You've got skillz! Legacies, LONG after you're gone. Being comfortable with yourself. Anger. Dutch sex. Truth seeking. Being good.
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1. “You already have these skills”
The Five Most Valuable Skills You Can Develop For Free – Josh Spector – (For the Interested newsletter)
Josh’s newsletter targets entrepreneur types, such as myself, buy my reaction was much broader. This one applies to anyone interested in just living a better life.
The most valuable skills you can have in life and work are rarely taught in school, never show up on a resume, and are consistently overlooked and underappreciated.
Paying attention. Following direction. Caring. Accepting responsibility. Curiosity. These are all things we a) take for granted, b) rarely focus on improving, and yet c) can immediately think of others who need improvement.
I know of at least one, and I meet him in the mirror every morning.
Do this: Work on your skills.
#attention #direction #caring #responsibility #curiosity
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2. “Everyone you know will also be dead.”
What Will You Leave Behind? – Tom Greene – (Wit & Wisdom newsletter)
This took a turn. I was expecting the usual admonition to quit accumulating so much stuff, since no one will care about it after you’re dead, or certainly not within a couple of generations thereafter. And, indeed, it starts out reading that way.
See, everything on earth will rust or rot, and that’s what will happen to most of the stuff you covet today. Lots of it will be rusting or rotting at the bottom of a landfill—or owned by a total stranger.
The turn comes when he begins talking about what it’s reasonable to “leave behind”. Not things, but values, morals, behaviours, priorities and more. Even without your name attached, these kinds of things can transcend generations.
Seek to promote the truly priceless patterns of health, prosperity, faith, goodness, righteousness, and love to future generations. After all, these are the kinds of traits you want to be remembered for.
Our time is short, but while we’re here, we can still have a long-term impact.
Do this: Think about your legacy.
3. “You can give love more freely.”
How to love your own company – Susan Cain – (The Quiet Life newsletter)
If you love your own company, you’re more likely to follow interesting new pathways (because you rely on your own instincts, and if you take a wrong turn, you’re not concerned that you’ll be stranded out there by yourself).
What this essay (it’s a 7-step how-to) made me consider if our constant need for attention and diversion is a symptom of not being comfortable with ourselves; with being alone. As previous takeaways have referred to, we’ve lost the art of allowing ourselves to be bored. I wonder if there’s an epidemic of discomfort with ourselves that is part of the cause.
Do this: Work to be OK with yourself.
4. “Anger is often the hardest feeling to feel”
Face your anger and let it out. It’s the only way to stay healthy – Moya Sarner – (The Guardian)
I hate anger. I really do. Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than being around someone nearby who’s angry, especially if the anger seems out of proportion to the situation. (And yet, I work with people struggling with technology. Go figure. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
I’m not a fan of feeling it either.
The author makes a good case for anger being important, specifically being important to feel, because it often masks other, often more important things.
And there might be all sorts of important feelings hiding underneath that anger that won’t get a word in if that anger cannot be felt first.
It’s something I need to carefully examine.
Do this: Examine your anger.
5. “The Dutch are way ahead of us with sex education”
We Could Learn a Lot About Sex From the Dutch – Michelle Teheux – (Medium)
Being of Dutch ancestry, I’ll admit to being biased, but this essay articulates something I’ve felt for a very long time. Americans are extremely backwards when it comes to sex, sex education, and other so-called “adult topics”.
We throw our children to the wolves by pretending they will not drink or have sex, which means they have to figure it all out for themselves.
The Dutch are significantly more pragmatic and matter-of-fact about many things. One result? Their teen pregnancy rate is around a quarter that of the U.S..
Do this: Stop sex-shaming. Educate instead.
6. “Seeking the truth today is exhausting”
Fill The Bathtub – Ted Lamade – (CollabFund blog)
The title is a reference to a metaphor: trust is a bathtub that one fills a drop at a time, but which can be emptied in a heartbeat by pulling the plug. The essay focuses mostly on business aspects, but the concept applies more broadly.
Today, it feels like we are reaching an inflection point. I could be wrong, but it feels like people are tired of being lied to. Instead of airbrushed versions of life, they want to witness reality. They want politicians who tell it straight. They want a media that reports all sides of a story.
As much of a positive-attitude person as I believe I am, I’m not sure I agree that this infection point has been reached. I see too many people accepting lies without consequences, happy to attend to anything but reality, follow politicians who claim to “tell is straight” but clearly do anything but, and who quickly dismiss “all sides of a story” if it involves anything that challenges their beliefs.
Do this: Seek the truth. Relentlessly.
7. “Why is it so hard to just do the thing we think is best?”
What Human Civilization is All About – David Cain – (Raptitude)
Morality, in a word. In particular, our struggle with it.
Good is sometimes easy, but often tricky, counter-instinctual, unattractive, and uncomfortable
Regardless of where you get your morals from (assuming, of course, you have them 
), living up to them is a constant struggle, but small and large.
Do you know how to always do the right thing, the Good thing?
Do this: Do your best.
What I’m Reading
In progress:
- Where Good Ideas Come From – Steven Johnson
- Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman (audio)
Daily:
- A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Selected from the World’s Sacred Texts – Leo Tolstoy
A full list of my common sources is on the sources page, and I list the books I’ve read on my Reading List page.
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Thanks!
-Leo
Unfortunately, people mistake abrupt, direct even rude speaking for “tell it straight “. My former boss, possibly the smartest man I ever knew, was taken in by a “straight talker”, who was blunt, direct, and ripped the company off mercilessly. Critical thinking should not be replaced by admiration of “straight talking”.