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Chris Hadfield's Interview -- Don't Just Aim For the Finish Line [Video]

As the Olympics ended, I saw something that caught my eye ... and speaks to a wider audience.

It was an interview with astronaut, Chris Hadfield.  In it, he talks about life, the universe, and what’s really out there.

One of the noteworthy points is not to focus solely on the finish line.

 

 

If you view crossing the finish line as the measure of your life, you’re setting yourself up for a personal disaster.

There are very very very few people who win gold at the Olympics. And if you say, ‘if I don’t win gold then I’m a failure or I’ve let somebody down or something,’ ... What if you win a silver? What if you win a bronze? What if you come fourth? What if your binding comes apart? … What if all of those millions of things that happen in life happen?

Only a few people that go there are going to win gold. And it’s the same, in some degree, I think in commanding a spaceship or doing a spacewalk.  It is a very rare, singular moment-in-time event in the continuum of life.

And you need to honor the highs and the peaks in the moments — you need to prepare your life for them — but recognize the fact that the preparation for those moments is your life and, in fact, that’s the richness of your life.

The challenge that we set for each other, and the way that we shape ourselves to rise to that challenge, is life.

 

Here is the video.

 

 

 

Focusing on the finish line can be tough, even if you win. 

Let's say you set a big goal (for example: winning a gold medal, playing in the Super Bowl, IPOing your company, making a billion dollars, etc.).  Achieving a goal like that is often anti-climactic.  Why, because what's next? Was that the high point ... and everything else is down-hill from there?"

Instead, focus on the process, the growth, and what it makes possible.  That is where you will likely find the energy and motivation to find more ways to win and a bigger future.

What do you think?

If you want more Chris Hadfield, here is something.

Here Are Some Links to Start Your Week

Are the Olympics over yet?  No?  Here are some worthwile momements, in case you missed them.

For example, here, a woman tried to snap a picture of the hockey game between Russia and Slovenia — but instead she got an eyeful.  Call it a new form of 'Selfie'.

 

 

And here's one the Wide World of Sports would call the "Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat".

 

 

For more Olympic pictures, click here.

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Why Big Data Might Be More About Automation Than Insights. (GigaOM)
• Better Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take Our Jobs. (Wired)
• Why Are We Here? Evolution’s Dirty Secrets. (Salon)
• How Roommates Replaced Spouses in the 20th Century. (The Atlantic)
• Debunking the Myth of the 10,000-Hours Rule: What It Actually Takes to Reach Genius-Level Excellence. (Brain Pickings)

 

Trading Links:

• FED: "Lower Rates Don't Induce Investment." Wasn't That a Central Tenet of Monetary Policy? (BI)
• Are Trading and Gambling the Same? (FuturesMag)
• Statistics Done Wrong: A Guide to Common Analysis Mistakes. (Online)
• IBM Announces $1B Watson Group, Moves Jeopardy Ace Computer To NYC. (Forbes)
• DeathWatch 2014 - Companies on the edge of irrelevance. These five companies won’t die, but they may not escape 2014 in one piece. (ArsTechnica)

Change may happen in an instant ... but it's easier to recognize over time.

These side-by-side pictures of me were taken almost exactly one year apart (the skinnier one was taken last week).

 

 

While I'm proud of the progress, there's still more work to do.

The result didn't come from Photoshop or fasting; it came from a consistent application of focus and activity.

On a day-to-day basis, my weight went up or down (seemingly randomly). Nonetheless, over time, burning more calories than I ate, measuring results, and adjusting the plan -- led to meaningful progress on many levels.

Change can happen in an instant ... Yet, it's often easier to see over time.

The goal, itself, can act as a compass heading - pointing in the right direction. The best next step is often simply being willing to take the best next step. 

Entropy and inertia are always there if you stop along the way.

It's easy to get distracted by the practical realities and minor urgencies of life. This can pull you off track.

Likewise, while it seems like human nature to focus on how far you still have to go in order to reach your goal ... this can be de-motivating.  A better strategy is to recognize the progress you've made towards the ultimate goal, and use it as fuel towards more progress (or something better).

Samuel Johnson said, "If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."  

Given enough resources, you can do anything you commit to do. Some of those resources include money and time; but I believe that focus and energy are important as well.

As long as you continue to make progress, and don't give-up, possibility turns into probability ... and probability turns into realized successes.

Hope you have a great week.   Sign-up to get this delivered once a week.

 

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Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:

• Obvious: FBI can secretly turn on laptop cameras without the indicator light. (Dvorak)
• The Top 10 Tech 'Fails' of 2013. (CNN)
• How Heart Rate Is Related to Fitness and Longevity. (Huffingtonpost)
• Spotify Year in Review 2013. (Spotify)
• 55 Louis C.K. Quotes That Will Make You Laugh And Think. (ThoughtCatalog)

 

Trading Links:

• BlackRock Is Now the Biggest Investor in the World. (Insider)
• World's Best Economies in 2013. (CNNMoney)
• Wall Street Market Predictions For 2014. (BusinessInsider)
• Whitney Tilson: Lessons From A Dozen Years Of Short Selling. (ValueWalk)
• Algorithms Get Smarter. Speed is giving way to instrumentation and fine-tuning. (CME Group)

Here Are Some Links to Start Your Week

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• 100 Top Inspirational Quotes. (Forbes)
• 23 Signs You're Secretly An Introvert. (HuffingtonPost)
• 99 Life Hacks That Could Make Your Life Easier. (AG)
• 40 Useful Sites to Learn New Skills. (Marc&Angel)
• 30 Inspirational Songs to Keep You Motivated. (Lifehack)

 

Trading Links:

• U.S. Rethinks How to Release Sensitive Economic Data. (Wall Street Journal)
• Which of These 11 American Nations Do You Live In? (WashingtonPost)
• Mapping Investor Behavior. (AllAboutAlpha)
• A Twitter User Is Worth $110; Facebook's $98; LinkedIn's $93. (Forbes)
• A Proposal To Limit Swiss Executive Pay To 12 Times That Of Low-Paid Employees Has Some Worried. (BusinessInsider)

People Are Awesome - 2013 Video

People can do some pretty amazing things when they put their mind to it.

Here is a ten-minute video compilation that shows "awesome" comes in many forms.

 

 

 

Going to the gym or finishing a project doesn't seem quite as hard after watching this.

Of course, procrastinators (and the clumsy) may prefer the Fail Compilation instead.

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Stores are becoming showrooms for consumers to find items to buy online.

Coming into Black Friday, a new version of the the increasingly popular game "Internet Destruction" is about to let consumers take another shot at destroying Retailing (like they have already done to newspapers, magazines, music and book publishing).

    

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• The Last Thing We Want is Real Artificial Intelligence. (Harvard Business Review)
• Stephen Hawking Predicts Uploading the Brain into a Computer. (KurzweilAI)
• Why You Should Never Kiss a Pig. And other wisdom from a Nobel Prize-winner. (Mother Jones)
• 9 Philosophical Thought Experiments That Will Keep You Up at Night. (Io9)
• Gartner: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2014. (Forbes)

 

Trading Links:

• Richest 1 Percent Hold 46 Percent Of The World's Wealth. (HuffingtonPost)
• Top 12 Wealthiest Countries. (ThinkAdvisor)
• PC Sales Fall to Lowest Level for Five Years. (Telegraph)
• The 10 Stealth Economic Trends That Rule the World Today. (The Atlantic)
• Faster Than a Speeding Bullet: Algorithmic trading is changing the way the stock market game is played. (TechDirt)

 

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Glad to know some people are keeping their health insurance.

 

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• 10 Things IBM Is Teaching the World About Winning in the Next Decade. (Forbes)
• Beware of fake 'Obamacare' sites that want to steal your info  - NBC News. (NBC)       
• Video: Every iPhone Ever Gets Speed Tested Side-By-Side. (TechCrunch)
• 10 Animations that Show How Faces Age Over Time. (TwistedSifter)
• Why Time Slows Down When We’re Afraid, Speeds Up as We Age, and Gets Warped on Vacation. (BrainPickings)

 

Trading Links:

• Google Stock Topped $1,000 this Month, Not Many Tech Stocks Ever Do. (NYTimes)
• The Shutdown Took $24 Billion Out of the U.S. Economy. S&P Cuts Forecast. (BizInsider)
• What Difference Does The New Fed Chairman Make? Less Than You’d Think. (Forbes)
• U.S. Surpasses Saudi Arabia as World's Biggest Oil Producer. (Circa News)
• The True Size of the Shadow Banking System Revealed (Spoiler: Humongous). Also a new way to measure its hidden impact. (Medium)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Funny cartoon by Nate Beeler.  Error: The Government has stopped responding.

  

Too bad it's not just a cartoon.

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• 59% Think U.S. More Exceptional Than Other Nations. (RasmussenReports)
• We are #1: 60% of Porn Websites Are Hosted in the United States. (Statista)
• Trouble Using iOS 7? Here Are 15 Tricks To Make The Transition Easier. (Forbes)
• London "Fatberg": 17-ton ball of fat found in London's sewer. (Slate)
• Economist: A McDonald's Hamburger Is the Cheapest, Most Nutritious Food in Human History. At least when starvation, rather than obesity, is your problem. (Neatorama)

 

Trading Links:

• Apple Beats Coca-Cola to Emerge as Most Valuable Global Brand. (The Industry Standard)
• U.S. Third Quarter Earnings Warning Ratio Is Second Worst Since 2001. (Reuters)
• Why Stock Markets May Be Lagging Indicators. (Forbes)
• Time to Graduate to Futures? (TheStreet)
• White House Releases Animated Explanation of ObamaCare. (WSJ)

Hans Rosling: Here's How Data Can Solve the World's Most Challenging Problems

Swedish academic and Gapminder Foundation co-founder Hans Rosling says data doesn't always back up our conceptions about the world.

In the video, below, Rosling explains that our ideas about developed and developing countries largely reflect the reality of fifty years ago, rather than today.

   

This video, The River of Myth, was released to coincide with Bill Gates' annual letter, and shares its emphasis on the power of measuring to achieve progress.

  

Related articles

Hans Rosling - The Health and Wealth of Nations

Why washing machines are important [Hans Rosling TED Talk]

Han Rosling's View of the World Through Public Data on Live Expectancy Vs. Income