Hey team, a couple of insights for you today.
No long story this week. I have been reading and listening more than usual lately, and a handful of lines got stuck in me and would not come out. So instead of one story, here are a handful of insights to think about or share with your team.
Steal any of them. Liberally.
Mark Manson, in his newsletter a couple of weeks ago made the bold statement that:
I have read a lot of advice about handling critics. Most of it argues about whether you should care.
Mark skips that argument entirely.
Criticism shows up either way, so the fact that people are unhappy with you tells you nothing about whether you chose right —or wrong. The only live question is what you are willing to take the hit for.
Play it safe and you still get criticized. Do things you care about. And do them with passion.
Then I read a sobering observation from Shane Parrish:
That one stung. But in a strange way it gave me fresh energy. The same person who can bring destruction and disaster can also bring effort and focus and accountability.
Regardless of where you are or what your pattern has been, you can decide to change.
And that’s pretty inspiring on the days when you feel down on yourself.
Tim Urban had a simple but profound take on why some people finish things and some people don’t. He noted that:
People who finish things, start things. And in small ways — just 15 hours out of a 112, in Tim’s example. That is the only difference. Not talent. Not some different species of human who wakes up wanting it more.
The person winning at life has 6/7 of their week that looks exactly like yours.
Napoleon, talking in exile in 1816 about how he actually ran a campaign:
Focus more on projects, not your specific plans. I keep thinking about that difference.
The destination is the same. The route gets thrown out as often as the ground changes.
BTW, the easy way to abuse this one is to call every quit an adaptation —a pivot. Change the route when the facts change, not when you get tired of the route.
And then a lessons from Bertrand Russell, writing in 1930, about letting go of your ego:
I laughed. Then I sat with it for a while and stopped laughing. Be passionate. Be focused. Care so much that it hurts. Just don’t let it all go to your head.
If you are new here:
A lot of you joined in the last few weeks, so here are a few of my favorite stories I’ve shared. Go dig into whichever one sounds like your week.
The Stone in the Rubble.
Where the word Resurgam comes from, and the piece of St. Paul's Cathedral that made me take it as a promise.You Control Almost Nothing. Become Dangerous Anyway..
Hannibal stuck on a frozen ledge two miles up, and the five things you actually control when working harder is useless.The Boy Who Ran Out of the Fire.
Glenn Cunningham was burned at seven and told he would never walk, and then he outran the world.What the Greatest Basketball Player Can Teach You About Sleep.
How to close out a day, and why most people who feel fine at midnight are wrong.How to Live When It's Dead Easy to Die.
Douglas Mawson hanging fourteen feet down an Antarctic crevasse, and the line of poetry that got him back up.The Dysfunction Is the Work.
Frederic Tudor went to debtor's prison three times and got mocked in the papers while building the ice trade.Your Motivation Is Fine. Your Fuel Is Not.
I quit the Keys 100 at mile 42 in 2016, came back ten years later, and finished third because of what I ate.I Spent 1,000 Hours Researching Morning Routines.
Dozens of history's best, and the three plain things their mornings had in common.
Next week I am going all the way into the fourth controllable. Physical stress. Exercise What you make your body do on purpose, why it is the cheapest leverage to being elite you have, and how much of it is enough.
It is my favorite one to write about and the one I am worst at explaining in under three sentences, so I am giving it the whole issue.
Until then, pick one of those lines up there and carry it around for a few days. See if it holds.
And if you reply to this email, it comes straight to me. I dare you.
Love you all. 🖤