In this issue:
- Thoughts on Activity
- Being Human
- Random Stuff
Thoughts on Activity
- Sometimes you just have to get it done. It helps to remind yourself, “My second-rate way of getting it done is better than the very bestest way of not doing it.”
- Don’t obsess about being #1. Going from the 59th percentile to the 80th makes a noticeable difference.
- Zig Ziglar said something like, you don’t have to be great to start, but you start to be great. Great action thought for planning the start to 2024.
- Next week is a short one. For whatever days you’re working, show up on time, do your best, and enjoy your time off!
Being Human – Shoes and recipes
A quote for you to start the year.
“The shoe that fits one person pinches another – there is no recipe for living that fits all cases.”
— Carl Jung
Random Stuff
“Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.”–John Singer Sargent
We are out in public and a group of young ladies are struggling to get the best angle for their selfie. In a fit of generosity, I asked if they’d like me to take a group picture for them. They hesitate, contemplating my gray hairs I’m sure, when my lovely bride offers, “he takes good pictures.” They relent.
I ask for their preferred format, horizontal? vertical? (just how important are the shoes?) and they arrange themselves for the pics. Arm raise here, hip jut there, foot forward, and pout on. As I pop four or five snaps for them, I’m impressed. Not only do they look great in pictures, they act like they do this all the time. “Because they do,” my bride reminds me. No wonder they’re so good at it. Practice.
I try to channel these young ladies as I pose for my headshots. We’re in a coffee shop, moving between a bank vault, a brick wall, and a phone booth. Blue shirt, white shirt, blue blazin’, khaki pantsin’, channeling standard consultant looks. Hands in pockets, arms crossed, pretending I had just heard something interesting. All because I looked at my previous headshot and thought, “oh, easily 7 years ago.”
I was under the gun to get a photo for the book publisher, so I tried a selfie, but my glasses had a glare. Without glasses I look like a different person. On Zoom, someone said, “I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you without glasses,” when they saw it. By chance, I spied a friend’s new headshots, noted he wears glasses, and voilà, Sara Poppe and I are wandering through coffee shops on a Sunday morning, causing a stir.
While my results are probably not up to the standards of the young women I met, it looks enough like me to not raise eyebrows if we meet in person.
It’s all about realistic expectations, right?