3 — things i’m thinking about this week

• i — today’s skills, tomorrow’s foundation

  • I got my degree in education and, years later, it opened the door to teach at the college level. I put in hours crafting horrible designs in Photoshop as I learned the software…that effort opened the door for graphic design jobs years later.
    
    Frequently, the busyness of life drives us to consolidate, streamline, and drop all of the “extra” in our lives. Most of the time this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I can’t help but wonder how many times it is without our knowledge. How many potentially life-changing skills have we failed to acquire because we’ve been too focused on other things?
    
    (There’s too much to unpack on this topic in this little newsletter. However, it’s a concept worth considering as you head into your weekend…)
    
    Application: Maybe, let’s not be so quick to pass over tasks we don’t know how to do. Or, maybe, let’s intentionally embrace a little bit of the unknown this coming week and just see how it goes. We might thank ourselves a few years from now!

• ii — aggressive patience…

  • Ever heard of this phrase? It’s one I wish I’d learned years earlier. See, the truth is that most of the time we dramatically overestimate the amount of work we can accomplish in a day while underestimating what we can accomplish in a decade…or even 3-5 years.
    
    (Quick exercise: Take a second to think back to the summer of 2018. Where were you and what were you hoping to accomplish someday? How much closer are you now?)
    
    Paradigm shift: Instead of wishing for things to be different or getting stuck in “comparison mode,” make this simple, incredibly difficult, and life-changingly profound change — work like today is your last chance to accomplish your goals and install patience like it’s going to take 10+ years.

• iii — it’s all cheating…

  • I was talking to a friend the other day about entrepreneurship and side hustles. He mentioned that it’s difficult to come up with something that will fit into his current routine without disrupting family time, career, and lifestyle. I had to smile…
    
    See, the truth is that, no matter what you do, you are cheating something. You are a cheater.
    
    — Comfort cheats growth.
    — Family time cheats “hustle” time
    — Side gigs cheat family time
    — Entertainment cheats fitness
    — Indulgence cheats discipline
    — Gluttony cheats health
    — Screen time cheats relationships
    — Friends cheat recharging time (where my introverts at?)
    
    This list could go for an eternity…
    
    Whatever decisions you are making right now are limiting your options for the future…you are cheating something.
    
    The whole of life is about figuring out which areas you desire most and which you are okay cheating on.

2 — quotes from others

1 — question to make you think

What belief or mindset holds you back the most, and how might your life change if you were able to shift that belief?

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