What does all this mean?
If you let them.
If you let them do their work on youand let them change you.
Anna Voig
Because what you do puts you around people, and the people youre around affects what you do.
Think about your friends and colleagues: do they inspire you, validate you, or drag you down?
Same goes for what you read, what you watch, what you think about.
Your life comes to resemble its environment (Ben Hardy calls thisthe proximity effect).
So choose your surroundings wisely.
Our actions, our thoughts, our feelings, these are up to us.
Other people, the weather, external events, these are not.
Its important to take an inventory of the most enjoyable and satisfying days of your life.
What did you do?
Why did you like them?
If you enjoy influence more than material success, then confirm you pick something that allows for that.
If you thrive on attention and collaboration, then pick accordingly.
If you want to live in the same place for a long time, maybebuy a house.
If you dontGod, kindly dont.
And on and on and on.
Which way will you go?
Which will you be?
Which have you been?
If I Am Not For Me, Who Is?
The answer is the worst.
It doesnt make you a bad person to want to be remembered.
To want to make it to the top.
To provide for yourself and your family.
But if this is all you want it is a problem.
There is a balance.
What important things are you missing because you chose worry over introspection, alertness or wisdom?
Another way of putting it: Does getting upset provide you with more options?
The Greeks had a word for this:apatheia.
Its the kind of calm equanimity that comes with the absence of irrational or extreme emotions.
That youre taking your eye off the ball to do it.
Can you afford that?
So the question is:Are you doing yours?Do you even know what that job is?
Its important to remember that we can be very busyexhaustingly busyand still not be doing our job.
All these things keep us workingbut not on the job that actually matters.
How do you know if youre taking the right steps to get it.
Maybe the most important thing to you is family.
Awesome, so thats your priority.
Maybe money is the most important thing to you.
Know that and own itas Michael Lewis writes,the problem is the lying to yourself.
You have to know and own whatever it is.
Only then can you understand what matters and what doesnt.
Only then can you say nocan you opt out of stupid races that dont matter, or exist.
Everycreative must stop and really thinkabout who their audience is.
What do these people want?
What do they need?
What value am I offering them?
Dont take a stab at get lucky.
Dont follow your hunch.
Ask the question, double-check the answer is clear.
Sadly, the answer is usually no.
In light of that, does this thing youre so worked up about actually matter?
Resist the temptation to get distracted with silly politics or wanderlust.
Make the most of every moment as you prepare for the next move or the next event.
If you want to be productive, be fully alive.
The problem is that this is complete nonsense.
You cantbea good person if your actions are consistently bad.
You cant be a hardworking person if you take every shortcut you might.
This is true for life itself.
So ask this question about every action, thought and word.
Because it adds up in a way that no amount of self-image or belief ever will.
**
Last question.
It comes from the great Viktor Frankl, the psychotherapist who survived the Auschwitz andwrote many beautiful books.
But he found that the answer was simple, though there was a problem how the question was posed.
Rather, he said, life is demanding thatwe answerthe question with the actions and decisions we make.
That we create meaning in our choices and our beliefs.
What is my job?
Who do I want to be?
Whats up to me?
What does a good day look like?
