Category Archives: Professional Development

The Four Pillars of Progress

4 Pillars of Progress

I’m going to share with you a secret. I’ve been using this secret to unlock my happiness and momentum in 2021, coming off what was a challenging 2020 and 1st quarter of 2021.

The four pillars I’m going to share with you are helping to unlock my happiness, reduce tension and simply move through life with more ease, creating effortless momentum.

The Four Pillars:

  • Exercise
  • Sleep
  • Hydration
  • Meditation

I really hope at this point there is some eye-rolling happening…because of the simplicity of what was just shared.

Speaking on the note of simplicity for a moment, I find myself more in the pursuit of simplicity the older I get. I see it everywhere and when done well…it’s beautiful, its poetic and simplicity also produces power.

I look for simplicity in sports because of the rhythmic movement needed to produce a repeatable outcome. Here are a few of my favorites.

  • Ray Allen’s Jump Shot – Simple. Beautiful. No wasted movement. Poetic. SPLASH!
  • Louis Oosthuizen’s Golf Swing. Simple. Compact. Powerful.
  • Barry Bonds Swing – (yes he was juiced on horse steroids), but even prior to those record setting years his swing was simple. Compact. Extremely effective.
  • Aaron Rodgers Passing Motion – Yes his god-given talent is likely off the charts, but the ease in which he flicks the ball is so fun to watch (and I’m a Bears fan).

In 2020 I found myself lacking in the simple execution of paying my daily debt to the four pillars, leaving me feeling less than my best self, and (I believe) setting flare to my autoimmune disease. A loss of momentum can snowball.

It’s pretty easy to figure out really. Too much stress, too little exercise, poor sleep, and under hydrating myself lead to a lifestyle I personally can’t sustain. Neither can you I’d argue. I’m also thinking more and more about health and general well-being coming off a year when many of us saw life through a very different lens. I don’t want to be that guy that waits til he’s 60 and their cardiologist says, “you gotta make some lifestyle changes Zac, or else…”

Why not start now?

I’ve adopted the thinking that I’d like to feel 20 again, but think like I’m 60. Interestingly, or ironically I’m about in the middle of those two numbers anyway, so maybe it’s just a realignment. Amazing what that does to a person’s perspective. Feel like you’re 20, think like you’re 60. What does that mean?

  • Feel like 20 – To me this is about energy and enthusiasm. A playful and youthful exuberance to play offense in life and let the chips fall where they may.
  • Think like 60 – This is about perspective. Cutting out petty annoyances and relationships. Barring anything tragic, life is a long game to be played. Think about it this way.

The daily practice of following my scorecard (exercise and meditation) along with staying hydrated get the last and most important piece – – – – – – > A good night of sleep.

I’d ask you to think deeply about the last time you had a great night of sleep? How did you feel the next day? What was your energy level like? How about your overall zest for life and creativity?

The question I started asking myself is what leads to a terrific night of sleep? It can’t really be 20 things. I kept coming back to four.

Exercise. Hydration. Meditation. Sleep.

GREENLIGHTS and Harvard Business Review Collide

I recently read Matthew McConaughey’s book, “Greenlights” and I loved it. The whimsical storytelling was easy to read and found myself laughing out loud numerous times. At some points, I was left shaking my head asking myself, “Is this true? Can’t be! Did he really do that??!”

More importantly, I found the exercise of Matthew finding his “greenlights” incredibly enlightening and took it as a personal challenge. Matthew went on many journey’s in his life, looking to “find his frequency” when he was lost personally. I got to thinking…why don’t I do the same?

I dove back into old notebooks. Notebooks I’d been keeping for years…in search of my own Green Lights. I began pouring through old sketches, business plans, ideas, notes to myself and challenging questions. Here’s a 10-year snapshot of the notebooks and journals kept.

I was in search search of finding my frequency

  • Where was I having the MOST fun in my career?
  • Who was I working with? What did they have in common?
  • What projects did I effortlessly dive into?
  • Where did I lose track of time because I was so deep in work?
  • Where did ample challenge, best meet energy to tackle it?
  • Where were the BIGGEST WINNERS? What projects, campaigns, or teams produced exponential output?

Success leaves clues. Follow the breadcrumbs of history and you’ll find them!

Consequently, and almost simultaneously I read the following post from the Harvard Business Review: 5 Questions to Help Your Employees Find Their Inner Purpose. What a WONDERFUL intersection of chance and insightfulness. I

I challenge you to pause here. Did you click the HBR link above? You really need to. You owe it to yourself and your team. It’s more important now than ever. COVID set people off their frequency. Everyone is trying to relearn, reimagine and recalibrate their life.

This is the exercise for exactly that!

Here is the kicker. Your responses to “The 5 Questions” from HBR, have to be in writing. Your writing, not someone else’s. This could be either hand written or typed out on a keyboard, but you have to put them in writing because the exercise will challenge you to truly think about your answers. Your mind will know if you’re writing bullshit, and you’ll rewrite it.

The feeling this produces is fulfilling. A feeling of self-awareness meeting satisfaction of the truth. Like stepping out of a dark room and the sunshine hits you in the face feeling. Step into it!

Final step of the journey…Share unapologetically! There is no fear in showcasing your best self.

Best of luck in the journey of recalibration and finding your frequency!

If Unsure, Connect

Last year, I labeled the Coronavirus pandemic, “The Great Accelerator” for the immediate changes expedited within our lives, businesses, travel, education and all things day to day life. Change which seemingly felt on the five year horizon, was brought to our doorstep in light speed. In turn, behaviors changed over night.

The pandemic also brought with it a tremendous amount of uncertainty. Our health. Our financial futures. Our careers. What would be left when it ended?

I promise you large amounts of uncertainty are alive and well within many individuals. Fear hangs around long enough and it starts to feel normal. This isn’t right.

What I’d like to tell all the readers is fear lives in everyone. Uncertainty, lives in everyone. Sure, some are better at hiding it than others…but it’s there.

I’ll also tell you I’ve personally become very comfortable with the idea that NO ONE has it all figured out. No one is operating a master playbook whereas every page plays out like the acts of a master play.

So what does one do with lingering or consistent uncertainty?
Connect.

Resist the urge of pushing away, into isolation where 2020 led us…and pull instead.

Let your uncertainties, or fears or anxieties hit oxygen via the most basic of human needs. Communication. The rest will melt away. I could use this advice probably more than most.

I know whenever I’m stuck with a problem, or I’m anxious about uncertainty, the ONLY thing that really brings me out of it is the connecting through others.

I’m very hopeful to say we’re nearing the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. What we’re just getting started with…is the all important restart. Think about rebooting your computer. It’s not a singular button and seconds later things are refreshed anew.

No. It takes a reset and time. It takes a reboot and the machine needs to recalibrate for a fresh start. I think we’re in the year of recalibration. We all heard “the new normal” enough in 2020 to throw up. At least I did. But some of the newly found normalcy of it all stuck.

As we move deeper into this recalibration, start with human to human connection. This is a wonderful example where “more for the sake of more” is TRULY, a good thing!

Connection. We’ve all been missing it in a MAJOR way.

State Your Intentions

I believe this is one of the most powerful pieces of advice I can give anyone on tribe following this content.

STATE. YOUR. INTENTIONS.

I’ve been fortunate enough to follow some really solid advice in my life, and for the most part I can’t really tell you where it came from. I can only tell you what it’s given back to me…which is everything.

  • When I was 21 interning at a job (unpaid as an intern) I stated my goal (and wrote it down) to be the youngest Account Executive the company had seen to date. Less than two years later it happened. It was just before I turned 24. A year or two later I was managing the largest piece of business we had. 
  • Just prior to 30, I stated the need to expand our company’s offering at the time and the need to acquire talent in the digital field. I wrote that message to an old friend on 2/27/2012. I still have the email saved. Less than a year later, the acquisition of this company was complete and we were off and running with an entirely new product line. Looking back, this was one of the most fun times of my career. ~Cheers TargetClick.  
  • After the previous accomplishment, I felt the burning desire to own something. My eyes were opened.I wasn’t going to continue on working my tail off for only what was left over. I needed to be on the other side of the deal. I needed a seat at the table and began my search. It was mid 2014. In 2015 I made the transition and after putting in a year of solid growth, my intentions were rewarded. I owned a piece…and a piece is more than zero. As luck would have it, almost a year after this, we sold our business to a much larger firm in the space. Something I couldn’t have imagined only a few years prior. Until I stated my intentions to OWN. 
  • My newest intentional ask revolved around relationships and the real estate space. I’d been devouring books, audio, and lessons on real estate ownership but I had one big problem…I still didn’t own or operate anything. So, what did I do? I called my banker. Stated what I was looking to do, and ask that they connect me with another customer of the bank, one who was already operating in the space. Preferably someone my age. Fast-forward to today, we own and invest in multiple pieces of real estate with a few more deals in the works. Each producing monthly cashflow. Reading another book wasn’t going to get me across this threshold.  

In each of these examples, I stated my intentions clearly, and was committed to their outcomes. This is vitally important. I was committed to their outcomes and was prepared to take LARGE action. 

Here’s what won’t work.

  1. Who you tell matters. “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”~Buddha. Try telling a bum on the street your intentions to become wealthy…can he help you? Not likely. Who you tell matters what resources will present themselves. My advice, tell someone who has what you want, or is doing what you’re doing! 
  2. Lack of Commitment. Running around flapping your gums about what you want to do is wasteful if you aren’t 100% committed. These people are a blow hard. Big hat, no cattle. People do pay attention and they’ll know it’s fake. To note each of the examples above, I was ALL IN on bursting through the door once the opportunity presented itself. No going back. State intent, find guidance, and act! 

I continue to use and coach this strategy today as I go about mapping out the journey that is life. 

ACTION ITEM: You have to get insanely intentional about your life. Know exactly what you want. For you. Not anyone else. You don’t have to know exactly where to find it. In my experience, the world has a funny way of presenting itself once you know what it is you want and are committed to the pursuit!

GRIT

I’ve been thinking a good deal about what perspectives this pandemic can offer? What am I actively learning from what’s happening? 

I was speaking with a physician last week and he used the word, “grit” to describe a behavior to pay attention to during COVID. It hit me like a blindside block and I’m not too certain I heard most of the rest of what he said as I thought it was so profound. 

COVID is testing our: health, children, jobs, relationships, patience, finances, and the list goes on and on…

COVID is testing our resolve. COVID is our generation’s GRIT test…if you can choose to see it that way. 

If you choose to see it, you can see this very resolve showing itself all over in wide arranging scenarios.

For example, yesterday was Halloween. Today, the internet was ON FIRE with photos and videos of people committed to continuing the tradition of Halloween with unique and creative solutions to deliver “the prize” (Candy) to our kids who were seeking some normalcy in the midst of a pandemic.

  • I saw people who fashioned tubes/chutes/gutters used to send candy toward their onlookers with a little help from gravity 
  • I saw a medieval style catapult constructed to launch candy to awaiting trick-or-treaters with bags held wide open
  • I saw row of bags attached to a fence with clothes pins holding individual treats to be taken one-by-one by ghosts and ghouls 

ALL of this, is GRIT. 

Resolve to not let a pandemic get the best of us.  Creatively focused to “embrace the suck” as the Navy Seals say, and find a way.  Schools have done it. Businesses, hospitals, restaurants, professional sports are all finding creative ways evolve. 

I find stoicism healthy here. The stoics would teach us to observe reality as it is, and not as we want it to be. But then move. Move forward. 

Floods will rob us of one thing, fire of another. These are conditions of our existence which we cannot change. What we can do is adopt a noble spirit, such a spirit as befits a good person, so that we may bear up bravely under all that fortune sends us and bring our wills into tune with nature’s.
– Seneca, Letters from a Stoic 

The pandemic has certainly thrown all of us off what was once considered our  “normal” day-to-day modus operandi. It’s also showing us where our resolve is. 

I’m a self confessed optimist. I DO believe there is a way through and it very likely won’t be easy. Not in the least. That said, the way forward lives with the people and their ingenuity. I certainly believe in that.  

Instead of looking for ease of passage.  Lean into grit. 

Where is your grit today? 

What Do John Harbaugh & Kirk Ferentz Know About Reinvention?

Two legendary coaches. Two different journeys. Two wonderful examples of what reinvention can do for a career. Especially when your back is against the wall.

I got to thinking about these two great leaders after watching Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens torch NFL teams in the final weeks of November. Soon they’d find themselves atop the AFC standings. How did they get here?

How did the Ravens get here after benching Super Bowl winning quarterback Joe Flacco just a short year ago? What a tough decision!

John Harbaugh, a Super Bowl winning coach…was on the hot seat. Is it time to fire John Harbaugh the Baltimore faithful asked?

It was time for reinvention. The drafting of a duel threat QB, retooling the offense mid-season, and getting more “analytics” involved in their real-time game decision making.

Comparatively, in 2014 the University of Iowa and head coach Kirk Ferentz were coming off a very mediocre 7-6 season which included a blowout bowl loss to Tennessee. The fan base was ready to move on.

The votes were in. FIRE FERENTZ < – – – the articles said. This one specifically rang in the new year of 2015.

Stay the course and persevere? Or change? Sweeping change!

Changes in the staff, practice schedules, more aggressive play calling on 4th down, and a new QB led Iowa to their first ever undefeated 12-0 regular season in 2015!

The answer. Don’t settle for mediocrity and REINVENT!

ACTION ITEM: As they say in the Movie Rounders, “Fold or hang tough. Call, or Raise?” Stay the course and persevere, or change? Fortune favors the bold and answers you’re looking for are probably available to those who choose to see them.

Lessons From a 2am Turkey Sandwich

Seeing all these posts on the 10-Year Challenge made me think back to a decade ago in my career, and the terrific leadership lesson I learned from a gas station turkey sandwich…at 2am nonetheless.

You know what isn’t a good idea?

A gas station turkey sandwich. At 2am in northern Massachusetts. Not that Massachusetts has a lot to do with it, but it is where it all started.

A coworker (Josh Beckner) and I were flying out east to meet a client in New Hampshire. The following day I hoped to transition account responsibility. As is customary for winter travel we were delayed. And delayed. And delayed.

We landed at Boston Logan Airport shortly after midnight and I was starving. At that moment, I was willing to eat just about anything.

We picked up our rental car and headed north for the granite state. One stop along the way found us at an interstate gas station and me wolfing down a turkey sandwich. I probably had a little mayo on my cheek I ate it so fast. I couldn’t tell you how long the sandwich had been there, or if there was even a date on the packaging. Didn’t matter. My raging appetite subsided.

Fast forward to the following day.

We had a meeting with a great client of ours and a celebration was in order that night for goals we’d achieved together from the previous year. About 10:30am (so I remember it), it hit me. There are many names for what happened. I’ll simply call it one of the worst days of my life.

Montezuma’s Revenge!!! 

I probably went to the bathroom about 25 times that day, and I wish I was exaggerating. After you go about five times breaking up a meeting with a client, people start to notice. When you hit 20…a few began to worry. Things were not going well.

By noon I was worthless. Exhausted. Sore, empty, and embarrassed. All I could do was get back to my hotel and lay on the bathroom floor in the fetal position hoping, praying for it all to end.

The rest of the day was up to Josh.

You’re probably wondering, what could I possibly learn from this?

I’ll tell you.

#1 Gas Station Turkey – Pass. Pass. Pass. Always and forever pass on this as a viable food option. That or deal with the following day’s worth of diarrhea awaiting you.

#2 Sometimes a 2am turkey sandwich gives you the motivation you need to get out of your own way.

I was in Josh’s way. I didn’t get out of his way til I was nearly incapacitated. Josh is a great comrade. Well spoken and always prepared to a fault.  And may I add, always impeccably dressed. He handled and ran that meeting likely better than I ever would’ve. He’s gone on to be very successful in his career with Honda Motor Company because of these very attributes and I’m not the least bit surprised.

The client relationship transferred that very day, because there was no other viable option. There was no other choice.

While I’m not going to recommend going through the pain I did to receive this revelation, I do offer you this advice.

Where are you standing in the way of someone else progress? Where could you take a “2am Turkey Sandwich” break and let others be great with a challenge or opportunity? Give them the responsibility and let them IMPRESS THE HELL out of you!

Ten years later I’d like to tell you I’ve gotten better at this. Not perfect, or the best, but certainly progressing with experience.

ACTION ITEM: Let people be great. Let them surprise you. There will always be the need to earn this opportunity, but understand when enough is enough. Get out of the way and grow others through a challenge of their own. A challenge they’re asking for.

 

 

The Value of Playing Up

I can probably tell you when and where it happened.

I was back for only a few of days over Christmas break of my freshman year of college. I was playing basketball at the time and spent the last four months playing with guys who we former all-staters, but were now all-Americans. I was an 18, they were 21 and 22. Big difference. My learning curve was steep.

I played a few pickup games in the time home as was customary over Christmas break. After all, I’m always in the mood to get buckets. But this time something was different. The game had changed. It not only slowed down, but it was just easier as my perspective shifted.

I’m talking BIG change. Not small incremental change.

You ever wonder why the middle or youngest brother turns out to be the REALLY good one? I have zero stats or data to back this up, but I suspect it is true because he spent his entire life “playing up” and getting worked by his older brothers.

Would you like another example?

Things changed drastically in my career when I was 24 and started working with a nationally managed retail organization. Their game and demands elevated what I needed to deliver to continue adding value to the relationship. I quickly began to understand what it took to operate “successfully” at their level, and what expectations came with it. I needed to get better. The good news is, I could see and feel what that looked like.

With all that said, how can you start playing up today?  Or better put, what would that look like?

Here are a few ideas:

  • Get in a room with people better than you. These people have been “there” before.  There = where you want to go!
  • In golf speak, if you shoot in the 70’s you’ve got to run with the guys consistently shooting in the 60’s. Find out how they do it?
  • Are you a director? Get in the room, in a pitch, in a strategy session with a VP or President. How do they think or influence people?
  • Are you an educator looking to be an administrator? Spend time with someone who walked the same path and is a principal.
  • My wife was a good runner. Her suggestion, find a new pace. Find a new group to speed you up! A PR (personal record) awaits.
  • Imagine being a chess prodigy, and sitting with a grand master.
  • Find a new peer group. You ever heard the saying “there’s always another guy with a bigger boat?” Find that guy and who he hangs out with.

Playing up means involving yourself in a new game. A game outside your current comfort zone. Success may or may not come quickly. Embrace the ability to understand where you can improve to play at their “new” level.

Newsflash. You’re going to get knocked back. I’ve had it happen numerous times and I hope it continues. Nothing wrong with a little humility and appreciation for the competition.

It doesn’t mean your current skillset isn’t worthy, or isn’t valuable. It very likely is. It means the pursuit continues.

ACTION ITEM: Get lost in the pursuit of playing up! The rest will come.

I’m Great vs. We Are Great

It’s a natural progression I guess…

I started out in my career like any ambitious 22 year old can. Do the absolute best “I” can, to show others I’m worthy. Looking back there is a great deal of insecurity in this thinking and lifestyle.

I would do whatever it took and wherever it took me to be perceived as great at what I did. I’m really not even sure why, but I could almost say there was a chip on my shoulder. I really don’t know how it even got there… and I’m also not really sure it will ever go away!

I was going to win. For me.

There’s an interesting naiveness to it all. I really didn’t know what I didn’t know. But I was going to PROVE something to someone. I’m convinced looking back now some of this energy was misdirected.

Maybe it’s the competitive nature in me (ok, super competitive). I did what any hyper-competitive young adult would do. I wrote down goals and kept them on my dresser. They consisted of:

  • Become the youngest Account Executive the company ever had (by 24)
  • Make $100,000 in annual income (as that’s what the big boys were making…so I thought )
  • Sell a BIG client on my own. (Thinking back who was going to commit a $1 million/year to a 24 year old who looked 18? Didn’t matter)

I achieved them all. Somehow I had it figured out. <Insert chest pounding after scoring a TD dance>

In hindsight, I really didn’t know anything.

Fast forward 15 years and I now spend a great deal of time thinking about being the tide vs. the boat (a high tide raises all ships). I’ve also grown much more self aware in the process.

In my 20’s, my confidence was inflated…as young men in their 20’s usually are. Any confidence I have today is the result of truly understanding WHO I am, and who I am not. No easy journey on that path. I’ve had a lot of people help me with this along the way and appreciate their honesty and intrepid spirit to share candidly what could only make me better as a person, friend, leader, parent, father, or husband.

I’m starting to think a great deal more about legacy and a vision for the future both personally and professionally. Legacy is a great beacon for where our decisions will take us.

Looking back on my career I’ve experienced many wins. I’m positive there will be many many more. After all, 40 is still a long ways away!

But those individual wins aren’t the most fulfilling. I smile ear to ear thinking back to times I’ve seen others win. Big wins. Personal breakthroughs. Team wins. People stepping out of their comfort zone to contribute. Those scenarios truly FILL me up with gratitude.

No doubt I’ll continue to work on myself and getting every ounce of talent I can out of my abilities. I’m wired this way and shutting it off would be equivalent to asking a fish to stop swimming.

To add one last bit of color to this post, I’d like to clarify the “We” of this framework. We isn’t only my Mindstream Media team at work, although it is important we continue to grow and succeed together. It’s my family and friends. My peer group. Community leaders I’m fortunate enough to work with. We need to be great!

ACTION ITEM: More valuable that WE are great, vs. I’m Great.

 

Hanging on Too Tight

I was listening to a podcast last week with Tim Ferriss as he interviewed Cindy Whitehead. Here is the link. Cindy is well known for selling two pharmaceutical companies for over one billion dollars and is now dedicating her time to helping other female entrepreneurs pursue their mission.

In the middle of the episode the two are discussing negotiating tactics to win when the stakes are at their highest. Want to know “the secret” to winning?

He who cares the least, wins!

Sounds too simple right. So maybe the answer is to just care about nothing, and float aimlessly through life living like a true nihilist? Hardly. Caring the least is largely about perspective and what you are willing to lose.

In golf, one of the first things an instructor will likely teach you is the grip. Not so much the interlocking grip vs. the overlap vs. the ole baseball grip. No. I’m referring to grip pressure. Tight enough to maneuver the club, but not so loose that you lose the grip and it slips out of your hands on the range and goes flying toward that old woman in the visor. That’s dangerous. Strangling the air out of the grip doesn’t help either. Wringing the club’s neck with tension will lead to lack of flow with the swing and makes it nearly impossible to release the club head and really generate power.

Two very important words there. Flow and Release.

I can name a handful of times in my life when I’ve been hanging on much too tight. That’s called nerves, or the more commonly uttered phrase today: anxiety. For me it is usually the result of trying too hard to drive an outcome likely out of my control, but one I believe NEEDS it to happen. I also become less of my true self in the process. I’ve seen it. I’ve felt it.

Pressure Balance

I’ve hung on too tight countless times in sports, with relationships, business pursuits and in my professional life. I’m pretty sure each delivered a less than desirable outcome because I wasn’t playing my game. I was playing too tight, trying to guide every outcome.

Feels like being a little league pitcher who can’t throw a strike after walking the bases loaded. All you want to do is aim the ball over the plate and have it hit the target. You’d give almost anything to make it happen and squeeze the ball with this intent. Meanwhile, the coach from the dugout yells, “don’t aim it Zac…just throw!” He’s right.  Just throw and let it go!

Hanging in there vs. Hanging on.

That’s life isn’t it? Hanging in there just enough to pursue a lofty goal just out of our reach, but not willing to give up just yet. Conversely, not hanging on so desperately so that when it doesn’t happen the result is fatal and personal catastrophe ensues.

Anyone who’s spent any time with a child knows exactly what this pressure looks like. Devastation occurs when a child doesn’t get their way or their demands are not met. We’ve all seen the temper tantrum thrown at the toy isle in Target. These are children, but I could source many events where adults don’t act all too different.

What does holding on too tight feel like?

To me, it feels like pressure. A weight vest. The game doesn’t slow down, it speeds up. Decision making isn’t as sharp as it should be. I’m pressing, pressing, pressing for the outcome. Minutes feel like hours. Days like months. There is absolutely no flow. It’s mentally and physically exhausting because when one element doesn’t hit the way the script in my head reads, it’s like a kick to the gut. Body blow, body blow…complete loss of wind. The answer feels like more effort. More hours. More grind.

Burnout.

I’ve been there a few times and usually spot it later than I’d like, but that’s not the worst thing. The key is being able to spot it. What follows is usually a deep sense of clarity, gratitude and ability to refocus on the important stuff. Focus on the “right” action, results will come. Getting lost again in the process has always worked for me.

Focus on Action > Results

If you feel yourself hanging on too tight what do you do? My recommendation is to get very honest with yourself and fear set. What is fear setting? Here is a link to Tim’s blog post on Fear Setting. Name your fears. Speak them out loud or write them down. Let your fear hit oxygen and assign value to them. Is this real? If so, what is the worst outcome? Will you die from this?

ACTION ITEM:

The quality of your life is in direct reflection to the quality of your questions. Here are a few different ways to think about hanging on too tight.

  • Why am I hanging on so tight?
  • Who am I trying to impress?
  • What is it I’m really chasing?
  • How will my life really change if said outcome does or doesn’t happen?
  • Could all the time and energy I’m directing at making this one thing happen, be better used to pursue multiple opportunities instead?