“Love is the easiest thing in the world to do, until it isn’t. Until we get overwhelmed by “Stuff”.
The black lines in the cartoon represent overwhelming “Stuff”.
The red lines represent “Love”, fighting like hell to keep alive, in spite of overwhelming odds.
We’ve all been there….”
Subscribe to the good words of Seth Godin
Yes, the passport is in my pocket. I checked five minutes ago.
Of course, the cost of checking again, just one more time, is tiny. Hardly worth discussing with myself. And compared to the cost of being wrong, of missing the flight… go ahead, check again.
And like giving in to a toddler every time he whines for ice cream, this is the problem.
The lizard brain seeks constant reassurance. It will wheedle and argue and debate with the rest of your head, pushing for one tiny bit of evidence, some sort of proof that everything will be okay.
Don’t do it.
When you indulge the lizard, it gains power. It doesn’t walk away ashamed, humiliated at its anxiety. Instead, it merely sidesteps and looks for the next thing to worry about, because, ready for this? It’s nice to be reassured.
Developing the reassurance habit is easy to do and hard to kick. The problem is this: there are some ventures where no reassurance is possible. There is important work for you to do where no proof is available.
If you’ve trained the lizard brain that reassurance is forthcoming, it will scream even louder when those projects that don’t come with proof are at hand.
“Sometimes being happy is just a choice. It’s just what you look for every day. In your work, in love, in friendships.
It’s really about how you view your place on earth. You look for joy, and that’s what you’ll find.
We all know people who make the ‘other’ choice. Nothing is good enough. They find fault everywhere. Their default mode is discontent.
For a lucky few, they eventually reach the abyss. The point at which being confronted with the dire-ness which is their life, becomes transformative.
Instead they choose joy.
Everything becomes better.
It takes nothing more than changing an attitude.
Today, take the hand of someone who you think should choose differently.”
“I talk a lot about the whole “human potential” thing and this cartoon bears the same message at heart.
From the moment we’re born we adopt thought and behavior patterns that obscure our view of who we are and what we want with our life. Those thoughts and behaviors tend to shape us personally and professionally, and it can in time hinder the creative process.
The idea behind this cartoon was to create something that encourages us to step out and meet ourselves head-on—to be responsible for who we are.
Then the question arises—who am I?
I think it’s a good idea to start thinking about this early in life, but really it’s never too late to start. With that in mind, it’s probably important to encourage younger generations to reflect on this as well…”
“At a point in life – some people come to the realization that they march to the beat of their own drum. Normal doesn’t quite describe these folks who often try desperately to fit in, but like the little red man in today’s cartoon, fail miserably.
There comes a time when we are forced to embrace the self-realization that breaking away from normal is actually a good thing.
Success is not defined by how well we fit in with “the crowd”, but actually how we inspire those around us. I like to think this cartoon sends that message to recruiters: “Ok, so you don’t do “Normal”…we get that. And we’re glad.”
To paraphrase Seneca, the tragedy isn’t that life is short, the tragedy is that we waste so much of it.
The other types of tragedy, the more violent kind, never worry me too much, thankfully. I never lost much sleep, worrying about wars or serial killers or whatever.
But getting to the end of my life and realizing that I had wasted most of it, that idea froze my blood.
As it should…
“The coffee mug is full, it’s 10:30 pm, but it feels like 10:30 am. You are experiencing the rush of being “in flow”.
You’re furiously typing your ‘big idea’, and you know the hair-brained scheme you just dreamt up is going to be a winner. A big winner.
You’re at 200 MPH, and you just know you can push the needle further.
You do.”
I’m doing this right now… only still adventuring at the same time. Look for a Kickstarter Blackbox release tomorrow. Thanks for defining how my brain works Hugh MacLeod.
Just a thought… of the day :)
Thanks for the reminder Hugh.
There are a couple reasons why I have never applied myself in the corporate world. This is one of them…
“Back in my early corporate days, this came as quite a shock to me: that people sitting around the table didn’t always say what they were REALLY thinking! Shock! Horror!
But why would anyone lie? Aren’t we all meant to be on the same team?
But after a while, you get used to it. After a while, it’s normal. After a while, you learn to laugh at it.
And that’s when the cartoon appears…”
Interestingly enough… you can apply this concept directly to relationships too.
Thanks Hugh.
“I have a lot of friends that you could describe as “Internet Famous”. One of the advantages of being an early-adaptor blogger is seeing the careers of some your friends from the early days take of. Sometimes, seeing them take of to the sky, it seems.
Whereas you, well, you’re just the same. Still stuck in the same ol’ same ol’.
Unlike your now-famous rockstar friends. Or whatever.
All is vanity.”
Straight from Hugh…
“To paraphrase Graham Weston, the Chairman of one my clients, Rackspace, “Everybody wants to play on a winning team, doing something that matters.”
In other words, everybody wants to be a rock star, doing rock star stuff with other rock star people.
So I drew a rock star cartoon on the subject.
And so there y’are…”
Whose winning team are you playing on?