johnmaconline

Consensus is the best approach for many decisions.

How will we govern ourselves?
What are our rules of engagement?
How do we want to spend our resources?
What is the wording we should use in our statement of faith?

Consensus is malleable, adaptable, and follows directly from the group’s constituents — we agree to this at this point in time (even if we don’t all like it). The makeup of the group matters. The moment in time matters.

But consensus does not equate to truth.

Truth is immutable. Hard to come by, hard to understand, hard to hear (sometimes). Truth is not subject to any constituents. One hundred percent of a group may agree to a “truth,” and they all might be wrong.

The truth can easily make us uncomfortable. Therefore, we lay our heads on the soft pillow of consensus. Unfortunately, that pillow isn’t always so soft.

If you arrest an immigrant drug dealer, our consensus is you’re a racist.
If you’ve had an abortion, our consensus is you’re going to hell.
If you do not market the narrative, our consensus is you’re knowingly promoting disinformation.

These statements may be true, but what makes them true is not consensus.

Groups are constantly conflating truth and consensus through black-and-white assertions. Doing so gives them power and helps their members feel smart, right, and comfortable.

But you’re smarter than that.

Have you ever had a moment where sitting, observing, or simply taking a large cleansing breath led to an overwhelming sense of contentment?

Sometimes we need to be the vessel.

Have you ever had a moment where grinding, sweating, and never giving up led to an overwhelming sense of contentment?

Sometimes we need to be the hands.

I need Dr. Rick.

According to my adult children, Progressive Insurance bases the entire Dr. Rick series on me. They just assume a reality TV film crew follows me around all day to source the material for the next barely-fictionalized Dr. Rick insurance advertisement. 

They cringe at what I might say to the restaurant server or the tradesman working at my house. They roll their eyes and steal glances at each other as I extoll the virtues of defense on championship teams or getting to the airport early. 

And blue hair? Are you kidding me? There is exactly one reason to dye your hair blue — to elicit comments.

I’m that guy. I’m the cliche.

(Although, I do have one shred of vanity. You’ll never catch me in these.) 

My kids are horrified, but I’m OK with it because I’ve earned it. Yes, I’m a bit stodgy and predictable. I get excited about mundane things. I try to head off future problems. I sometimes find value in over-communicating. I’ve been there. Done that. Got the T-Shirt.

I’m also OK with it because I’m no longer trying to fit in with some curated group of people. I don’t need to be the cool dad or the young, old guy. I’m just gonna be myself — the cliche.

What cliche have you become? Are you OK with it?

One thing I’ve learned from over fifty years on this earth is that the path to success is littered with breadcrumbs.  

A bajillion books, online courses, and coaches exist to help you and me figure out how to follow those breadcrumbs. Lots of people will happily take our money to get us to that magical land of success. 

“Follow us and we’ll teach you exactly how to get where you want to go!”

But the proper question isn’t how. It’s who.

Who makes people feel the way you want to make people feel?
Who shows up in the world the way you want to show up in the world?
Whose perspective is the perspective you want?

Maybe the breadcrumbs we need to follow aren’t leading us down the path of how. Maybe they’re leading us to who. 

It’s obviously campaign season. One knows this because the yard signs are everywhere.

Most times, the purpose of advertising is an overt, clear, transactional call to action — buy this, travel here, hire me.

But the purpose of political yard signs is more subtle. Yard signs announce one’s tribe affiliation.

“This is the team that I align with. You should too.”
“Wanna be my friend? You should vote for this person.”
“This is the person that sees the world the way I do. The right way. If you want to see the world the right way, this is your person.”
“I’m a smart person, and this is my candidate. The other candidate is for dumb people.”

Quite frankly, political yard signs confuse me.

Yes, crime is surging in some areas.  
Yes, sex education has gone off the mainstream path in certain places.
Yes, some from the extreme right and left could plausibly be labeled anti-democratic.
Yes, the climate is changing.
Yes, many have died from complications associated with COVID.  
Yes, inflation is up. 

But what has been your personal experience?

The World is trying to anger you and make you afraid. It does so because its currency is attention, and the more angry and afraid you are, the more attention you give it. 

Attention-grabbing headlines aren’t about awareness or public service. They’re about sales.
Attention-grabbing headlines aren’t meant to help you. They’re meant to make you crazy. 
Attention-grabbing headlines don’t solve problems. They create more problems. 

You probably have personally experienced one or more of the issues the headlines scream about. But has a headline ever helped you deal with it?

Personal experience isn’t everything when it comes to solving big problems, but it sure can help when deciding how to spend one’s limited budget of worry. 

The250 has many inspirations. One of the most important is Seth Godin’s daily. Do yourself a favor and subscribe.

I came across one of his old posts that’s been spinning around my head since I read it. Here’s the part that struck me:

“Most of all, great stories agree with our world view. The best stories don’t teach people anything new. Instead, the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes the members of the audience feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the first place.”

– Seth Godin

The base purpose of The250 is to open up new perspectives, i.e., new worldviews. Help people to think about things from a new point of view. Specifically to increase empathy for those who engage. 

I think of it as helping someone walk in the shoes of another. 

Storytelling is the main technique used, but how do I fuse the technique with the purpose given? They seem to be at odds.

Right, that’s usually the question. 

Every day we’re presented with 100’s if not 1000’s of tradeoffs. Most we don’t think much about.

Creamer or black?
Running shoes or slippers?
Scrolling through Instagram or reading a book?

These are true black and white, this or that tradeoffs. As singular tradeoffs, they don’t move the needle much. But stack them up over time, day after day, and they result in progress in some direction. 

Are you happy with the direction you’re going?

The tradeoffs we do think about, care about and ruminate over help us find our tribes.

Less privacy for better national security?
Higher taxes for a government-funded addiction program?
Higher grocery bills for a healthier food supply?

Although marketed by the tribe as black and white, this or that tradeoffs, they aren’t really. It’s not that simple. These tradeoffs are nuanced, grey, and the best answer is only the best answer for a particular tribe. 

In these cases, the tribes are in control of the direction. Are you happy with the direction your tribe is going?

Which of these types of tradeoffs do you have more control over? Which should get more of your brain power?

A plane crashed because the crew didn’t honor the pre-flight checklist.
A student failed the test because she didn’t study the provided materials.
A manager made the wrong priority call because one of the team members neglected to update his status on the Trello board. 

And also…

A plane crashed because the pre-flight checklist didn’t cover the piece that failed.
A student failed the test because she couldn’t access the required materials.
A manager made the wrong priority call because some required work was not shown on the Trello board.  

Our systems both solve and cause many of our problems, and when something goes wrong, we often debate whether the problem is with the human or the system. 

First, we must recognize that a system only works if the people respect it and work within it. We have some level of human culpability within the system.

At the same time, if the system is not producing the desired outcomes (regardless of its correctness), we must ignore or, better yet, rise above it. Only then can a new and better system result.

Even when a system exists, we must always ask ourselves, “Is this a good system? Can we improve it? How can we make it easier to follow?”

It seems to me that getting better at teaching, creating, questioning, and improving systems might be one of the best educational investments we could ever make.

The World is trying to convince you that you deserve the A+ life and that you are a failure if you don’t get it. 

What is the A+ life? 

• Rich enough to build and launch your own spacecraft
• Healthy enough to live to 120
• Happy enough to have zero regrets
• Important enough to need a helicopter and private jet
• Beautiful enough that people fawn over you
• Successful enough that everyone knows your name

You deserve it.

The travesty of the hyperbolic A+ life sales pitch is that it has the opposite effect. 

“If I’m not the best, what’s the point?”

Here is the point:  having enough, contributing enough, and being enough doesn’t require sitting at the top of ~7.5 billion people or even in the top 1%.

Maybe you, or I, will never be the best at anything external, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have value to offer. Nor does it mean you can’t be wildly happy and content, i.e., successful. 

The secret is striving for the B+ life.

Not mediocre. Excelling at your life. Caring about the people in your life. Adding value in something that you care about. Letting the headlines go. 

How do you get there? 

You focus on Your World and stop worrying about The World. 

Let the A+ life go. It’s not for you.