johnmaconline

One perspective is that you do what you do for you.

Another is that you do what you do for someone else.

My guess is that, at its core, it’s both. In both cases, what you do is an opportunity to serve. The opportunity to serve is a privilege. It’s what transforms tasks into contributions.

You’ve seen great service. You’ve been on the receiving end. You know what it looks like and what it feels like.

Each time you pick up your drill, phone, or spreadsheet to do what you do, you have an opportunity to serve. What will it look like?

One way to look at all ventures is from the outside in. What are the objective or historical odds of success?

• Powerball: 1 in 292201338
• Roulette (single number hit): 1 in 38
• Blackjack: 100 in 237
• Survive a skydive: 199999 in 200000
• High School player making it to the major leagues: 1 in 6600
• Earn more than $100k per year in an MLM: 1 in 909
• Earn more than $100k per year as a musician: 1 in 1000
• Landscaping startup: 1 in 7
• Tech startup: 1 in 10

You can look at that list and decide which you think is the best investment.

However, it’s not that simple, is it?

For some things, you can measure success on a sliding scale rather than binary. For some things, only you can define success. For some things, you can create an environment more conducive to success. For some things, you can inherit or develop the necessary personal skills for success. For some things, luck may lead to success. 

Can you beat the odds?

Always going out for ice cream is a great hack for your health.

What?

But I can get a half-gallon of ice cream at the grocery store for the same price as a single cone at the ice cream shop. Why would I do that?

1. If you buy a cone at the ice cream shop, how much will you eat? If you buy a half-gallon at the grocery store, guess how much you’re gonna eat?
2. The ice cream shop is 3-10X more expensive, therefore, how often will you do it?
3. How many memories will you make, or how much social benefit do you get from eating an oversized bowl on your couch in your PJs a half-hour before bed?

Always go out for ice cream. 

There’s a budget for everything, and everything is limited. 

Finances, yes, of course. But also time, happiness, energy, giving a shit, distraction, and outrage. 

Whenever you start a project, interact with others, open email, pick up your phone, walk into a bar, or turn on the news, you should ask yourself, “What’s my budget?”

If it sounds simple, you’ve done your job.

That’s your goal, by the way — with your teaching, marketing, presentions, website, and product itself. The complexity is there, of course. Complexity is always conserved. You’re solving hard problems. 

Does your audience understand you? Do they also have the problems you are solving? Can they see themselves using your product? Does it feel right to them? Does it sound simple?

The superpowers of famous physicists like Einstein, Feynman, and Sagan was their ability to make us understand it. To make it sound so simple. 

When you’re able to make it sound simple, that’s when you know you really understand it yourself.

In the early 2000s I applied to be an astronaut. 

I wish I had an interesting story to tell about the screening and selection process — what I learned in talking with the interviewers; cool stuff I got to see; interesting people I met along the way; some nugget of wisdom that has shaped my journey since.

But I got nothing. NASA rejected me almost instantaneously. I never even spoke to a person. Didn’t get past step one. If I had been chosen, I would have been part of either Astronaut Group 19 or 20. 

Astronaut selection is and has always been the ultimate exercise in fitting a precise mold. It’s been true ever since the Mercury 7 were chosen in 1959. The mold has changed shape, but the rigor of the selection process behind it has not.

Your fate is out of your hands. You must be what they want. You must be chosen. 

What if you don’t fit the mold? What if you don’t get chosen?

Choose yourself. Oh, yeah. That’s what I learned.

Almost every discussion with a provider, expert, or consultant starts with “What are your goals?”

Goals. Objectives. KPIs.

Define. Measure. Achieve.

Unfortunately, in the strictest sense, I’ve failed at many (most?) of my goals. So, am I a failure? I’ve felt that way sometimes.

What if, instead, goals are really just a prescription for growth. Go this way, in this direction, toward that marker on the hill up there. You might not make it (you probably won’t), but what you will learn along the way will be immeasurably valuable. You’ll experience wonder. You’ll find purpose. You’ll meet others. You’ll do things you never thought you could.

The purpose of goals isn’t necessarily attainment. It’s growth.

One way to think about it is, “It’s not a big deal if I say no. I’ll just stay here, in my lane. What’s gonna happen if I say no? Nothing, that’s what.”

And those around you probably agree, solidifying what you know to be the right answer. Your comfort zone will certainly agree. Because you’re right.

But the other way to think about it is, “I don’t have to. It’s not a big deal if I don’t. But what if I do?”

Those around you probably won’t agree because the current you is the you they understand — the predictable you. The World needs to make sense or it throws us into turmoil. Predictability thwarts turmoil.

If you ask yourself, “But what if I do?” and those around you start to squirm, that might be a warning you should heed. These people care about you.

But also, it might be a good sign.