Observations during difficult times

There isn’t enough time. Not enough time to be a great brother, a great friend, a great employee, a great citizen, a great student of the game of life, a great son, a great mentor, and on and on and on.

So what helps us keep going and choose where we spend our time? What is the deciding factor in waking up each morning and choosing what you want to do? In times like today, it is so easy to be distracted by the news, or social media, or even a demanding friend.

How do you differentiate the signal vs the noise? How do you know what will help you be the person you want to be in five, ten, fifteen years? How can you do those things if you are just trying to get by?

The pandemic of COVID spreading rapidly through communities, the violent protest being led by unknowns throughout cities. All of these are such vital lessons but at the same time distractions to the ultimate end goal.

That end goal is different for everyone. But the process is congruent in the way you can reach this excellence. The solution is simple, get out and there and do the work.

Not read, not talk about. Do work. Make the calls have difficult conversations. Execution of the plan.

And while you execute, make sure you are finding ways to review what you are doing and track them quantitatively.

I think of all of the businesses and social norms that will be changed forever due to the impact of a 6-12 month coronavirus. Businesses in the hospitality industry, businesses in the service industry, technology businesses who have gotten by without a digital impact. Small business who have to be more scrappy, enterprise companies that need to be leaner.

How can you adapt when you see the very fabric of life around you changing? How can you take risks and take chances when you don’t even know if the business you are in is going to be the same today as in twelve months?

You look around and all you see is fear, and divide, and nationalism. So subconsciously you rationalize fear, you tell yourself the divide isn’t so bad, and you ignore the nationalism.

And you reflect, internally. Measuring yourself vs the goals you may have set for yourself or others around you.

A year or two or five has gone by and the man who you told yourself you would always be is distracted by other commitments and the noise from the divide. Tired from other buckets of life vying for your attention and misdirected by the chants from others who are playing a different game and who have different goals.

Focus, like many other things in life, comes by repeated small actions. One punch of the punching bag, or one step on the wet grassy dew early before others rise.

It is the memo that you draft before the difficult conversation which lays out exactly what you are looking to accomplish.

Or the simple heart to heart with your significant other to set the tone of what you are looking to accomplish and how you feel disappointed, or scared, or angry. As those feelings never really go away.

Now more than ever we must value our time, our focus like an hourglass sand timer whose sand is flung in so many directions.

And without the boundaries established for us, where are we supposed to turn? How do we know if what we are doing is even right?

The events of this year have opened my eyes to the importance of the information that you take in, and the importance of staying focused on what the end goal is. Beyond what is your why? What are you doing each day to get there?

I like to imagine myself as a Sims character, where each pillar of life I have a different rating based upon the time and energy I have dedicated to that bucket. And not only is my Sims character racing against the hourglass to level up, but there is also a constant drowning of information at every angle, vying for my attention and dollars.

So shut off the noise, step back, and when you take your next step forward make is smaller than ever. Specifically focused on where you want to be.

Think of the long term trends, but don’t spend too much time in the chatterbox of social media and the news. You might find yourself vastly more distracted and confused than where you started.