What Matters NowSeth Godin has released a PDF on What Matters Now – a collation of 70 worthy thoughts, hopes and ideas for 2010.
Highlights for me are:
Generosity
When the economy tanks, it’s natural to think of yourself first. …
It turns out that the connected economy doesn’t respect this natural instinct. Instead, we’re rewarded for being generous.Fear
Fear plays the role of antagonist in the story of your life. … make the decision to be
courageous. The world needs your story in order to be complete.Ease
We move at full velocity, yet constantly fear we are not doing enough. Though we live longer than any humans before us, our lives feel shorter, restless, breathless... Dear ones, EASE UP. Pump the brakes. Take a step back. Seriously.Vision
Vision is the lifeblood of any organization. It is what keeps it moving forward. It provides meaning to the day-to-day challenges and setbacks … When times are tough, vision is the first casualty. Before conditions can improve, it is the first thing we must recover.Enrichment
Through choosing to enrich other people’s lives, you add meaning to both their life and your own. … If you are truly enriching someone’s life, they will typically miss you in their past. They think their lives would have been even better if they had met you earlier.Strengths
Forget about working on your weaknesses —> Focus on supporting your strengths.Unsustainability
Everyone is pursuing sustainability. But if change happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change, we really need to focus on raising the costs of the unsustainable systems that represent the unsustainable status quo.Tough Mindedness
We live in the age of distraction, of Twitter and multi-tasking and short attention spans. … The antidote to these scattering influences is 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 our selves. … [Show up – ] There’s tremendous power in putting your ass where your heart wants to be.Dumb
What makes dumb, smart? The ability to look at the world through a different lens from everyone else. To ignore rules. To disregard the ‘why’s’ and ‘how’s’ and ‘never-succeeded-befores’. … Good dumb ideas create polarization.Change
You’re probably trying to change things at home or at work. Stop agonizing about what’s not working. Instead, ask yourself, “What’s working well, right now, and how can I do more of it?”Passion
If you think you haven’t found your passion yet, you’re probably expecting it to be
overwhelming. Instead, just notice what excites you and what scares you on a small moment-to-moment level.Productivity
Don’t worry too much about getting things done. Make things happen.Social Skills
People would rather work with someone who is incompetent and likable than someone who is a competent jerk. And then I saw that in some cases elite British crew teams will put a weaker, but very likable, rower on a boat because people row faster if they row with people they like. ... The world is about being comfortable where you are and making people feel comfortable, and that’s what social skills are.
Read about what the Harvard Business Review said.
Get the PDF here.
A big fried bucket of thanks to Tanneke Zeeuw for sending me this link.
