Category: Uncategorized

It’s Friday.
I work late; having fun excavating and putting meaning to overlooked items. My perspective has changed. I’m not a management consultant, but I can relate to their way of working.

I’ve been programmed to add value from packaging the “so what” in ways that makes sense. How long it will take us to get from here to there. Compare the time on the watch to the rest of clocks in the office. Why is the watch slower/faster than the rest? Why is the watch worn on the wrist? Is this why the sales team always late? What is the pattern?

I don’t talk to everyone. Scanning and diving with select group that will add the most value. Ignoring the skeptics but getting them on board by asking the right questions before giving an answer. Packaging just the right information for the right people in the shortest time.

Understanding the question is the most difficult part.

The planner in me grows uneasy. I have no plans for the year.

I tried to break down my daily hours to get as much done as possible.
I refrained from my usual self after a friend advised me to not  sign up for anything new.
She’s right. Life’s about to get very hectic.

I feel like I’m wasting time. I should be doing more. I could be doing more!
For now, I’ll live with this discomfort.
Discomfort means friction.
Friction means movement.
I hope I’m moving forward.

You have to live with yourself. Do what feels right. You know the answer. You know what to do. If you want to be good at something, practice.

Elevator pitch? Walking through your resume? Practice out loud. Talk to your reflection. Record yourself. By hearing your own voice, you’ll find natural ways to refine your pitch. When you play back the recording, you’ll pick up how you should vary your voice, pitch and volume to make a better story.

It sounds strange? It should. Ideas in your head are for you and you only; living in self-contained vacuum; uncontaminated. Unreal.

Ideas come to life in black and white, said out loud or performed through your body. A figment of your imagination co-mingles with the world. Ideas must survive alongside external forces.

Imagine yourself in front of a crowd and wonder how your message will be consumed. What seemed like a great idea in your head may sound strange, forcing you to refine or rewrite the story altogether.

Be clear on the story. What is it that you’re trying to sell? What you will do for them. Why they should care! Communicate in tangible and plain language. Demonstrate how you’ve tried to walk a mile in their shoes. Help them get to their next goal post.
It’s about them.
It should be a win-win for all, not a zero-sum game.

Smile. Make eye contact. Be human.

We try to emulate those in power and people we respect. We imitate those who wow us, hoping to extract the secret elixir that makes them so great.

Sure, it’s admirable to aspire to be more like someone we respect and adore… but we’re not cut from the same fabric. We can never become who we aren’t meant to be. We can only be the best versions of ourselves. Most importantly, what works for them won’t work for us.

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but the biggest sin to ourselves in dulling the uniqueness that makes us like no other.

We follow the path we avoid the most.
We surround ourselves with people we can’t stand

The more we fight, the more we’re forced to deal with the past…most of us refusing to see the purpose of the lessons left behind.

We let people in to activate our past.
Once or twice is never enough.
Multiple iterations required before we let ourselves see kaleidoscopic patterns.
Accept. Deny. Act. Repeat.
We see what we must.
We can move on only when we create new patterns.

There are no short cuts.
None, whatsoever.
Why do we try to fight the inevitable?

While reading Amy Rosenthal’s “You May Want to Marry My Husband”, I got a glimpse of her abundant energy, pressure for time and undying love for her husband of 26 years. From the long list of to dos, she tried to fill the void she was about to create. If this isn’t love, I don’t know what love is.

Amy Krouse Rosenthal, author and filmmaker died yesterday at the age of 51.

I have never met nor spoken to this woman. The little I know about her is based on two short articles. I think she was great, and today I’d like to celebrate the late author and filmmaker. A human being. A woman. A mother. A wife. A friend, and many more…

From the second article, I’m told that when Amy turned 40, she figured out how many days she had left to enjoy various aspects of life before reaching 80 years old. Her original calculation? 14 600 days. In reality, she would live to see 4015 more days… or 27.5% of her original calculation.

“How many more times, then, do I get to look at a tree? Let’s just say it’s 12,395. Absolutely, that’s a lot, but it’s not infinite, and I’m thinking anything less than infinite is too small a number and not satisfactory. At the very least, I want to look at trees a million more times. Is that too much to ask?” – Amy Krouse Rosenthal

It took me six months to finish Big Friendly Giant (BFG) by Roald Dahl.

I’m a fast reader.
Restricting myself to only few pages at a time,
I didn’t want the story to end…
Not wanting to say goodbye to the characters within.

Why?
To be slow at something, which is the opposite of how I operate.

I dislike wasting time.
So I drive outputs.
I’m in the business of getting things done.
I park personal issues and ask others to do the same.
Focus and ensure minimal disruption.

Why did I slow down? I was trying to be someone else.
I had gotten it all wrong.
On my way up, I can mark the spots and let others follow.
Or bring the fast scouts with me and send them back to guide the rest of the troops.
And create rest steps. People can climb at their own pace.

I’ve started to sprint once again.

We are 19.7% into the end of 2017.
72^nd day of committing to write a word, a sentence, a paragraph, or a page, which has turned into 40,000 words and 65 pages.