I [...]]]> “What Matters Now” is a free ebook that Seth Godin has developed with over 70 great thinkers. What I like the most about these micro-essays is that they’re very easy to read and they encourage you not only to think outside the box, but to look at the world beyond yourself and your immediate circle.

I found the book extremely inspiring and if you’re looking for new year’s resolutions, this is a great place to start. As Seth suggests, please be sure to share the book with your friends!!

I’ve chosen my top 10 11 topics below and pulled out a single sentence from the essay. I encourage you to read the entire document (40 minutes, tops!), but at the very least, I hope you will read the pages below!

Facts

Index card pictured above
Jessica Hagy (@JessicaHagy) (Pg. 7)

Dignity

“Creating ways for people to solve their own problems isn’t just an opportunity in 2010. It is an obligation.“
Jacqueline Novogratz (@jnovogratz), CEO Acumen Fund (Pg.

Re-Capitalism

“If you live or operate in the developed world, you’ve got a problem- you have a lot to unlearn, and no short-term incentive to do it.”
Chris Meyer (@ChrisMeyer16) (Pg. 14)

Most

“Are you the most of anything?”
William C. Taylor, Cofounder FastCompany (Pg. 21)

Autonomy

“Management isn’t natural.”
Dan Pink (@DanielPink) (Pg. 25)

Poker

“Everything I know about business I learned from poker”
Tony Hsieh (@Zappos), CEO Zappos.com (Pg. 26)

Evangelism

“The future belongs to people who can spread ideas.”
Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki) (Pg. 32)

Neoteny

“While we retain many of our childlike attributes into adulthood most of us stop playing when we become adults and focus on work.”
Joichi Ito, CEO Creative Commons (Pg. 39)

Change

“Stop agonizing about what’s not working. Instead, ask yourself, ‘What’s working well, right now, and how can I do more of it?‘”
Chip and Dan Heath, Authors, Made to Stick (Pg. 50)

Productivity

“Don’t worry too much about getting things done. Make things happen.“
Gina Trapani (@Smarterware) (Pg. 68)

Gumption

“Get hungry- hyena hungry. Get fired up. Find your backbone, and your wings.”
J.C. Hutchins (Pg. 81)

I like charts.

As I migrated the blog over, I couldn’t help but notice the decline in the frequency of my posts over the last couple of years. Then, I saw a pattern. Since March ’07 I’ve been tracking the relative progress of a particular situation in my life on a monthly [...]]]>

I like charts.

As I migrated the blog over, I couldn’t help but notice the decline in the frequency of my posts over the last couple of years. Then, I saw a pattern. Since March ’07 I’ve been tracking the relative progress of a particular situation in my life on a monthly basis. Unfortunately, as you can see, that situation (the blue line) hasn’t been going well. The interesting thing, is when I superimpose the number of blog posts per month (the green line) on that chart, you notice the obvious correlation.

Back in October ’07, I wrote a “Why I haven’t been blogging” post and the #1 reason has (roughly) held true over the last 2 years. This chart makes it even more obvious that even after trying to remediate the situation, I continued to let it affect my general happiness which has been my biggest mistake all along.

The more I tried to fix the situation, the worse it seemed to get. At the beginning of October, I realized I had to let go. Letting go is really hard to do, especially when it’s something important. Letting go is tough because it almost feels like giving up and I hate to give up.

I was reminded of a quote one of my mentors shared with me: “What you resist will persist.“ Although much of the situation was out of my control, I got the sinking feeling that I was partially to blame as I didn’t expect it to improve. The amazing thing is that as soon as I let go, things have almost immediately started picking up. I’m not stressed, I’m not bothered, I’m not even tracking the blue line anymore!

Lessons learned?

If you’re going through a rough patch or things aren’t working the way you want/expect, you need to focus on something else; something positive. Stop focusing on what’s going wrong: the more you focus on the negative, the more negative you’ll attract. I’ve always been an extremely positive person and have generally attracted positive things, so this has definitely been an eye opening experience for me! Over the last 2 months, I’ve been attracting a lot of good things, so let’s hope this keeps up!!

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