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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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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 to Start Your Week

You can learn a lot by watching puppies.  Barley, here, is sporting the "Cone of Shame" ... which was our attempt to stop him from licking his nether-region till it was swollen and raw.

 

 

Despite our best efforts, Barley has figured-out how to contort his body and use his prehensile tongue to get the job done anyway.

I guess Charles Darwin was right ... "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

 

 

 

Most find a way to get what they must have.

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

 

Lighter Links:

• How Visionaries See the Future. (PandoDaily)
• Reframing Failure as Intentional Iteration. The secret to success may be trying more stuff. (IAC)
• This Quick Trick Can Vastly Improve The iPhone's Fingerprint Scanner. (HuffPost)
• Top Spotify Playlists for Your Every Mood. (Mashable)
• The Top Five Vitamins You Should Not Take. (Forbes)

 

Trading Links:

• Goldman Expects More Banks To Be Like Goldman Next Year. (Quartz)
• Palantir, a Big Data Tech Company, Raises $100MM at a $9 Billion Valuation. (NYTimes)
• 12 Smart Money Moves to Make Before the End of 2013. (Forbes)
• 15 Highest Paid CEOs in America. (BusinessInsider)
• Minimum Wage Was Once Enough To Keep a Family of 3 Out of Poverty. How much do you think is now needed? - (The Atlantic)

The Clues to a Great Story - TED Video and Infographic

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.

I visited family.

 

 

One of the things that caught my attention was how attached to stories we are ... our own, and the stories of others. 

They help us decide who is naughty or nice.  They help us decide who to spend more time with ... and where we fit in.

Stories are emotion catalysts and amplifiers.  Choose the 'right' ones, and you feel good.  Focus on the 'wrong' one and you feel bad. 

Well-told stories make us care.  Humans use 'story' to make sense of things.  If you create the narrative, the process is intentional.  However, for most, the quality of our stories is not a conscious process. 

 

How Do You Craft a Great Story?

 

A good story can make the gathering feel that much closer. A good story can flip a conversation at a party from completely awkward to wonderful.

A good story can glue your nose to a book. And, on screen, a good story can rivet generation after generation.

Story-telling is an important skill.  So, how do you tell a good story?

Andrew Stanton, the Pixar writer and director behind both Toy Story and WALL-E, has many ideas, and he shared his expertise in his TED Talk, The clues to a great story .

 

 

 

Storytelling is like joke telling. It's knowing your punchline, your ending, knowing that everything you're saying, from the first sentence to the last, is leading to a singular goal, and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understandings of who we are as human beings.

We all love stories. We're born for them. Stories affirm who we are. We all want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater affirmation than when we connect through stories. It can cross the barriers of time, past, present and future, and allow us to experience the similarities between ourselves and through others, real and imagined.

 

Here is an infographic that sets out the basic steps to a great story.

 

Stories are not just for kids.

Make me care.  Take me with you.  Be intentional.  Let me like you.  Delight me.

Words to live by!

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Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Holiday travel made better for the NSA now that the FAA allows travelers to use electronics during takeoff and landing.

  

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Best Business Leaders 2013. (BusinessInsider)
• Software Patent Reform Just Died In The House, Thanks to IBM and Microsoft. (WP)
• Why Is Turkey Cheaper When Demand Is Higher? - NYTimes. (NYTimes)
• Cyber Monday 2013: Best US Deals and Sales. (Pocket-Lint)
• Temperament is More Important than IQ. (FarnamStreetBlog)

 

Trading Links:

• Apple is Sitting on 10% of All US Corporate Cash. (Quartz)
• Thanksgiving Digest: Mobile 43% Of All Traffic, Over 25% Of All Online Sales. (TechCrunch)
• Credit Card Companies Use Free Shipping as Weapon in E-Commerce Battle. (AllThingsD)
• Putting a Speed Limit on the Stock Market. (NYTimes)
• The Future of Computer Based Trading.   (Magic-Maths-Money)

What Happens After the Easy Wins are Gone?

We got a new puppy from an animal rescue service this week. 

 

I had forgotten how fast they learn (and how much they had to learn).

Once you get over that the initial learning curve of something new, progress is often quick and easy. There are often a lot of obvious things to do to get better.

However, there comes a point where the easy progress has been realized and the choices start to get harder (or at least less obvious).

Not surprisingly, one of the hardest things for people to deal with is not knowing whether they can do better. It plays on our fundamental fears about not being enough.

It is easy to train a dog as long as they get a treat. This is called a 'conditioned response'. But most of us are not aware of how much of our current behavior is a conditioned response based on the strategies, tactics, and viewpoints of our past.

Yet, the things that got us 'here' are simply the things that get you to here (and a new set of strategies tactics and techniques is what's needed to get something better than 'here').

That means sometimes 'more' and 'faster' have to give way to something 'different' or better'.

Unlocking the Next Level of Performance

Confidence fuels lots of progress.  It is a catalyst to recognizing a bigger future.  But it isn't the only way to get there.

Challenge and struggle often precede break-through performances.

 Let's hope so ...

 

Imagine sitting in the Oval Office and reading this headline:
"Only 6 People Enrolled on Health Site's First Day - And just 248 were enrolled by second day."

If 'rough seas make skillful sailors,' our current administration should be getting better all the time.

Recently, I heard a story that caught my attention.

A congregant was chosen to perform a key ritual during an important religious service. That person was counseled and prepared on what to think, how to comport themselves, and what to say during their time in front of the audience.

When their 'spotlight moment' came, this person went blank - they forgot everything they were supposed to think, do, or say. Panic set in ... they were scared and desperate.

Nonetheless, it was their time -- and all eyes were upon them. So, they gathered up their courage and they did their best.

Afterwards, still feeling bad about all the things they forgot, what they didn't do, and what might've been ... person after person told them how well they did. Feeling guilty, they went to their spiritual leader to confess that, even though it seemed to go okay, it had not gone the way they were instructed.

The spiritual leader laughed and smiled, "each of the instructions you were given was like a key to a door or a gate, but the feeling of desire and longing that stemmed from your broken heart and the need to do better is a master key that opens all doors."

This same message plays itself out in so many levels and so many disciplines. In sales, and undisturbed prospect doesn't buy. In personal development, people don't change if they are happy with the way things are. In trading, risk control, diversification, and better money management often stem from big losses.

The master key to meaningful change, however, is ultimately internal.  It happens when we are shaken out of our 'rut' ... and view things from a new perspective.

In many respects, it doesn't matter what happens; what matters is what you do. 

Twelve Mistakes That Contribute To Poor Decision Making

Here are twelve mistakes that contribute to poor decision making.

1. Selective Search for Evidence: Gathering facts that support pre-determined conclusions, but disregard other facts that support different conclusions.
2. Premature Termination of Search for Evidence: Accepting the first alternative that looks like it might work.
3. Inertia: Being unwilling to change old thought patterns.
4. Selective Perception: Prematurely screening out information not assumed to be useful.
5. Wishful Thinking: Wanting to see things in a positive light.
6. Recency Effect: Putting undue attention on recent information and experience while minimizing the value of information collected in the past.
7. Repetition Bias: Believing what’s been stated the most often and by the greatest number of sources.
8. Anchoring and Adjustment: Being unduly influenced by initial information that shapes your view of subsequent information.
9. Group Think: Conforming to peer pressure or the opinions of the majority.
10. Source Credibility: Rejecting input from sources prematurely judged to not be credible (or not “cool” or “in sync with the way you do business.”)
11. Attribution Asymmetry: Attributing success to your team’s abilities and talents, but attributing failures to bad luck and external factors.
12. Role Fulfillment: Conforming to the decision making expectations others have of someone in your position.

 

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