Every one of the 7.5
billion humans on this planet has value to offer. How? You're standing in a spot in the world
that only you stand in, a function of your history and experiences, visions,
and hopes. From this spot where only you
stand, you offer a distinct point of view, novel insights, and even
groundbreaking ideas.
Choices define
us. The hand we're dealt is just a
starting point; its our choices afterward that reveal what genuinely matters to
us.
Without new
questions, there's no place for new answers.
When your life has
meaning, it's because you have defined that meaning.
You can always find
time for things that matter by consuming less and creating more.
For your idea to
even have a chance, you have to give it room to grow.
Your agency -- your
ability to act -- is one key to being more powerful.
Looking for success
rather than looking at a problem more deeply can distract focus from what is
truly meaningful.
If your goal is
based on acting out a role or merely striving for success, then you're likely
to be prone to imposter syndrome. It
occurs when you try to look the part of a badass entrepreneur rather than
concentrating on whom and what to serve distinctly well.
A trap of imposter
syndrome is that it invites exactly the type of behaviors that only make it
worse.
Take good care of
your actions and your reputation takes care of itself.
We discover what
matters not by focusing on our own needs but by paying attention to those of
the world.
Ideas are relatively
easy to come by, but conviction demands the energy of purpose. We need to know that something matters and
why.
Conviction is
willingness to do the work, to live with uncertainty, to be open to asking for
help, and not to worry about the end result.
Real confidence (as opposed to bravado) is born of committing oneself to
that work.
Discovering yourself
is a function of practicing being yourself.
Signaling and
seeking between people is the invisible cord of meaning lassoing people
together into an organized whole.
There is no one
"right" you, one perfect notion of your identity that therefore
dictates what you can or cannot do.
To rebel is to push
against; to lead is to advocate for. To
rebel is to say "we won't"; to lead is to say "we will".
The core tension of
being apart of an "us" often comes down to the dilemma: "Do I
have to give up me to belong to us?"
While anger rarely
unites people productively, it does serve an important role: it is the sound of
your values screaming to you. You need
to listen to the anger to hear what matters to you, but externalizing it and directing
it at others is a trap.
To make a big dent
on such a complex topic…wasn't a matter of organizing more effort by more
people -- everyone working harder -- but, rather, of introducing a new effort
through a new understanding of the issue involved. The power wouldn't come from doing more but
in re-imagining what was possible.
