Ego gets in the way of ideas

If your arrogance is more obvious than your expertise, you are someone other people avoid.

What’s bigger, your ego or the value of your ideas?

Who are you asking for advice?

I was reading a book called “You Are a Badass at Making Money.” Jen Sincero is the author and she is funny – and on point.  In it she writes “Do not ask your broke ass friends for advice. For God’s sake get advice from someone who knows what the hell they are doing.”  

That’s great advice on getting advice. What do you want to know about? Relationships? Investing? Fitness? Something specific?

 Are you asking experts for advice on that subject?

Inaudible self-talk

What we say to ourselves is REALLY important – and most of that is inaudible.  

“This is going to be hard today,” “I hate this,” “OMG, are you kidding me? This is stupid already…” “I can’t do it.”

Catch yourself.  

Speak a new inaudible reality – the one you WANT.

Free Speech

Imagine a world where you could only say what everyone else approved of.  That’s an instrument of tyrants over the ages.  Can we agree that is not a society we want to live in?

Ok, well if we want to say things that others don’t agree with (maybe BECAUSE they don’t), then doesn’t it stand to reason that we must tolerate and accept others saying whatever they want as well?

Offensive?  Yup.  Against our beliefs?  That too.  These have to be included because who’s to say what offensive is or what beliefs are truth?  

Let’s defend our own free speech, by not silencing others.

Act as if you'll live a long healthy life.

How would a person who will live a long healthy life live? Eat? Exercise? Take care of themselves? Think? Believe?

The person who has the most control of whether you live a long healthy life is you – right?

How are you acting?

Not everyone will approve…

We’ve all heard the saying that one way to be unhappy is to try to make everyone else happy.  I used to think I had that one handled – that I tried to make the people who were important to me happy (family, customers, employees) and I wasn’t trying to make the world happy – so I’m good.  

But in the end, I don’t want people to dislike me.  I guess I’m no different than most people.  There will be people that say nasty things about you behind your back, or anonymously online.  If we take it to heart, we will change our behavior and start living small, where you can’t do much people can criticize.  In fact, you wouldn’t do much at all. That would be giving your power away to the critics.

The reality is, that people levy harsh criticism of others mostly because of what is going on with themselves, not you. Your existence just happened to cross paths with their attention, and they spewed some unkind words.  But a few minutes later they were on to something else, and forgot about you altogether.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t listen to the feedback the world is giving you.  But even if you are doing great stuff, not everyone will approve of what you are doing.  And there are always the snipers, who have personal shame, shortcomings or pain they are trying to mask by bringing someone else down.

Take any power they have over you away.

Ignore them.

Big doors swing on little hinges

The big results in life come from lots of small efforts and tasks completed well. Habits, that don’t seem to make a big difference in the span of a day, make all the difference one day.

Do the small things you do, day in and day out, move you towards your most important goals?

A wise man once said – nothing.

Sometimes it’s better not to say anything. Why argue it? Why stir it up? Why engage that one?

You could save your energy and attention for something better.

Access points to your brain

What we see and hear comprise most of the distractions we are constantly subject to each day that prevent us from focusing and doing “deep work” (our best work).

Shut off things that beep, ping, vibrate and talk, and go to a place where visual distractions, including people who want to talk to you, are cut off.  With these access points to your brain shut down, you can concentrate your attention and thinking and create something greater, better and bigger than you could otherwise. 

Being competent to be happy

I think most of us understand that we aren’t going to be good at everything, but we all need to feel like we are good at something to be happy.  What is it for you?

To build others up, acknowledge them for being good at something.  Today, make it a point to comment on the skills of others – and see how they respond to you.