Maybe It's Your Attitude

"The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude." - Oprah Winfrey

You know that feeling... when someone asks you a question that lingers in your mind for some time afterward. It may not be a big thing, maybe it's just a simple idea or question that grows, rattles around in the back of your skull, sneaks up on you when you're not expecting it, or you spend way too many nights thinking about it in search of some self-discovery.

Maybe... its inception?

An idea is like a virus. Resilient. Highly contagious. And the smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.

A few months ago, I did a talk, where I was asked for "one piece of advice" from a group of graduating students.

A simple question really; with no simple answer.

What I came to realize though, is that I've been spending a lot of time thinking about that one. It wasn't because I didn't have an answer for it at the time, I offered up the first thing that popped into my head, "ask for help when you need it."

It's good advice; but if I'm being honest, I felt that it was a bit of a cop-out on my side (there's that imposter syndrome rolling around again.)

The other night, unable to sleep after a 3 am bout with Wordle, I came across an entry in my journal from three years ago (this is the power of journals).

It turns out I already knew my answer...

If there's one thing you need to remember, it is to slow down, breathe, and create options for yourself. You are in far more control of your surroundings: your location, the people you surround yourself with, what you do every day, your sleep, what food you eat, what you care about, and what type of energy you put into those things.

You will forget that minor changes to this have a significant impact.

Attitude is everything.

It's probably worth repeating that: attitude IS everything.

I'm not advocating that realigning your attitude towards different things is easy; we all slip into bad habits, negative patterns, self-destructive behavior - that's just life. Equally, I think it's important to understand that attitude isn't necessarily about being positive all the time; it's about figuring out what's important, what's not necessary, and where to put that energy in the moment.

Attitude will determine how you react to situations. How much energy to expend on each unique circumstance?

"The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition." - Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way

If a situation isn't critical, don't make it urgent. But your attitude ultimately will determine how you react to these things; your own unique ability to grow, learn and overcome.

Your attitude defines your approach to everything.

Anyways, enough rambling for this week. I'm going to wrap this up with a clip from one of my favorite shows, Legion. (For no other reason than I ran across this clip recently, and it reminded me what a great show it is that you haven't watched.)

"You see, an idea alone isn’t enough. We have ideas all the time — random thoughts and theories. Most die before they can grow. For a delusion to thrive, other, more rational ideas must be rejected, destroyed. Only then can the delusion blossom into full-blown psychosis."

If you enjoy these posts, you can buy me a coffee ☕️, or if you'd rather keep up with my daily ramblings, follow me on Twitter or keep reading my posts on this blog.

Forward Thinking

I often joke that I've seen the beginning of The Shawshank Redemption maybe five times, and I've seen the ending almost 500. If I'm flipping through the channels (well, searching through a guide these days), I'll always switch it no matter where it's at to watch Andy Dufresne 'crawl through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side.'

This week, the film celebrated the 28th anniversary of its release, and I learned a few new things about it. While I knew it was a box office bomb, making only $16m in its initial run, this was the first time I had heard this story.

It turns out that Frank Darabont, the writer-director of the film, bought the rights to the Stephen King short story "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" for only $5000.

But the most interesting bit, is that King never cashed the check.

Instead, several years later, he framed the check and sent it back to Darabont with a note that read:

"In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve."

Mic drop.

Thought(s) of the week

Latest obsession

Not a new product to look at, but simply some advice if you've recently upgraded a device that previously had AppleCare on it. It turns out: Apple offers prorated AppleCare refunds.

If you had AppleCare on a device, got a new one, see if you can get a refund on your unused service plan.

This weeks "Deep Links"

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

• "We know you're winging it" explores the simple yet brilliant idea that 'nobody's really in charge - we're just making it up as we go along.' and highlights an interview with the Founder of IDEO, Dave Kelley. He focused on building a culture that allowed his employees to be 'comfortable with the idea of not knowing where they were going.' LOVE IT! - More
• In what artist Jeffrey Linn calls'steam punk aesthetic', "Life in the Sea Suite" has a wild site The Conspiracy of Cartographers where you can buy 'old map produced by oil companies and chart sea-level rises on them.' Pretty amazing parody art, actually (check them out) - More
• The stage of 'blogs' is weird in 2022, but "Take Care of Your Blog" has some great tips for online writing. And, I agree with the number one rule: "always self-host your website because your URL, your own private domain, is the most valuable thing you can own." Aka makoism.com - More
• "Screens Were a Mistake: Work Analog" explores 'are computers too productive in the creative process?'; and the value of ditching the electronics and using a pencil instead - More
• For the avid notetakers, "Practicing note rewriting." I've become very dubious on anything PKM related, but this was a good one around the three most important things that can improve any notes: how to Reflect, Recall, and Rewrite - More
• "Attentive" is a thought-provoking read on today's scarcest resource: your attention. - More
• This weeks thought bomb, "Why Goal Cascades are Harmful (and What to Do Instead)" is a great read that explores the downside of top-level goal setting is ineffective and that models which map to your business drivers (with measurement) are far more helpful. It was a perfect thinking piece - More
• I never really wanted to have a dog, and even though I grew up with one, it wasn't something I wanted to deal with as an adult. That is until our (now three-year-old) golden retriever entered our world, and now I can't imagine life without him. In "What Do Dogs Know About Us?", the author explores dog cognition and the simple truth in 'they level no judgment, as happy to see you on the toilet as at the door, flinching not at your nakedness or weakness.' Dogs are the best. - More
• "Quiet Quitting Is a Fake Trend. Why Does It Feel Real?" continues the exploration of the latest meme. But honestly, the caption "What people are now calling 'quiet quitting' was, in previous decades, simply known as 'having a job.'" seems to sum it up - More
• For the tech crowd, here's "Building the future of the command line" and a look at the impressive toolset of Charm. I've only started to mess with this, but it's super geeky and beautiful, and the command line is far from dead - More

Fin

Last week, I mentioned the Steve Jobs Archive.

Here is the full video of Tim Cook, Jony Ive, and Laurene Powell Jobs discussing the archive and his impact on Apple and the world.

Be well. ✌🏻