A Brighter Tomorrow

America has been through a lot in the last twenty years:

• Endless foreign wars on multiple fronts (2001, 2003-onward);
• The 2008 financial meltdown;
• Racial inequality & division;
• Dysfunction, & government shutdowns;
• Education costs, degree inflation, and student loan debt stifling innovation;
• Supply constraints, pervasive red tape, & not-in-my-backyard (“NIMBY”) policies increasing housing costs.
• The election of Donald Trump, and the straining of Western alliances;
• National debt of $26.5 trillion (more than $80,300 per person — including children);
• The loss of trust in objective truth online;
• A public health nightmare in the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic; and
• A loss of love for this nation among its domestic youth — and of what made it great in the first place. …

Simplify, Meditate, Walk with Nature, Organize

How do some people stay focused through hard times?

What is the link between focus on the one hand, and resilience on the other?

In this TEDx talk, neuroscience researcher Marvin Chun discusses the limits of the brain’s potential to multitask. He provides three tips for improving concentration — “simplify, relax, unitask.”

The full talk is well worth a watch. Below, I distill Chun’s three points into four related ones.

Self-Determination

“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.”

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

December 1, 2021 — what does the image conjure in your mind?

Your actions today are already shaping that future.

• Your thoughts, and your relationship with them (shaped through contemplative practices);
• Your assumptions about yourself;
• Your daily habits, conscious or not;
• Your plans;
• Your mood, and your outlook;
• Your health.

Every choice matters. Even your subconscious shapes what’s coming for you.

So many people go through life without introspection — without planning. This is a form of surrender. If you don’t plan, you get what others want for you. Planning puts you in the driver’s seat. …

Do you ever wonder how “breakout” success happens?

How do the very best people go from ordinary, even painful circumstances — only to achieve explosive success?

Is it intellect? Talent? Or, something else?

Consider this.

• Seven years after university, J.K. Rowling was unemployed, on welfare, suffering from clinical depression and contemplating suicide. She wrote Harry Potter on an old manual typewriter.
• Steve Jobs left Reed College when he was 19 because it was too much of a financial burden on his family. He built Apple Computer.
• Walt Disney naively signed away the ownership rights to his first cartoon in 1928 — so he lost it. …

Self-Determination

“A little action often spurs a lot of momentum.”
― Noah Scalin

In any new endeavor, the first 4–12 weeks are the hardest part.

There are several reasons for this. During the initial growth period:

• Your performance is weakest — you have the most adaptation and growth ahead of you.
• You are constantly improving — you have to face your failures every day.
• You have the greatest need for resilience — it’s very easy to adopt a negative self-image in the face of what seems to be repeated failure.
• Your improvement is “stealth” — competitors are so far ahead of you that even rapid improvement may not be noticeable. …

Self Determination

1 — Clarity

Say what you’re going to say, then move on.

Watch your adverbs. Watch your “complex” words. A fifth-grader should be able to understand your words.

Grammarly features the “Flesch Readability Score” — a simple number to check how easy or difficult your writing is to read. (This is not the Grammarly Score.) The higher the Flesch Score, the larger your potential audience. Ideally, your writing should be above 70.

If you don’t have access to Grammarly, that’s okay. It’s not rocket science. Use short sentences. Write simply. Communicate clearly.

Anything worth saying is worth saying simply.

2 — Concision

Don’t waste words.

It’s not about you. It’s about the reader. …

A Brighter Tomorrow

Tennis is different from most other sports. There’s no one on the court but you.

If you lose, you lose. If you win, you win. Your preparation, your skill, your fitness, your outlook — everything goes into the mix. But there’s no one else to blame.

I started playing at age 13.

I lost every tournament match I played, 0–6, 0–6.

The first loss was to the number-one seed in a big tournament. You’re expected to lose to the top seed. This is the top player in the tournament (usually a regional or national player), risking his rank by playing in the first place. You’re expected to lose. Think of all of the matches Federer or Djokovic or Williams play against unnamed players before they ever make it to the ones you see on TV. …

Leadership

Situation A

You have a high-value project coming up. Several, actually.

It’s make-or-break time. Your company’s future is riding on your performance in the next few months. You have to get this job done.

But you have a problem. Your team has holes in it. You’ve lost two of your best employees. These were your newest hires, but they did a lot of your work. They left for competitors without explanation. You can’t afford to go into the busy season without them. The work won’t get done. Your numbers will be down.

There is a promising candidate coming onto the market who is perfect for the work that you need to do. This person has competing offers from four other firms. Your best recruiter swears this is your person. He has deep background in your area. …