Definition: incapable of being subdued; unconquerable.
This was word of the day.
Love it.
Got me asking.
In what ways are you this way?
Where in life have you been unconquerable?
When were you incapable of being subdued?
Why did it matter you being this way?
“Are we having fun yet?”
Today I woke with these lyrics playing in my head.
I’ll get to the song in a bit.
It’s not even that relevant, but the theme is very much one thing I’ve been focused on in quarantine.
Let me ask you something—
It’s not a trick question, btw.
I’m being totally serious.
And I know for some friends and clients it’s been true.
Of course for lots of reasons it’s a crappy time, and it’s not just how they’ve chosen to see it.
But all this has slowed down our lives.
Given them more time with their pets and family.
To focus on the things that most matter to you.
So whereas some people seem to be really spiraling down in this hard time.
Others seem to be using it to spiral up.
None of my clients were prepared for this, yet all of my clients were prepared for this.
A private equity client said to me, “We’re lucky we got our fund raised last year.”
There’s still tons of hard things they face from this situation.
But if it had happened while they were in market it would have been a total mess.
You can never time the markets, or anything else.
They certainly had no idea that this was coming, but they did go to market with a sense of urgency.
Another client said to me.
He had a booming last year and got some big deals closed right before all this happened.
Again, he had no clue this was coming but as he often says, “Squirrels prepare, for winter is coming.”
That’s been a powerful lesson many people have seen in this.
Some saw the opportunity to make a lot of hay since the last credit crisis.
But plenty others feel they missed opportunities when the times were good.
It’s not to say those opportunities are gone for good. (as I’ll write more on later)
Yet we know that in good times you can develop a sense of complacency, can’t you?
When that is surely the best time to be reaping what you sow.
How you doin?
Hanging in there?
Having the time of your life 🙂
This whole lockup thing is getting a bit long in the tooth, isn’t it?
Yet what are you gonna do?
One thing this situation reminds you is how little control you have.
You certainly can’t control nature, and what it might cook up that can harm you.
Nor can you control how our governments and others respond to any situation.
In many ways you can’t even control yourself, can you?
You can’t control when you need to go to the bathroom, in the same way you can’t control many of the automatic thoughts in your head and feelings in your body.
They are merely the product of your biology and conditioning, so in many ways we can find ourselves responding on autopilot. (which is why I sent you this article on conditioning your mind)
“Why are you so f’n cryptic?” One of my buddies asked me.
Looking at what I wrote this week about the lockup he said—
“I just want to know where you stand.”
“I told you where I stand,” I said.
“I’m focused on the ONLY one thing you KNOW.”
A few weeks ago I decided to stop focusing on the virus and the choices we’ve made around it.
I’d said enough, and needed to eat more of my own cooking.
“Focus on what you can control,” I told the camera here.
But in my own mind I was still afraid.
We all have our own interpretation of this situation that breeds many fears.
Is the virus the greater threat or our response to it?
However you see it, this virus has exposed our fragility.
With all of our advances in healthcare, we’re wildly unprepared.
Just one mutation away.
Completely vulnerable to any biological threat anywhere in the world.
And our world government responses have reinforced the same.
Imagine you could discover the secret code to unlocking your life.
A very simple understanding that enables you to get the best from yourself.
Out of yourself.
For yourself and your life.
If you knew that this one simple idea alone could hold the hidden key to all of your dreams.
Would you want it? What might you do to get it? What wouldn’t you do?
I’ve stopped at nothing to discover this…
You may know that the Rosetta Stone is one of the most important objects in history as it holds the key to understanding the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Although The Stone is only a simple, broken part from a larger slab, it is of immense importance.
At the time it was discovered back in 1799 we still didn’t know how to read hieroglyphs.
But for one simple reason The Stone showed us the way.
Because the same simple message was inscribed in three languages, one of which we could read, it enabled us to decode the other.
For some 15 years I’ve perceived human potential the same way.
That there is some unifying code, that when you simply understand, illuminates the hidden keys for unlocking you and your life.
This I refer to as the Rosetta Stone.
As the story goes, Bill Gates Snr. asks Warren Buffett his greatest ingredient to success—
“Focus,” Buffett replied.
Gates agreed.
That’s the story from Alice Schroeder’s book, The Snowball.
But you don’t need this to know…
It’s focus that gets you moving.
And focus that keeps you building momentum.
We all know that focus is absolutely crucial to your goals, yet you also know how elusive it can be, right?
How do you rank your focus?
Really, out of 10, how good would you say you are at getting focused on what truly matters?
Getting yourself diving in?
Staying in?
I joked around last week running in my Black Panther mask.
Some people said it was wrong to play around like that, but I’ve just been trying to lighten it up a bit.
All the negatives of this situation are straight up obvious, when it can be valuable to look for a more positive side.
That’s what I did with the masks too.
Have you seen these training masks?
It sends a bad signal to me seeing healthy people wearing medical masks on the street.
And I figured so long as you’re wearing a mask you could benefit from a functional version.
In the old days when masks were like wearing your undies outside, I’d occasionally see people running or at the gym wearing these masks.
I didn’t get what it was all about, but having worn this training mask for a week or so…
Now I do.
I asked a friend, a well-known spiritual guru, what are the best ways we can help right now?
Well, first of all he said, “Accept the limits of what you can be doing.”
You’re restricted to your home, and are unlikely helpful to the medical community he went on to point out.
“So be your most helpful taking care of those who are closest, and not just your loved ones,” cryptically he said.
“Kindof,” he said. (as I’ll come back to)
Now is a time of great stress for many of us.
“Even if you’re healthy and secure it’s a time when great stress is most contagious,” he said.
“Mentally, economically, and even just being locked in the same home with those you love stress can build up too.”
“So, first and foremost take care of yourself and those that are closest to you,” he said.
And then he said something that sparked an idea in me…
Now, first I’ll say, I know this isn’t you.
I doubt you would have been putting up with me this long if you were one of these people this survey says are—
Binge watching TV 8 hours a day during the lockup.
No way that’s you.
But I also know that even the most effective ones amongst us can waste a lot of time, right?
One of my business partners said to me about this short video program for Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.
I totally get it.
He’s right, even for what I think of as ridiculously valuable content, 2 hours is still real time. (let alone the 8 hours of the core program!)
And that’s coming from him who’s into this stuff…
But still I said, “Then you just don’t want it enough. Getting better and getting what you want just isn’t a high enough priority.”
I realized later that was the wrong way to see it, that actually it was my fault.
But before we get to that, let’s explore this topic of how much we want it.
“I no longer have to wear my mask,” Gleefully my friend to said me.
She works in fashion, outside is always dolled up, one of those women who even wears makeup at the gym, so I was surprised when she said—
“It feels freeing that I’m not wearing any makeup or stilts.” (meaning high heels)
And then she added something really meaningful—
“I’ve gotten so used to looking at my face without makeup now that I like it, and I’m never going back.”
“I just get to be myself now,” she said.
There are of course plenty of downsides, but we’re also seeing things that might change for the better.
Whether women feel more free to wear makeup or not might not be such a big deal, yet what it means for our sense of self really is.
In some ways we’re stripping away the veneer, aren’t we?
Seeing more clearly some of the superfluous things that you can remove and never put back in your life.
And then there’s the other side too.
Lots of people have deeply impacted our world.
We have cities, buildings, other things named after them, and special days we celebrate them.
Many have had such a lasting impact.
But only one man reset time! (at least for many of us)
Was he even a man?
Meaning, what does it mean to have died and risen?
Was he the son of God? (and what is such a thing anyways?)
Could he do miracles, or was he just an ordinary man with an embellished history?
Did he even exist at all, beyond the stories and teaching tales told of him?
Yes, yes, we don’t have to keep going on about how hard it is right now, do we?
Nor the harder times that might be ahead.
That might be true, but as we’ve been talking about for weeks, all that matters is what you do about it.
Focus on what you can control.
Take your best actions.
I know you’re already doing this.
And I wanted to share with you this free video program that might make it easier for you.
I’ve built a lot of tech in the last 20 years, but this one program is by far my favorite.
That’s because it’s so simple, easy to put to work, and ridiculously powerful.
In the last few weeks I’ve listened to it a couple of times running and it’s been lightning for me.
Coz that’s what it was built to do.
It was built with one goal in mind that is particularly valuable right now.
Beautiful roses grow in manure.
And there are lots of positive things that are coming out of this situation too.
We are spending more time at home with our loves ones, and pets.
“It gets you more focused on what truly matters,” people keep telling me.
Also you see we adapt fast, and as this survey suggests…
“It would be so easy to give in to the bad mood, worry all day, and focus on all the things you can’t do,” the survey said but “Many adults are choosing to use the time wisely, and in a really encouraging way.”
3 in 5 adults said the lockup “represents an opportunity to catch up on long abandoned goals, ideas or hobbies.”
And they were “Planning on, or already started, self-improving and becoming ‘super human’ during lockdown.”
Pretty cool, ha?
Out of this tragedy might we see a new wave of human development?
Could this be a phase of creative destruction that forces us and our society to evolve?
So we’re not just making it through but coming out of this more super!
This song started playing randomly on my phone this am.
I don’t know if you know it?
By Sia, in the chorus she sings—
I’m gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier
I’m gonna live like tomorrow doesn’t exist
There’s some bad “teachings” from this song I’ll talk about in a bit.
But there’s much good to get from it too.
There’s of course lots of bad sh*t going on right now.
People are sick and dying.
Our economy and financial futures look bleak.
For the greater good we’ve given up all of our freedoms, uncertain what we’ll get back.
Yes, we can sink in this.
Spend your days and nights filled with terror, fear, worry, anxiety, depression.
Or you can use these hardest times to get stronger.
Now is obviously a hard time for many of us.
First and foremost all of our hearts go out to those who are sick and directly impacted by the virus.
For many others on the frontlines, in our medical and emergency services, it’s harder than ever.
Yet fortunately, this is what they are trained to do.
A friend in emergency medicine said to me.
His business is emergency, and he’s been conditioned to deal with it.
“You can’t know whether you can save the patient, or often even what surgery they need.”
But that’s when you fall back on your most basic training, he says.
“You do the most important thing right now that the patient needs, and go from here.”
It’s simple, right?
But especially in our hardest times, this can be very hard to do.
Meaning it’s the tie I wear when I’m working from home.
You know, like your favorite sweats that you might only wear indoors.
This is my tie version.
Home tie is just one of the “devices” I’ve developed over the years for working from home.
See, as many more people now know, it can be hard to work from home, right?
You have lots of distractions you don’t have in an office, don’t you?
Like this Kat sitting right next to my keyboard.
When I worked on Wall Street I never understood why busy people wasted so much time.
Much of the day in fact gets slaughtered in things that have zero bearing on your success.
Just chopping things out.
And focusing on what truly matters, you can massively amplify your success in far less time.
Thinking is the same.
As I’ve written about lots of times—like here, here, here—the brain is a hellish machine that ruins your life.
Killing your seconds.
Killing any chance you have of living in a positive mindset.
Killing precious moments you could be focused on valuable things.
Killing your life.
Such is the plight of humanity.
A buddy is a former spook.
If you met he’d seem very much like a regular guy.
Interesting background, fun to hang out with.
But if you get him talking on topics that some might call conspiracy, well, he’ll go to town with you.
But in the way that intelligence officers are paid to think.
Potential scenarios.
What risks we might face.
How to thwart them.
Best respond in some worst-case scenarios.
Over the years he’s thought through many such cases that most of us never want to imagine.
“And you wouldn’t be surprised to hear how many of them have been cooked up by someone,” he says.
“Movies like Contagion and Impossible Mission 2 give bad actors good ideas.”