The path to greater truthfulness

When you get to the age of 15, you start to really learn. When you turn 30, you start to really understand what you want. When you turn 40, you don’t hesitate over choices. When you turn 50, you can finally understand the meaning of life. When you turn 60, you can finally accept others advice. When you turn 70, you can finally understand who you are. – Confucius

The great thing about getting older is that it comes with greater self-awareness.

At a certain age, it stops making sense to do things you don’t like and starts making sense to do more of what is truly you. Weird or not.

You can fool yourself all you want trying to live someone else’s life but, ultimately, if you’re not being honest with yourself, it won’t suit you.

We’re bombarded with images of what could be from childhood on, de-programming that conditioning and separating what is us from what isn’t is the work of a lifetime. It’s also the path to greater truthfulness; the path you should be on.

It’s also about dancing and playing

Last night I dreamt about work. This post is an early reminder not to forget about playing.

I’ve seen people before and after burnouts. They’re never the same. Trust me, you don’t want this.

I thought I was pretty good at maintaining work-life balance (I have several hobbies) but, turns out that, even if something isn’t work, it can feel like work (like checking the Internet when you work online…).

A few rules I’m setting for myself starting today…

• Have a no work (or anything that feels like work) rule for at least 1 day a week.
• Read a fun book for every business book I read.
• Take advantage of my own schedule by doing something completely work-unrelated during the workday.
• Do less each week but, seek more impact. We’ll see about that one…

You can’t burn life without burning yourself. And, frankly, is that really what you’re after?

If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution (Emma Goldman).

If the work you’re trying to do can’t possibly be done within 40-50 hours a week, is that really what you want to be doing?

Don’t shit in your own trail

When I started working as a teen, my father started sharing work-related wisdom. At the time, one of the lessons that stuck was:

Don’t shit in your own trail (loosely translated from French).

Through this crude piece of advice (sorry for the language), he meant:

1. Don’t rule yourself out of past opportunities you might have to get back to. There’s no point in ruining contacts and relationships.
2. There’s a reason why you took a certain path and chose certain options. Don’t lose track of the motivations behind your decisions because, at some point in time, it was exactly what you wanted.

We have a tendency to focus on our current position at the cost of forgetting the thinking process that brought us there. Right now might not be exactly where you want to be but, there are reasons why you chose that trail. At some point, it made sense to move away, get that job or get married. Well, hopefully…

The problem with learning

We learn things everyday. Big things, small things, important things, unimportant things.

We learn the right way to do things and generally 2 or 3 competing approaches.

At the end of the day, it adds up to a lot of stuff for our brain to compile, access, process and turn into actionable knowledge (knowledge we can use).

But, the problem with learning is that we don’t control what goes inside our heads; bad theories and ideas take just as much space as the good ones. We also don’t control the priorities. Without practice, bad theories are just as likely to float to the surface.

Knowing a lot of things makes you an enjoyable person to talk to but, knowing something doesn’t get you very far. To get things done, you need to focus on the right theories. How can you prioritize the things you want to know and use?

I use post its and frequent reminders….

First year in review – Posts you may have missed

104 posts were published in our first year. If I can’t remember them all, I don’t expect even the most loyal readers to remember half of them. While some posts were very popular (see last week’s 10 most popular posts), others did quite well in spite of less readership.

Here are, again according to statistics, last year’s 10 most underrated blog posts:

• Let others fail first
• Dress just enough
• Watch your feet
• You need less than you think
• Don’t be your own disturbance
• Set the suggestion cost
• How much are you worth
• What project should you invest in
• Building momentum
• Separate thinking and execution

If you’ve read them all, you get a star! ;) If you haven’t, hopefully you’ll discover a post or two that you like.

Thank you for reading!

Anyone can teach us a thing or two

Nothing is truer than that. At least, anyone can teach me a thing or two.

Since the 21 lives community and readership is growing very quickly this summer, I’d like to start a monthly feature to publish what you (anyone reading this blog) have recently learned.

It could be about anything… life, business, bee farming, relationships, travel, school, geology, anything!!

We can learn a lot from everyone reading this Website. To participate, please write in the comments below or send me an email at hello@21lives.com (Note: your contribution can be anonymous or not).

So, what did you learn this past month?

First year in review – the 10 most popular posts

It wasn’t always easy but, somehow, I managed to pull together a full year of blog posts. I may have skipped a week or two (vacations and stuff) but, overall I’m satisfied with the quality and variety of content that was published.

It’s nearly impossible for me to pick the best posts so, I’ll let page views, number of visitors, social media, etc, etc do the dirty work for me. Without further due, here are last year’s 10 most popular posts:

• Don’t ask for permission
• Always be the CEO
• Realize there’s no one else
• Your time isn’t free
• Don’t fall in love too quickly
• The art of “giving” face
• Break artificial distances
• The hardest thing to do
• Don’t do what Real did
• Everything can end

I hope you enjoyed the content; feel free to let us know below which were your favorites.

The objective for year 2 is to double the number of visitors, fans, posts read, etc, etc. If you haven’t already done so, signup to receive updates via email or rss, join our Facebook page and share the content with your friends.

Let’s go for a second year!

Note: Posts were ordered randomly by hand

The flipside of productivity

Doing work is the best way to get working… Quick tasks on your To Do list help you get started and avoid procrastination… But, if you just get to work, you run the risk of doing things that don’t matter (like cleaning your desk…).

In search of productivity, it’s important not to confuse being busy with being productive because, being very efficient at something unimportant is not productivity. For example:

… say you’re very good at climbing up a tall ladder, and can reach the top of it very quickly and with little effort. Will that skill help you if the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall?
Even if you’re slower at climbing it but the ladder is against the right wall, you’ll eventually get to where you want to be. (Dr. Mani)

It’s more important to be doing the right things than doing whatever you’re doing more efficiently. Make sure everything you do brings you closer to your objective. But, for that to work, you need to know what your objective is… do you?