time blocking are always great for figuring out new ways to proactively plan the day. — [via Planning a 30 hour work week]

This Weeks Vibe

"And be a simple kind of man... Oh, be something you love and understand" - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Simple Man

Be well. ✌🏻