I’m reading What Matters Now a book assembled and edited by Seth Godin. Grab yourself a free copy by hitting the link. I chose this book as the first book of my newly formed monthly book Club.
It’s a collage of single page thoughts from each of 70+ great thinkers of our time.
That’s right! These great thinkers were given the opportunity to write a SINGLE page – not more – that would have significant and lasting meaning.
The result is a wonderful collage of very distilled and deep thoughts. What’s fun for me is that this assignment forced these inherently verbose people to communicate to their audience (us) a very simplified representation of their best work.
This morning I hit what I consider to be the veritable Motherload of wisdom in the short span of 6 pages and thought I would share some excerpts:
Tough-Mindedness – Steven Pressfield – “Whereas what produces real work (and happiness for each of us, in my opinion) is depth, focus, concentration, and commitment over time. . . . Tough-mindedness, which I define as the ability to draw lines and boundaries within which we protect and preserve the mental and emotional space to do our work and to be true to ourselves”
Protect yourself and your work from “distraction, of Twitter and multi-tasking and short attention spans.”
Evangelism – Guy Kawasaki – Wish I could quote his whole page. It begins: “The future belongs to people who can spread ideas. Here are 10 things to remember:
1. Create a cause. A cause seizes the moral high ground and makes people’s lives better.
2. Love the cause . . .
3. Look for agnostics, ignore atheists.
4. Localize the pain . . . Explain how it helps a person
5. Let people test drive the cause . . .
6. Learn to give a demo . . .
7. Provide a safe first step . . .
8. Ignore pedigrees . . . Help anyone who can help you.
9. Never tell a lie . . .
10. Remember your friends . . . ”
Compassion – Mitch Joel – “The real way strong communities are built is through the compassion we extend to others. Both to those we know, and to those we don’t know. . . . If we’re not compassionate to one another, what’s the point in the end?
Knowledge – Alisa Miller – “How does news shape the way we see the world? Distorted, bloated, and not representative of what is happening. . . . Storytelling is powerful. It helps us understand, make choices and can inspire us.”
Forever – Piers Fawkes – “You are immortal. the result of everything you do today will last forever.”
Neoteny – Joichi Ito – “is the retention of childlike attributes in adulthood . . . When we are young, we learn, we socialize, we play, we experiment, we are curious, we feel wonder, we feel joy, we change, we grow, we imagine, we hope.”
My cause is that of an evangelist for “Life Rhythm” and my belief is that Life Rhythm is an equal opportunity thing for all people . . . and that the more people who “get this” the stronger our community will be.
Now!
It’s time to do your work . . . 🙂
I’m just sayin’
Best,
b