Activity without purpose is wasted motion. The most active animal in the barnyard is the chicken with its head cut off. Movement isn’t always a sign of life. Likewise, busy is not the same as productive. It doesn’t matter how fast you row the boat. You’ll meander without ever reaching your destination without a rudder. Activity becomes productive once it’s been channeled. Busyness becomes a worthwhile hustle if done with purpose. Leaders must guard against wasted motion. You hold the map and can see the destination before anyone else. It’s your responsibility to provide direction and encourage ..read more

This past weekend, I did my first-ever annual review. I’d like to share two things with you from my experience. It’s 100% worth doing. Honest. I had a lot of fun with this. My 2020 annual review reminded me of many fun memories that I had forgotten about. Such as the walleye fishing trip with my Uncle Mark, or the night my entire family dressed up like the characters in Knives Out for a murder mystery game night. I relished going through the events of the past year and reliving some of my favorite moments. I also learned a lot about myself through the process. The journaling prompts helped m ..read more

This is one of Gary Vaynerchuk’s ethos for building a personal brand online. Most people are crippled by the thought of creating original content. They’re paralyzed by the idea of filming something nobody will watch, or writing something that nobody will read. They get stuck in the quagmire of thinking, debating, and strategizing possibilities. Meanwhile, nothing gets done. The world is changing too fast to do nothing. Hesitate and the opportunity vanishes. But creating content doesn’t need to be that difficult. You and your life are the unique piece of creative. There’s a large enough audienc ..read more

Years ago, a group of researchers visited one of the last hunter-gatherer societies on Earth. They wanted to know what occupation was most highly valued amongst members of the tribe. To their surprise, the best hunters and gatherers did not enjoy status at the top of the societal food chain. Neither did the community healers, home-builders, or basket-weavers. As it turns out, the most highly-esteemed members of the Agta tribe are storytellers. Storytellers are seen as more desirable to live with, more attractive as mates, and had more children on average than their peers. They also enjoy recei ..read more

[A] man can no more be completely original […] than a tree can grow out of air.George Bernard Shaw There’s a theory in science called “multiple discovery” which postulates that most important scientific discoveries and inventions are made independently and more or less simultaneously by multiple scientists and inventors. You can find many examples of this phenomena throughout history. For instance, Sir Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and Pierre de Fermat all formed the basis for calculus independently in the 17th-century. Similarly, while Charles Darwin honed his theory of natural sel ..read more

As a writer, my notes are integral to my creative process. They constitute a bank of ideas and inspiration that I withdraw from repeatedly. Over time, my network of digital notes has grown to be more valuable to me than Google. When I sit down to write, I search Evernote first for information to support my thesis. Google can be a great tool for research, but it will never be able to surface content that’s as personalized, targeted, and high quality as my own notes. My notes in Evernote are useful because they’re curated. Only the very best ideas reside there. Three filters ensure their quality ..read more

For tens of thousands of years ancient humans lived as hunter-gatherers. They owned few possessions and traveled across vast distances in step with the migration patterns of the beasts they hunted. It was a tough existence. They lived hand to mouth, always on the search for food, and only one misstep away from disaster. A minor injury for you or me today might be a death sentence to these early nomads. However, the portrait of savage survival was framed with wonder. Members of the tribe enjoyed modest work weeks and long stretches of leisure with a tight-knit group of friends and family. Their ..read more

Streaks are their own reward. When you commit to something every day, you find satisfaction—independent from the activity itself—just in keeping the streak alive. In this way, streaks are a powerful source of motivation. They create self-reinforcing internal pressure to keep going. Each day that extends the streak is more motivation not to break it tomorrow. Streaks create a positive feedback loop that reinforce new routines. And eventually those routines form new habits. It’s hard to explain to a non-runner how someone can wake up at 5:30 AM every day and go for an 8 mile jog, rain or shine ..read more

“I don’t have time for that” is a comforting lie. But here’s the inconvenient truth: Time is irrelevant. Your priorities dictate what you choose to do and what you decide to ignore. Excusing something for lack of time is a red herring fallacy. It sounds relevant, but it’s actually just a convenient distraction from the real issue. Everybody has the same amount of time—24 hours a day. You can’t buy more time, and nobody can take it away from you. Time is the great equalizer. You always make time for what you believe is important. When you say “I don’t have time for that,” you’re really saying ..read more

I spent many hours of my undergraduate studies in the East Hall atrium. Located in the heart of the math department, the high glass ceiling and long wooden tables made it the ideal place to meet up with your study group if the library was too crowded. Plus, there was an old ping-pong table on the second floor. Always a welcomed distraction (if you could find a ball that wasn’t cracked). I distinctly remember several large palm trees scattered throughout that atrium. They were ostentatiously fake, with a quarter-inch of dust blanketing each leaf. Despite their sorry look, the plants would have ..read more