When The Cup Runneth Over

"You may think this is suffering, no. It is salvation. The universal scale tips toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile." - Ebony Maw, Infinity War

It's been a bit of a month. The coffee consumption has been running on overtime, and I just wanted to say a quick thanks to everyone that has reached out saying that this small weekly brain dump has resonated with them in some small way. It's inspiring and much appreciated.

While I often talk about strategies for managing time, being more thoughtful on how to spend the day, leadership skills, or whatever random thing pops into my head, lots of the things that I ramble on about here are mainly my small form of self-therapy.

I hope that doesn't sound too selfish, but I often write these weekly posts as part of a methodology to work on my broken psyche. Writing is thinking, and while it makes my day (it does!) when readers shoot me a note that they found a post spoke to them, like everyone else, I stumble. More often than I'd like.

So, I'd throw it out this week: I've been feeling overwhelmed.

Lots of projects, many meetings, breaking my own rules on the calendar bank, getting stressed over things I shouldn't, not exercising as much as I should, and even having the occasional feeling of impostor syndrome.

I am not sharing this to complain to the universe, but making it more of a "we all go through it" reminder. Maybe the world would be better if more people did just that - admit we are not 'invincible' and acknowledge that there are times we all are just human.

Ironically, a question that came in from someone who read the post on Personal Mission statements started to finally get me back on track. They simply asked about my own and 'if I finally landed on one?'.

No; I haven't yet.

But I started to spend a ton of time thinking about the foundations for it:

• To not stress about where life takes me or things outside my control.
• To make sure that I spend time learning every day.
• To be around people that make me want to be better.
• To be a good father and husband.
• Try not to fuck up too much along the way.

I liked the way Mark Manson talks about "Uncomfortable Truth"'s and that 'there's a realization that we all come to that affects everything we do. And yet, we spend most of our lives ignoring it'.

You must start at the Uncomfortable Truth. From there, you must slowly build a convincing case for hope. And not just any hope, but a sustainable, benevolent form of hope. A hope that can bring us together rather than tear us apart. A hope that is robust and powerful, yet still grounded in reason and reality. A hope that can carry us to the end of our days with a sense of gratitude and satisfaction.

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

Im not sure why I loved this one as much as I did, but Rannae Stubbs, part of the coaching team of the amazing Serena Williams, shows off some "Ambush Tennis".

As someone 'who absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, withhold her opinion. Whether it’s correcting your tennis form in the middle of a dinner party or interrupting your casual hit to offer unsolicited advice, Rennae will coach you whether you like it or not.'

Loved it.

Thoughts of the week

Latest obsession

As a long-time user/fan of the great apps from Flexibits, I wanted to draw some attention to two of the staple apps I use daily.

If you're not using Fantastical or CardHop, you're missing out on some of the best apps on iOS and the Mac. The latest support for Openings and Proposals, I've entirely ditched the alternatives that I was using to find time to connect with people.

This weeks "Deep Links"

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

• I've been thinking a lot of the latest media noise with regards to 'quiet quitting'. Whether or not it's the 'next phase of the Great Resignation' or a sign of 'quiet firing', I think humans should spend more time on why we, as a society, are re-evaluating everything in 20202. Read more on "Is quiet quitting a real thing?" - More
• Or, continuing the theme, maybe people are just at a point where "stupidity — the new normal" is where the world is in 2022 and 'the earth continues to burn' - More
• Harold Jarche is one of the newer authors I've been following as of late, and I thought the post on "meetings, bloody meetings" was a great guide to how to have better, not more, meetings. I liked the lens on 'focus your energy on the real ingredients that make for effective meetings: purpose, engagement, safety, and results.' - More
• This is a fun hack project: "A smart E Ink calendar comes to my kitchen." I need to add this to the growing backlog of personal projects (like I needed more) - More
• I've always been somewhat amused when people get creative drawing out wacky things with apps that track location (such as the Nike app, or Strava) so I thought it was creative when a "Plane gives the middle finger to Washington state, flight map shows" - More
• "Tea drinkers enjoy possible health benefits, study suggests"; since I drink a ton of tea, I'm happy to take any leg up I can get - More
• While I'm not sure how many are knowledgable about what RSS is (except for us old-timers), "Filtering my RSS reading" was an excellent (albeit more technical) way to cut back on some of the chatter from articles that "would just be a waste of my time." I need to do more of this in my daily consumption; the noise/signal ratio is high these days - More
• File under nostalgia, but I particularly enjoyed when "Molly Ringwald Revisits 'The Breakfast Club' in the Age of #MeToo" - More
• Talking about more productive meetings, if you are an employee or a manager, here are "13 things to talk about in your 1-on-1s". I like the idea of 'Ask stuff you're just curious about' as it promotes more profound levels of navigation and thinking - More
• In the spirit of 'its more fun to be a pirate than in the navy,' here's the back story on "Apple's Jolly Roger." It was ‌a nod to the Jolly Roger that flew over Bandley 3 in 1983, the building the Mac team worked in as they put the finishing touches on the Macintosh; enjoy the wallpaper! - More

Fin

The tribute concert for Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins was held this morning in London. While I only caught a few of the performances while running on the treadmill, it would be a great way to wrap up this week with Miley Cyrus's speech about him from Lollapalooza, Brazil, 2022.

Be well. ✌🏻