If your efforts today didn't meet the imaginary mark in your head. Take the lesson. Always take the lesson. Because it will always, always be there. The result you wanted is never guaranteed - hoped for, possibly expected - but never guaranteed.

Write things down, in goal setting it makes it real, practical, daily. In reflection of an effort not resulting in what you had hoped for, write it down. Reflect on it. It's hard to do that in your head, write it down, bring it into this realm, confront it, learn from it.

When you're doing something hard, something that hasn't been done before, and you're working within constraints, limitations both practical and political - you need belief.

Belief doesn't excuse you from corporate and political realities of delivering capitalist value from nothing, or next to nothing. In fact finding yourself in a position where "belief in the mission, in oneself" is even more reason to double down and ensure you maintain that belief.

What does Hebrews 11:1 say about faith? It's the "substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen".

You're now in the business of manifesting things out of the spirit world, into reality. This is not as crazy as it sounds, many notable people in history have done exactly this.

When you're in this realm, yes you have to execute with strategy and precision, but the currency, the life-blood of this venture - is belief (or faith).

Keep the faith, stay in the game until the nothing is made manifest into something.

I'm listening to the Lex Fridman podcast episode with Sam Harris, and a few things really struck me as I'm listening to the ideas and perspectives on the topics being discussed on the podcast episode.

Firstly, the discussion of controversial and complex multi-faceted topics - I found myself agreeing with Sam's view that a topic can be left well-enough alone; it doesn't need to be discussed. Especially if the person "hosting" that discussion does not have the skillset or capability to manage the damage or fallout that may come from broaching the topic, e.g., racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, suicide, etc.

Lex has a theory on the "power of love" and how empathy is the recourse or possible "solution" to a conversation between two minds that are at odds on rationality or reasoning. If you demonstrate empathy, the "turning of the cheek", you don't necessarily convert the emotionally hardened will, but somehow the gesture results in a net-positive outcome for all involved in this interaction or engagement.

Seriously!?

I get the part that it's not about convincing people who are emotional with facts and figures, but that connecting with them on a human level will bring them back to their and our humanity, and thus some level of reconnection. I get that; I've used that a lot and experienced it in my own life, for better or worse (the connection and disconnection).

The part that stuns me a bit is the hubris in not considering your responsiblity in, and wantonly ploughing ahead with controversial topics, which you admittedly have no expertise in, and conduct a "power of love" experiment on the scale of the public internet, and presume that your particular communications skills and art of conversation include the capability of managing the anticipated damage - as anyone would expect from controversial topics - that you believe will result in a net-positive outcome for everyone overall... is this hubris? Lex has mentioned people calling him naive, and I think he accepts some level of that...

From everything I know and understand about Lex, he's a super smart guy, he's got a massive heart, and I genuinely believe he is a good person. But the - let's call it hubris - to think it's more important to plow ahead with these conversations, spraying them across the internet to germinate however it will, but somehow assuming the end result - when the psychos' scorecard ends up being lower than the Samaritans' or the good vibes scores out in society - is a net positive, on some "trust me bro" basis, is... very middle-class white male of him.

I'm not a massive fan of Sam Harris - I don't know his work enough to have an opinion; I just remember him being associated with the right-wing in the past. Again, I don't know enough to hold any strong opinions - but he was taking a view closer to what I would in handling the scope of the experiment that is public discourse, and with a lot more humility, the likes of which I would have expected from Lex.

This will probably be better thought out and written in a newsletter - but these were my rough notes I jotted down while on the treadmill.

I wrote "the standard you walk past is the standard you accept" by Lt General Morrison in a piece of writing recently.

In my experience, if you want something done to a high level, not just in what is done, but in how it's done as well - you'll soon find yourself in a very small group of people that are afflicted by the same condition.

I'm not talking about perfectionism, this is where you find it difficult and even repugnant to half-ass something you put your hand to. If you delivered that best you could do at the time, that's okay. It's "calling it in" that you find offensive.

You get used to the isolating effect of maintaining a high standard, or you compromise and find the median level in life and stand "in".

Engagement is no accident.

The term "community building" came into my vernacular starting a twitch channel and learning about setting up a channel, a discord server, a schedule and what behaviours generate the kind of following an "community" you would have in your niche of the internet.

There's obviously a sweet science to pandering to the masses and getting the highly coveted "engagement" or in baser term - "attention". It is after all the "attention economy".

The lower "common denominator" peddlers making cringey commodity people the baseline personality of any visual medium where everything's scripted and fake authenticity is the currency of exchange. Everyone's trying to be and feel special by acting and behaving like everyone else.

I rever the thinkers (and writers) who comment on these topics from their vantage point of having executed, won, most probably lost in the very space they offer their critique.

Seth Godin is one of these people, I read his blog frequently and think on, not just his words, but the ideas behind, and in front of those words. So when Seth is calling for being intentional, for finding your "minimum viable audience", by identifying the niche that you're there to serve, to delight and solve for... it resonates with me.

I'm building a community. Slowly. At times, unsuccessfully. Painfully. It takes time, consistency, genuine interest and care. When you see those small shoots of life begin to emerge, you're grateful and you know these didn't come about by accident. No-one owes me a community. Nobody owes me anything. I'm not entitled to your attention. If I start there, I don't believe I can ever be confused what the price is for the result I'm after. That I shouldn't pay it reluctantly from a place of scarcity, but not see it as a price at all but as an investment, or better yet, a donation towards something you could never put a price on.

The engagement didn't appear out of the blue. I invested time, effort and genuine care for that engagement. It's not owed to me, but it's no accident.

In a video I watched recently Nipsey asks "Do you know how kids spell love?"

And then answers "T.I.M.E.".

One of the greatest gifts you can give someone, is your time.

People say "Time is money." and they're right. But money you can make back. Double the rate of the first time. You don't get time back. It's a non-renewable resource.

So don't waste it. That doesn't mean hustle your face off and die rich/miserable. For me, it just means whatever you use your time for, make it a conscious decision. That you are going to trade that thing, for this time of yours.

Time is a construct. Life is constructed of time. So the phrases "life is short" and "life is long" are both the same. Equally meaningless without your context.

In life we want for good things. Good things take time. Study takes time. Getting good at something, takes time. If you see someone is good at something, they have paid a valuable price for that.

Time.

Respect peoples time. Respect your own time.

Make time for the people who make time for you.

"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems" - Jame Clear

It's funny what a difference in routine makes. On the 15th of Feb I travelled to another country for week for work. Out of my routine, out of my disciplines and haven't written a blog since.

All we are, are a series of systems that end up producing things, so if you don't like the things you're producing (if anything at all) your best bet is to work on the machine, the systems that are producing the results you're living with.

What's top of mind as I come back into my "at home" environment? Routines and products i.e. what am I doing every day? And what is that producing for me? Am I more peaceful? Stressed? Tired? Thoughtful?

I travel regularly for work. That's a reality of my role. So I need to find a routine that produces the things I want in my life, even when on the road.

30 posts in a row, never missing a day.

I have come full circle. But just like a circle, there is no beginning and no end.

Yes, celebrate the little milestone of commitment, but essentially, we keep moving on.

Nice work on 30 posts in 30 days. It shows you can do what you commit yourself to. Just show up every day and write something.

Now, a newsletter is going to be a lot more thoughtful, but at least I know how to show up and git push posts to be published.

No profound wisdom tonight. Just gratitude, and humility that this is a small thing- a good thing, but that it's nothing to pull over and go to sleep over.

It's nice. This was nice.

The only time I don't mind having gone, in a circle.

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” ― Albert Einstein

This is all a game. No matter where you start off on the board, what tools you begin with, you have a chance at playing the game.

I watched two fighters going at it for 2 rounds in an Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fight. One fighter was out classing the other in the stand up exchange. Fighter two seemed to have no answer for the kicks and punching combos of the first fighter. And all was going fighter one's way, until he slipped while being pushed backwards by fighter two, who immediately pounced on fighter one, sank a submission hold on and got the tap, winning the fight.

There is more than one game to be played at any time, bring the game into your world, and tap that bitch out.

So, maybe a new version of Einstein's quote could be "You have to learn there are many games being played. And then play the one you're best at." - Me (probably)

Do the hard things.

I write about choice a lot, choosing your pain, accepting life inevitably involves pain.

The "pain" is obviously a difficult thing to experience, but then the work to overcome it- is the hard thing.

So, taking a step back, if pain is inevitable, and overcoming it is the choice of "doing the hard thing" to be made (obviously or not), then let's ask why we do the hard things?

Obviously if you're in the hole, you could choose to stay there, the other choice being to do a hard thing.

But what if we're not in the hole? What if it's a nice early morning and we don't have to do anything at all. Why choose to do a hard thing now?

Two outcomes to putting yourself across the hard things when you have the chance:

1. You gain the good things on the other side of the "hard thing" (resilience, self-confidence, tenacity etc)
2. When hardship finds you, you know you've crossed to the other side before.

"Do the hard things" is both a call to service every day for you to choose, and an encouragement to those who don't have much choice.