FTT: Focus, Meaning & Doing
Happy Free Thoughts Thursday, people.
You may or may not know that I "have" a podcast called From the Beginning.
I say "have" in quotes because I haven't kept up with it well, but as I'm reflecting on the past year I'm realizing that I enjoy recording conversations with interesting people much more than I enjoy recording YouTube videos by myself.
So, I'm thinking about marrying the two by recording both the audio and the video from the Zoom calls and posting them as podcasts and as videos. Best of both worlds.
I'll list my three favorite episodes from FTB down below, and in the meantime I'd love to know what type of person / content you'd be interested in hearing from / about on the podcast in the future.
You can reply directly to this email with your thoughts—thank you in advance!
Favorite episodes:
- Dean of University of Cincinnati's Lindner College of Business | Dr. Marianne Lewis
- Commissioner of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) | Mike Whan – Mike is now the CEO of the United States Golf Association (USGA)
- Founder & CEO, Penn Station | Jeff Osterfeld
1 Thought From Me:
A few years ago I went through a phase where I was obsessed with Tony Robbins.
I've learned a lot of lessons from him over the years, but perhaps the most important one is that the quality of our lives is determined by the decisions that we make.
Just about everything in life—from what we eat to who we marry—is preceded by at least one decision that took us down a path which ultimately led us to where we are today.
For example, the fact that you're here right now means you decided to click on the email to open this newsletter.
But what action we take is only one (albeit incredibly important) type of decision we make every day. There are three total.
At any given moment we decide:
- What we focus on.
- What things mean to us.
- What action we take.
What We Focus On
What do you pay attention to throughout the day?
The news? Everything your life is missing? What other people are doing?
Or do you focus on your immediate environment, how grateful you are for what you have and what steps you're taking to achieve your goals?
Deciding what to focus on is the precursor to making the following two decisions, and much like it's hard to correct a bad habit you aren't aware of, it's virtually impossible to live a life you love without focusing on the things that make you feel fulfilled.
What Things Mean to Us
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” ― Charles R. Swindoll
If life is 90% how we react to what happens to us, then the question we have to ask is what determines our reaction?
In my opinion, we react to the events in our lives based on the meaning we ascribe to them.
To highlight this point, think about people you know who have experienced events that most people would consider traumatic. Maybe you're one of them.
How did those people react to the events? Did they let the events define who they are or did they use them as fuel to push forward?
According to Robbins (and I agree), the difference between someone who is defined by their circumstances and someone who is motivated by them is the decision they make about what those circumstances mean.
I encourage to you read my post about why Trauma Doesn't Exist for an in-depth discussion on this topic. It was my most controversial newsletter by far and it's one I adamantly stand behind. (Click-baity title—there's more to it than that.)
What Action We Take
This is arguably the most important decision we make at any given moment.
Whole food or junk food? Gym or Netflix? Stay or leave? Persevere or quit? Today or tomorrow?
When you really think about it, our entire lives are comprised of the decisions we make about what actions we take.
"The words you speak, the thoughts you think, the food you eat and the actions you take are defining your destiny—shaping who you are becoming and what your life will stand for." — Robin Sharma
For more on this topic, see my post about why your Life is Right Now.
Our decisions determine our destination and our choices determine who we become.
Choose wisely.
Live your life to the fullest,
Chris
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