Day 3,304

Growth:

Part of my annual planning process involves listening to a couple of podcasts from the past few years with one of my favorite thought leaders, Jim Collins. what jumped out to me this week was his memory of a quote from the late Peter Drucker:

It seems to me you spend a lot of time trying — worrying about if you’re going to survive. Well, you’ll probably survive. And you spend too much time thinking about if you’ll be successful. It’s the wrong question. The question is, “how to be useful?”

Peter Drucker as recounted by Jim Collins, https://tim.blog/2019/02/20/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts-jim-collins-361/

That question, “how to be useful,” what an inspiring and introspective thought exercise!

As my mind grappled with this concept today I received a text which helped me see an opportunity to be useful in ways I hadn’t realized. What a North Star this could be moving forward!

Appreciation:

YouTube has helped me with so many projects throughout the past decade or so. From exercise tips to vacation ideas to home repair projects it’s been hugely helpful. Today I was reminded of the importance of using common sense and wisdom in addition to YouTube.

As I winterized the campervan for the first time in my life I went painstakingly through the step by step how to video. Unfortunately a few things seemed a little off so I went to some additional paper resources. Once I’d completed it all I went inside, took a relaxing breath, and had an epiphany moment.

Something had never been covered in YouTube or any other resources. I trusted my gut, dug way deep in research, and figured out a step which was never shared that could gave resulted in thousands of dollars of repairs. Thank you wisdom for saving the day!

Presence:

While driving back from the store I caught sight of sun beams cutting through the steel gray clouds to light up patches of autumn colored leaves in the bluffs. The contrast of the sunlight and shade really emphasized the beauty of the leaves. Without the sun the colors would have been muted. Without the clouds the color wouldn’t have been as vibrant. The contrast of light and dark created the stunning sight. Contrast, a source of joy.

Thanks!!!