I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far, I have been out and about a lot throughout the month of July and early August. It’s the primary reason I haven’t written a new letter for a while. I needed a refresh.

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Welcome to the season of LIMBO. The pandemic is making a resurgence, many people are drastically transforming their lives, and the future is even more uncertain these days.

How do we handle this? How can we live our lives in a way that actually makes us feel alive (while also being safe)?

Here are the facts as we enter this new phase of the pandemic where variants threaten us:

* Not everyone has been vaccinated. Many have chosen not to, many more (globally) still don’t have the choice.

* We don’t know how isolation has weakened us in our war against other germs, viruses, and diseases.

* Guidance is always evolving. We’re all learning here, especially for people in the medical and scientific communities. They change guidance because they learn new things. Only time will be able to improve their guidance and since this pandemic is still raging globally, worst-case guidance must have a proper place in our daily lives.

There is a bold line between caution and panic. Let’s stick to that bold line by listening to the professionals and assessing our current circumstances. We can be respectful of the current crisis and still live our lives. It doesn’t have to be a pissing contest. We can do both.

This doesn’t mean that you need to stop living life, just be a little more aware of the consequences. Wash your hands more often. Wear a mask if you’re sick or around sickness. Wear a mask at the doctors and on confined public transport. Take advantage of the summer weather to socialize and social distance.

Be safe out there.

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Onto today’s newsletter:

Sometimes I chase away the demons that haunt me while they hold the flaws of my character over my head, and sometimes they chase me. Most of the time, they chase me. Today’s letter is about some of the lessons I’ve learned while being chased by these demons.

Brevity

I struggle. I struggle with being a poised man of few words. Instead, I’m the kid that keeps pulling onto your pant leg from the knee every two seconds with something new to say or ask.

I shared in a previous blog post that I am a verbose man.

One such flaw of my character has been this verbosity. This incessant need to speak may seem to some as an overbearing effort to expunge the incompetence from my record. That might be accurate, I often think so myself… If I say enough words, maybe some of them will ring true.

Thomas Wolfe, the renowned author from the twentieth century, was well known for his own challenge with verbosity. when I am reminded of some of his greatest writing I wonder if the character trait we seem to share is less of a flaw and more of a strength.

In the movie, Genius - Collin Firth reads the draft of a forthcoming book by Mr. Wolfe aloud:

If you haven’t seen the movie, I would recommend it. It’s a little heady and the pacing is imperfect, but moments like the clip above make it worth it.

Collin Firth plays Scribner editor Maxwell Perkins who had already made a name for himself among authors, new and old. He is sought out by the intrepid and outstanding Mr. Wolfe (played by Jude Law) and through the receipt of Thomas’ draft of what would become Look Homeward, Angel; he takes Thomas on.

The challenge of brevity is sometimes I find it lacks context. I find it also often lacks emotion and empathy. Furthermore, it leaves “connecting the dots” to the listener. Something that can lead to unforeseen complications.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to tell a 6-word story, but over time I hope that my ability to understand my audience and my own self is strong enough that I can master the ability to manipulate the line between verbosity and brevity to keep them engaged and myself in control.

The Tarzan Method

I have goals and dreams that many say are too lofty. They look at me and they judge me harshly for the things I am doing now and the things I am planning to do tomorrow. For me, this is not a big deal because I am hyper-aware of my current state and what needs to happen for me to get to my desired future state.

And this awareness has led me to the adoption of the Tarzan Method, introduced by Casey Neistat.

I’m a big fan of Casey. He’s an extremely creative and energetic human being that embodies the concept of “just do it”. In this video above, he provides many valuable lessons but the one I’ve timestamped is about how the common path to your goals and dreams is more like a zigzag instead of a straight line.

When you adopt this method you save yourself the struggle of carving through the forest floor and you enable yourself to embrace the concept of course correction.

The Concept Of Course Correction

* Too little, too late

* Too much, too soon

* Too late, too much

* Too soon, too little

Hitting the bullseye, aka achieving perfection, is nearly impossible.

Using the Tarzan Method as the frame of reference for how we all walk through life: you can use course correction to grab onto new vines faster, to create additional vines, to avoid weak vines, and to hold onto strong vines longer.

Awareness is the first step to being able to take advantage of your circumstances and capabilities so that you can swing through the jungle of life towards your grand aspirations.

Problem Adoption

If everyone you know were to sit in a circle and put all of their problems into a pile and then you got to choose which problems you want, what would you do?

I heard this question get asked and the person responded that if given the choice they would take back their own.

I was very confused by this. I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t use this opportunity to adopt the right problems.

If they could put all of their problems on a table and cherry-pick which problems they would have, this person is saying that they would pick all their own again?

I don't think I would.

Problems are a huge deal in my life. They’re a huge deal in everyone’s life… We have big and small problems surface every damn day of the week to remind us how fragile this human experience is. Here’s the thing: there are problems that disable me and the problems that enable me.

There are problems created by the LACK of resources and there are problems created by the ABUNDANCE of resources.

If you are like me, you would take the opportunity to redesign your entire life through the optimization of problems that you’re best suited to manage and the problems that are solved through resource reduction. You’d give yourself the boat that breaks down every other week, because its better than not having a boat at all. You’d give yourself problems that only you can solve. You’d throw away all the problems that you struggle with.

When you understand that problems, and subsequently their solutions, are key to the human experience, you’ll be able to unlock one of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned.

My Father Is a Tinkerer.

For all the years I lived with my parents, my father would often be outside or in the garage spending hours making junk fit his latest needs.

I never understood why he’d spend so much of his life out there doing these silly little projects to make something a tiny bit easier, a tiny bit more efficient, or a tiny bit more useful.

I never understood why he’d buy a used machine that’d he have to fix every other weekend. He’d spend 100s of dollars on a thing that didn’t even work and pour weeks and months of his time into it. Why not just buy it new and save that time so he could spend it elsewhere?

Then it dawned on me.

He likes doing it, he likes tinkering. My father is suited for tinkering. He can make a broken thing work a lot longer than it was supposed to. He can solve mechanical and electrical problems with some of the strangest methods, tools, and spare parts I’ve ever seen in my life. He can work on cars, construction equipment, household appliances, and so many other things that I am just not suited for.

If my father could cherry-pick the problems that’d mark his life; I’m sure he’d rather have a piece of equipment break than a big financial burden, or a health concern, or a family issue.

The Greatest Lesson I’ve Ever Learned Has Two Parts:

* Pick the problems that you’re best suited to solve and build your life around them.

* Pick the people that are best suited to solve all the other problems you might encounter.

Aggressively Frugal

I am so cheap that I know it affects the quality of my life. I know this because I often pick the cheap but worst (for me) option.

Financially responsible people splurge on things that provide a positive ROI.

They invest, experience life, take risks and don’t fear the doctor or repair bill.

They do these things with purpose and within reason. They define the line and go from there. It’s easy to not spend money, it's so much harder to be financially responsible.

Being financially responsible doesn't equal being cheap.

This is a lesson I am still struggling to learn.

One Final Thing

Dealing with loss is hard, and this show After Life on Netflix provides a sobering glimpse into how people try, fail, and succeed at managing that loss.

“Happiness is amazing. It’s so amazing, it doesn’t matter if it’s yours or not.”

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