There are very few things that don’t need improvement. Including ME!

The journey of personal improvement is not the easy road. I love this quote by Ryan Holiday. “The path of least resistance is a terrible teacher.” I’ve learned, it’s painful to be exposed and difficult to change. I have also learned, if you don’t have people around you that love you and tell you the truth, the task is almost impossible. 

Surround yourself with great people, be uncomfortable, face fear, and do the work. Your future self will give you a great big hug when you get there.

Uncomfortable is being confronted.
Unusual is embracing correction.
Unbelievable is the result.

Critic – You suck. Period.
Acquaintance – Distant or social relationship.
Friend – Tells you when you suck with love and empathy.
Accomplice – Enables your stupid ideas.

Short story from 2 Samuel 13:
This guy Absolom has a beautiful sister named Tamar. He also has a half-brother named Amnon. Amnon is mentally twisted and wants to have sex with his half-sister Tamar. He knows this is wrong, but he is determined to make it happen.

Amnon has a friend named Jonadab. Now, Jonadab is known to be one of those greasy, cunning kind of guys. Instead of keeping him from doing this wickedness, he devises a plan to get Amnon and Tamar together alone. Sure enough, it works. Amnon pretends to be sick and asks for Tamar to come feed him. When she arrives, he clears everyone from his house. In short order, he rapes his half-sister and then kicks her out.

When Absolom finds out what was done to his sister, he is so mad he devises a plan to kill Amnon. It takes two years, but Absolom completes the plan and murders his half-brother for what he did to Tamar.

This is a sad story… but do you notice who walks away without a scratch? Jonadab.

Critics and acquaintances are a dime-a-dozen.

Real friends are a blessing and they are rare.

An accomplice is like a cancer.

We will encounter all four. We can learn and grow from all except the accomplice. If you have a really stupid idea, you need honesty, not someone to help you do it.

From three feet away, the print quality looks great. But when you are holding it in your hand, you might see some imperfections. If you use a magnifying glass, you can see even more. At SignMaster, we invest lots of time and money every year on print quality. Even though we know a “perfect print” is an unattainable goal, we keep pushing toward that mark. Our latest flatbed printers will print an ink drop so small you cannot see it, 4 trillionths of a liter. It also prints a staggering 1.2 billion drops per second. (Sorry I geeked-out there a little 🙂 )

Flatbed printers and people are a lot alike. From three feet away, everybody looks pretty good. But when you get up really close, not so much. Life comes at you fast and does not stop. In the midst of it all, sometimes our “print quality” suffers. We find ourselves out of alignment more often and we would like to admit. Remember this quote by the stoic, Epictetus.

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” 

Ever been around someone who “calls forth your best”?

Ever been that person for someone else?

10 Monkeys in a room, one ladder with a banana on top. Every time a monkey tries to climb the ladder he gets sprayed with a fire hose. Soon, no monkey will climb the ladder. Now start swapping monkeys. First you will have 9 monkeys who were sprayed with water and 1 that has not. When the new monkey tries to climb the ladder the other 9 will keep him from it. Soon the new monkey will not climb the ladder. Amazing right? But it gets better!

If you swap out the other 9 monkeys slowly over time you will soon be left with 10 monkeys who have never been sprayed with water, but will not climb the ladder and get the banana. None of them know why!

Electric cars will never work at scale.
Tell that to Elon Musk.

If man was meant to fly he would have been born with wings.
Tell that to the Wright brothers.

You’re too small to play in the NBA.
Tell that to Spud Webb.

Go to school and get a job like everyone else.
Tell that to Steve Jobs.

Learn from the EXPERIENCE of others, but don’t believe their ASSUMPTIONS.

If you put in the work and know “what to use” and “what to lose”, you just might discover it’s ok to climb the ladder. 😉

Ever been asked about your purpose? Ever thought about it? If so, I bet it conjures some lofty esoteric idea only a select few get to experience. I’ve got good news; purpose is pretty simple.

I believe our purpose is singular; HELP OTHER PEOPLE. As a parent, worker, friend, business owner, student, podcaster, auto mechanic, or preacher; our actions are all very different, but the baseline is the same. HELPING OTHERS.

Our personal goals must be made with purpose in mind. But, our goals can never become our purpose. It’s a very empty feeling to reach a goal that we thought was our purpose only to find there is nothing there. You can reach a goal but you can never reach your purpose.

When we set and achieve goals with purpose, we navigate life doing things that matter.