in light of car-owning hypocrites who complain about carbon footprints, today we discuss a Much More Actionable endeavor: increasing your excellence footprint.
to understand how this works, first imagine behaviors and traits that decrease one’s excellence:
- listening to audio in public without headphones
- being fat but ordering a Frappuccino
- having kids without enough money to afford them a good life
according to Tony Robbins we can only effect positive change when our energy level is in a “peak state.” here are a few more catalyzing ideas in case your feathers aren’t ruffled yet:
- getting jealous when your friend becomes successful
- thinking Steve Scalise deserved to be shot by a Bernie Bro
- believing you are a victim for any reason
start with empathy
one of my favorite Seinfeld moments is when George says “I can sense even the slightest human suffering.”
like George, it doesn’t please me to point out flaws in human nature. i want all of us to achieve our potential. but getting better starts with admitting we have a problem.
let’s put excellence into practice.
first steps to personal betterment
the easiest way to become more excellent is to be less of a Piece of Sh*t.
do you snort cocaine? hit your wife? steal from your employer? stop doing that. you’ll immediately be a better person.
second step to personal improvement
James Altucher has spent years articulating the compounding effect of improving 1% every day. from his blog:
what does this mean for you and me? some ideas:
- wake up earlier, or work longer (5p, 5:15p, 5:30p, etc)
- less alcohol, then only on weekends, then 1x /month, etc
- 2 bench press sets, then 3, then more weight…
- tip 20%, then round up a dollar
personal excellence is a function of addition and subtraction. but not all at once, just a little bit each day.
7 billion losers
maybe this is harsh. after removing kids and retirees there are probably closer to 6 billion losers.
“to have what others don’t, do what others won’t.”
i’ve invested wasted a lot of time trying to help people help themselves, only to realize my effort was making me a worse person.
for this reason i’ve retracted a handful of ways people were previously able to get in touch:
- email → auto replies, personal assistant, liberal use of Archive
- social media → disabled Direct Messages, deleted accounts
- networking → say “no” to every coffee, attend only 1-2 events /year
- relationships → changed my phone number, disabled iMessage
some of these changes are a year old; i finally disabled iMessage 3 days ago. a man who does not take his own advice is a charlatan.
what’s on your tombstone?
Tombstone frozen pizza ran this campaign for awhile. in advertising this is called a big idea, alongside Got Milk and Think Different.
just two questions:
- do you want to have a big idea?
- will you get it at brunch?
yesterday i granted ~$75,000 in scholarships to my growth course. not because i’m nice, but because i’m sick of reading excuses.
here is what will not be on my tombstone: lazy, quiet, took advice from people who don’t read books.
i will never apologize for pushing, testing, improving. i will never apologize for suggesting you do the same.