Question to ponder:

What are the thorns that I would choose?

There's a common belief that there are two paths in life:

1. The clean, well-trodden, safe path: Easy, but perhaps less rewarding.
2. The messy, untouched, risky path: Hard, but perhaps more rewarding.

The reality: There's no such thing as the easy path in life.

Every path before you has roses, but also thorns.

The question we all need to ask ourselves: What are the thorns that I would choose?

We cannot hope to avoid the struggle and pain along the way, but we can choose the type of struggle and pain we will endure.

The thorns of the "safe" path may be those of regret—of opportunities missed and potential wasted.

The thorns of the "risky" path may be those of fear—of safety relinquished and pain of failure.

The point here is that we all have to face the thorns, but we get to choose which thorns we encounter.

So, which thorns would you choose?

Quote on starting over:

"Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

It takes persistence to continue climbing the mountain.

It takes courage to climb down and start fresh on a new one.

(Share this on Twitter!)

Framework for focus:

The Question of Nine

If you talk to a group of highly successful people and ask them for their secrets to success, one word will come up again and again: Focus.

The ability to focus on the things that matter (and ignore the rest) is a superpower in the modern era. In a world where every "urgent" notification threatens to claw at your attention, narrowing your field of vision allows you to stand out and thrive.

Whitney Wolfe, the founder and CEO of Bumble, a dating platform worth over $2.5 billion, developed a simple framework for focus that I love:

The Question of Nine.

Whenever she is faced by a decision, she asks herself: Will this matter in nine minutes, nine hours, nine days, nine weeks, nine months, or nine years?

If the answer is yes to all of them, it's very important and requires dedicated attention and focus. If not, the decision can be delegated, eliminated, or batched into a window of time for lower value decisions.

My one edit to Wolfe's interpretation: If something definitely matters in nine months but you're not sure if it matters in nine years, you're probably better off assuming it will and acting accordingly. I'm notoriously bad at predicting long time horizons, so I like to lean to the safety of this assumption.

I love this framework because it effectively works as a simple heuristic for determining which items would qualify as "important" in your Eisenhower Matrix.

Personally, I find myself using a one year time horizon for my mark of whether something is important. If it will matter in a year, it's important, otherwise, it's not. I like the simplicity of one year, but you should find what works for you.

As you're faced with important tasks and decisions in your professional life, try using the Question of Nine (or your own adapted version) and let me know what you think.

Tweet on what to avoid:

We can take a lesson from this interaction at it applies to our pursuit of personal leverage.

For each domain of life (professional and personal), identify your 3-5 Most Important Things (MIPs). Everything else should be avoided at all costs as you focus your time and energy on your MIPs.

This is how you build the life you want.

​

Article on true returns:

​The Return on Hassle Spectrum​

This was a great article that brought to life an idea that has long been floating around my head:

ROI should capture everything, not just the financial.

Great read that's worth your time!