Featured is a thought I learned in a Jim Rohn video, which made me laugh but it also has a strong message in it. The quote was “Don’t send your ducks to eagle school.” I mean just picture it… A mallard duck waddling up to Eagle school orientation, where it’s a fraction of the size of all the other birds, and is visibly out of place. The duck isn’t even close to meeting the physical standards of an eagle, and everyone including the duck knows from the onset that it’s set up to fail.

But what’s the underlying lesson to this idea? I think it’s a reflection on self-awareness. In what areas of our lives are we ducks, or working with others who are ducks, but the expectation is to perform like an eagle? Then when we don’t meet up to that expectation, how do we disappoint ourselves and others? It’s human to have many strengths and many weaknesses, and it’s important to know which are which for you and those around you. If you put people out of position, in areas where they’re simply not at their best, then of course there are going to be consequences. Sometimes we try to force fit things or expand roles because it’s the easiest thing to do. But that can be a disservice to everyone involved because it’s not the appropriate use of resources.

There are a few other similar phrases that elaborate on this thought like “Call a spade a spade”, or Einstein’s “If you measure a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree, it will live it’s whole life believing it is stupid.” Having the awareness to know when talents and skills meet needs, both for yourself and others, is an important learning.

I heard a new perspective about happiness that really intrigued me. In talking about positivity, Naval Ravikant, a brilliant entrepreneur who is also a foremost expert on finding happiness in life, shares unhappiness is a sign and you should observe it for what it really is.

You experience unhappiness when one of your needs isn’t being met. Remember, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Each are a fundamental requirement for a complete life. When one of those needs aren’t being met you experience an uneasiness which then projects as discontentment, or unhappiness. In observing that emotion, all unhappiness represents is your desire for something to be different. It's a desire to have your physiological needs met, to be safer, to have stronger community and relationships. When you see unhappiness through that lens, it’s simply a way of telling you that things aren’t how you want them to be. That wanting is desire.

If that’s a case, we should welcome our awareness of being unhappy. It’s a blessing to have that knowledge because then we know we need to change our state. Instead of wallowing in our own self-loathing we can reflect on the nature of that desire and what it would take to fulfill it. So let me ask you… In what area of your life are you most unhappy? And after identifying that, what underlying desire do you feel? What unmet need is presenting itself? Explore it.

Personally I’ve been making a lot of big moves in my life, and I wanted to reflect on the value of acting boldly. There is something to be said about standing up for yourself, taking a chance on things you believe in, and moving confidently in the direction of your dreams and desires. Maybe that message is meaningfulI coming from me, but someone who has shaped history through his bold action-taking is former president Teddy Roosevelt. In case you haven’t heard it, I wanted to share his famous “Man In The Arena” speech. Contrary to the title, of course this applies to both men and women.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

This speech shares an incredible lesson and speaks to the value of the attempt. There is no future payoff without present effort, and the piece that’s always in your control is the effort you put into it. Roosevelt describes that success is found in the process of becoming, not the outcome of doing, and we all must embrace our own process to achieve our own greatness.

Many people have a tendency to move on from one thing to another very quickly. Part of it might be that we lose interest in things and reroute our attention to something else. Another angle is the pressure we feel (whether that be self-imposed or societal) to always be doing something, so we jump on new things when we come up. Moving fast is great but it’s important that it doesn’t come at the expense of the other things you’ve committed to completing. That’s where the concept of “closing the loop” comes in.

You close the loop when there are outstanding pieces that need to be addressed in a project or task. It usually refers to the end of the cycle where you only have the very last things to do, the final 1% that needs to be finished. From a productivity standpoint, you need to consider the mental bandwidth. You are weighed down by knowing that there are still small things left to do. As simple as they might be to complete, they take up a disproportionate amount of emotional energy and act more like an anchor that slows you down simply because it is still incomplete.

From a value-generation standpoint, closing the loop is important because of the opportunities that comes up when you finish. Oftentimes it’s inappropriate for people to talk about new ideas, tasks or projects while the one you’ve already committed to is still pending. Upon completion you can explore what else might be next and ways that your team might want to expand on what was already done. However you can’t have that conversation until the task is behind you, so closing the loop and engaging all parties about the project’s completion will enable more of that creative energy.

It may go against some of the forces you feel, but close the loop and you’ll find that you can be more productive and add more value overall. Are there any conversations, tasks, or commitments looming on your mind you need to address? Maybe it’s time to do it!

Things in life change and develop, expanding and retracting in a beautiful way. With all of these changes you are often presented forks in the road where you need to make a decision. There’s a pressure to get these decisions right because you don’t want to bear the consequences of getting it wrong, or miss the opportunity for having gone another direction.

There’s an unknown to what lies on the other end, so we do as much as we can to research, understand, and forecast how things will be. But you will never have all of the details to know exactly how something will go. Like it or not you cannot predict the future and at one point or another you need to make a decision.

What tends to happen is we want spend so much time in indecision that we pause our growth. We handcuff ourselves to try and understand the best and worst case scenario so that we know what we’re getting ourselves into. But we don’t know what we don’t know, and the last time I checked things don’t go according to plan. So why spend so much time making that ideal plan?

That’s not to say you can’t also be intentional and diligent about your decisions. You can, but you need to use a broader and more value based framework. A mentor of mine, Jim Bunch says he asks himself 4 questions to make any big decision: Does this align with my values? How will this improve my lifestyle? What is the ROI? And can I do this, and am I willing?

After a fair and reasonable amount of thought, just make a decision. That decision will lead to another and another, and through each decision you’ll be moving forward and navigating your life, inching your way toward the things you want. But you cannot begin that process until you make your first decision.

Something we all face off with all the time is the idea of failure. But let's introduce the perspective of Simon Sinek, who asks us to make our definition of “failing” more robust. Similar to how eskimos have different words for different types of snow, we should have multiple ways of communicating about failure. That’s because failure comes in many different forms, at all different levels, and with different implications. The problem is, anytime failure is mentioned we take it to the far extreme and treat it accordingly.

That catastrophic rock bottom failure is far from the norm. It’s actually only a small fraction of the failures we have, and to counter that Sinek encourages us to consider one additional definition. Instead of “failing”, call it “falling”. Kind of like a kid who is learning to walk, when you’re doing something new you’re likely to fall. But that’s not a major failure, it’s something that simply didn’t go completely according to plan. “Falling” is experiencing a setback that gives you feedback about how to do better next time, and in order to make things right all you have to do is get back up and try again.

When you fall it happens because you’re taking risks and pushing the boundary. Embracing discomfort and acting boldly is a trait I imagine many of us want to embody, but we’re afraid to do it because we’re afraid of failing. That’s not the real consequence. Falling is the consequence. What might happen is you take a small misstep, which is completely normal, you fall down, but you confidently stand yourself back up to try again.

With this new understanding, let’s consider falling more often because it demonstrates our commitment to making progress.

When you reflect on positivity you probably think about the emotions and mindsets of it. However, it's equally important to focus on the physical expression of positivity. Your thoughts and your feelings are extremely connected and operate as a feedback loop. What you think influences how you feel, and how you feel informs what you think.

Your happy dance is that thing you do when you’re experiencing pure joy. You feel so good, aligned, and fulfilled that your body can’t contain it and you start to physically express the way you feel. I know it’s called a happy dance but it may not have anything to do with dancing. Your happy dance is just a proxy for that way you authentically individualize your state of joy.

For me, it’s a combination of little dance moves and celebratory posing, pumping my fists in the air and hopping around. Whatever it might be for you, allow it to come out when you’re feeling it. That inner child buried inside you is desperate to be acknowledged and heard, and when you do your happy dance it gives that part of you a voice.

Why is it called a happy dance? Well, studies show that when you’re dancing you release more endorphins than you do when you exercise and your body knows no other way to experience that kind of bliss. So by nature we often dance when we feel that way because it’s the most normal thing for us to do in that emotional state. Every morning when I brush my teeth, I put music on and dance because it generates a feeling that informs my thoughts, which primes me to find more joy the rest of the day. You deserve to experience joy, so let yourself, and do your happy dance.

Society has labeled addictions a certain way, only representing a fraction of the ways it actually affects society. Even in doing research on the subject, addiction is formally defined as a compulsive physiological need for and use of a habit-forming substance. That’s a pretty narrow definition that only relates to substance-abuse, which of course is a huge problem, but only speaks to one very specific amount.

I think the mutually accepted understanding of addiction is that it’s generally a bad thing. It means that your behaviors and habits are considered to be in excess of what’s required, and it leads to some negative consequences. But even so, those consequences are a spectrum and often don’t have negative effects. In fact, I think we all have everyday addictions that we don’t acknowledge as such because the term is used in such a derogatory and extreme sense.

For example, checking social media more often than you want to is an addiction because it is a compulsion for your unmet need to belong. Compulsive lying can be an addiction to help you receive validation about your self worth. Even biting your nails can be considered an addiction because it soothes and placates during stress.

Once we open up this definition for addiction, we can see what needs aren’t being met in our lives and start brainstorming alternatives to live a more constructive life. As with everything, the first step is awareness - Knowing your negative habits that have a strong hold on you, knowing your defense mechanisms - So that you can grow through them into a more actualized you.

We all know the value of communication. It’s our way of sharing our internal world, whether that be our thoughts, feelings, or desires, so that others can understand what we’re experiencing. Communication is at the heart of every form of collaboration because it helps people get on the same page, no matter if the collaboration is personal, professional, romantic, or creative.

There’s one fatal flaw inherent to communication though. It is extremely inefficient. There are no amount of words you can say that completely represents an internal experience, and for that reason I don’t think you can communicate enough. In fact, I recommend that you overcommunicate when possible.

You’d think that overcommunicating would be too much and beyond what’s required, I mean that’s what “over” means. But that’s also the point because you don’t want to limit your communication. You don’t know how much of your communication is being received, or how well it’s being received, and you need to be sure you’re sharing your message in its entirety. Overcommunicating helps you voice the things that you believe to be assumed and verify that there is a mutual understanding.

And what’s the tradeoff? Maybe you’re a little long-winded and you ramble a little too long. Worst case scenario is someone tells you to stop talking. That’s not so bad to ensure you’re getting your message across.

If communication is at the root of collaboration, and communication is already naturally inefficient, it makes a lot of sense to share more and make sure that you vision and experience is being fully understood.