Wander but don't get Lost.

It is ok to falter on your goal streak, get distracted and wander for a bit but don’t get lost. It is easy to get distracted in a world where technology, gadgets and streams of data and information are always fighting for our attention. Getting lost in the sea of data on social with the somewhat elusive allure for virality, popularity, and influence can be very tempting. We all get lost in this bubble once in a while but remember why you started this in the first place, the algorithms are not optimized to allow you find your purpose, so wander with care and don’t get lost.

Remember, everyone is trying to figure it out, and at some point, they were not really sure that it was going to happen to them. The difference between high achievers and the rest is that the high achievers always find a way to recalibrate toward their value, priority and purpose. As English author J. R. R. Tolkien once quipped, “All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.” It is ok to lose your bearing once in a while and get distracted or overwhelmed by the currents of the world. The key is bouncing back, not forgetting who you are, why you are here, realigning your values and go at it again and again.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. – Steve Jobs

“Smart people are a dime a dozen and often don’t amount to much. What counts is being creative and imaginative. That’s what makes someone a true innovator.” – Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson on Jeff Bezos

“So, what are the ingredients of creativity and imagination, and what makes me think that Bezos belongs in the same league as my other subjects? According to Walter Isaacson, innovative and creative people are: Passionately Curious, they connect Art and Science, they are curious, they have a reality-distortion field, they think differently and they retain their childlike sense of wander.

Jeff Bezos embodies these traits. He has never outgrown his wonder years. He retains an insatiable, childlike, and joyful curiosity about almost everything. His interest in narrative and storytelling not only comes from Amazon’s roots in the bookselling business; it is also a personal passion. As a kid, Bezos read dozens of science fiction novels each summer at a local library, and he now hosts an annual retreat for writers and moviemakers.

Likewise, although his interest in robotics and artificial intelligence was sparked because of Amazon, these fields have grown to become intellectual passions, and he now hosts another gathering each year that brings together experts interested in machine learning, automation, robotics, and space. He collects historical artifacts from great moments in science, exploration, and discovery. And he connects this love of the humanities and his passion for technology to his instinct for business.

“Smart people are a dime a dozen and often don’t amount to much. What counts is being creative and imaginative. That’s what makes someone a true innovator.” – Walter Isaacson

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Failure

From a young age, we learn that success is to be pursued, revered and celebrated, while failure, on the other hand, is deemed unacceptable. We are never taught how to move through failure, a thing we all face. Since we can’t avoid failure, we want to learn how to fail skillfully. When we experience a significant failure, it is often difficult to separate the failure from who we are. When we have a success, we identify with the success, which means we are victorious, talented or important, but when we have a failure, we label ourselves as less than, we lose our confidence, and we often feel ashamed.

We are the same person we were before, but in an instant, a defeat has altered our sense of self. We allow our failures to define us. It is no longer that we had a failure, we make it mean that we are a failure. Our experience of failure is not the problem; it is our view and response to it. We can frame our experience, recognizing that failure is proof that we courageously try. Just because you had a failure does not mean you are a failure.

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – The Power of the Past

The present is a piece of the puzzle. A balanced life also requires respect for the past and concern for the future. It is often useful to leverage memory to make good choices now and to consciously learn from experience. Memory can give us strength and context. While we only exist now, the past is what brought us here, and the future is where we are going.

When things are hard, turn to your memory for motivation. When you are debating what is next, memory can provide a compass. Here and now can be better, thanks to there and then.

Daily Trip with Jeff Warren – Leaf in a Stream

Podcast