action

Captains and Coaches

A team of excellent players who play in isolation will always lose to a team of good players who play united.

When players play for themselves, their ability is additive; when they play in unison, for eachother and for the team, their abilities mulitply.

A captain’s role is to eking out the best performance from every player through motivation and example.

The coach’s role is create harmony between them, through insightful, strategic planning and elegant design.

Teams which synergise and shine are always greater than the sum of their parts. The job of a leader is to realise that potential.

The Cycle

It starts with us asking ourselves where we are.

Then we consider why we’re there.

Followed by us asking, “Where could we be?”

We consider how we could get there.

We act (hopefully).

We analyse whether or not we’re getting there.

Then we ask ourselves where we are…

On Strength

The little kid at the bottom of the heap who shows up to every training regardless, is strong.

So is the woman who stands her ground when her coworker critiques the appropriateness of her dress sense.

As is the huge veiny man at the gym lifting 140 kilograms so far above his head that his small intestine wants to burst.

And so is the poet, trembling before the mic at their first public gig, eyes on the ground and paper in hand.

Strength isn’t restricted by gender, measured by weight or determined by contest.

Strength is the courage to show up; to commit, to fail, and to learn.

Strength is your ability to grow.

Work Smart

Writers less creative than you have published books.

Producers less organised than you have made movies.

Entrepreneurs less intelligent than you have built million dollar businesses.

You are not the sum of all your parts.

You are the sum of how well you work. Not how hard, but how effectively.

Perfection Is Myth

You have never drawn a perfectly straight line.

Regardless of whether you use a pencil and a ruler ruler or a laser beam, if you zoom in far enough, the line isn’t straight.

When decisions in our life are overly important or scary, it’s common to wait for the ‘perfect’ time. Which, even if it did exist, would be such a minute window that you’d miss it anyway.

Circumstances will never be perfect because perfection doesn’t exist.

If you’re sitting around waiting for it, you’re going to be waiting a long time.

Forget being perfect.

Be first. Make a ruckus. Repeat.

What Is.

Here’s the deal: we live in a strange, rapidly changing, hyper connected world which is making some of us intensely miserable in ways we don’t fully understand. 

Our ability to control our own attention is diminishing at an alarming rate.

Technical monoliths are making us feel exposed in ways people never used to have to worry about.

And our opportunities, while still limited, seem limitless in the face of everybody else’s success.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. We are sensationally adaptable creatures.

Brilliant people all over the world are constantly discovering fascinating things, many of which can inform our way forward through this jumbled mess.

Whenever it gets too much, remember that all you can ever be held accountable for is everything you do.

If the world outside is so overwhelming in scale and implication, how tiny our own short lives must be.

And if the prospect of being responsible for your every living breath is so overwhelming, how small and insignificant the rest of the world must be.

The world, and your roll in it, is neither too large or too small.

It just is.

Realise this and you might just do away with half the troubles our new world brings with it.

Losing Time

There’s no such thing as making up lost time because we don’t lose time, we spend it.

Just because we spent in poorly, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t ours to spend.

Making up lost time is just scrambling to get done what you didn’t get done when you were supposed to.

Struggling through an all nighter to meet a deadline or pushing your body to the limit to squeeze out one last burst of speed at the end of a race are not signs of strength.

There’s no heroism there. It’s just poor management.

Live the present moment as fully prepared for the next as you can.

Time lost is irrelevant. Focus on siezing the time still ahead of you.

Relinquishing Control

There comes a time in every leader’s tenure when it’s time to start letting go.

Time to pass the batton, or risk letting their team die.

A good leader makes themselves replaceable.

A bad one leaves their project to perish along with their involvement.

If you’re not replaceable, your project isn’t sustainable, and unsustainable projects aren’t worth much investment.

It’s fine to start things on your own. Sometimes it’s the only way things get made.

But your ceiling operating alone is far lower than working alongside a group of compassionate people you trust.

Find your tribe.

Make a ruckus.

Get to work.

Make Great Things With Brilliant People

We’re at our best when we’re creating.

We create at our best when we’re connected.

We’re most connected when we surround ourselves with brilliant people who care.

And we attract those people by being brilliant ourselves.

Next time you’re wondering what to do, think about what you have to give.

Then give it.

Forever Flow

We experience flow when tackling a challenge in the sweet spot of our ability to overcome it without excess anxiety or boredom.

(Diagram accessed via Researchgate)

All games demand flow. When our experience becomes too challenging or too easy, we stop playing optimally (or altogether).

The secret to growth in infinite games is to only play finite games within your flow channel.

Don’t challenge a chess master to play and expect to win and don’t look for intimate connections at bus stops. These are games you’re not going to have fun playing.

If you find that your channel is too narrow to allow enough finite play, perhaps it needs expanding.

Our tolerance to failure and our ability to process it productively are directly linked to the range of flow experiences available to us.

Widen the channel far enough and no game is too boring or worrying to play.

Winning and losing ceases to matter – the point of playing becomes the continuation of the play.

If you find games you can play under any and all circumstances and still improve, you’ll live in flow forever.