Happy Saturday Morning!
I hope you’re having a fantastic start to your weekend.
What I’ve been up to:
I packed up the car and headed back to Waterloo for my final semester of university!
I'm a week into the popular online writing course Ship 30. As part of the course, students have to write 30 "Atomic Essays" in 30 days. If you want to see what I'm writing about, it's on my Twitter @tommy_dixon_.
Here's a recap of the most interesting ideas I've explored this week.
Pour yourself a hot beverage and enjoy.
✍️ Quote I’m pondering:
Joseph Campbell, American writer, on facing life's uncertainty:
"If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's."
📚 Book passage I loved:
I don’t care if you get flattened a thousand times. As long as you get up that thousand-and-first time, you win.
As Hemingway said, “You can never tell the quality of a bullfighter until that bullfighter has been gored.”
― When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead by Jerry Weintraub
Share your saturday mornings with a friend! 🙂
💡 Idea from me: Actions Express Priority
When I was 12, my Dad gave me an unforgettable piece of advice that has built the foundation of who I am today.
We had just got back from hockey practice. As I was unloading the car, I was complaining that I wanted to be the best goalie in the league, but I didn’t have the time. (I was still set on making it to the NHL).
I had to start on a school project, but I also needed to practice for swim team tryouts. I hadn't gotten a gift for my Mom's birthday yet, and my friends were hanging out. Never mind watching the Toronto Maple Leafs game!
I was overwhelmed, overbusied, and under committed. Fighting a tsunami of tasks. Not willing to prioritize any of them, or let any of them go.
Eventually, my Dad turned to me and said: "Actions Express Priority".
It doesn’t matter what you say. It matters what you do.
You can't just tell people what you care about, you have to demonstrate it. With your actions.
Naval Ravikant echoed a similar idea: "Intentions don't matter. Actions do."
You don't find time for the things that matter. More time doesn't fall out of the sky. You make time.
After Steve Jobs came back to Apple, he told his team, "My goal is for every single person on the planet to have an Apple device, and to do that, we can't just be great at making products. We have to learn how to become a great marketing company".
At that time, Steve Jobs was a multi-billionaire. One of the busiest men on the planet. But, he met with his marketing team for 2 hours every Wednesday. He approved every single ad before it went out. It could be a billboard in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It doesn't matter. It's not leaving until he sees it.
He said his top priority was to make Apple a great marketing company and he showed it with his actions.
That's how you escape No Man's Land. You decide what matters to you, and you take action on it.
Writer and artist Debbie Millman famously said:
Busy is a decision.
We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is just shorthand for the thing being "not important enough" or "not a priority."
If something is important to me, I do it. There can’t be a "I wish I did" or "I didn't have time for" or "I was busy". No excuses.
If it's important to me, I make time for it. If I don't, it couldn't have been that important. Clearly, there was a higher priority, whether I was aware of it or not.
Simple as that.
❓ Question for You:
Do you really need to think more, or is it simply a matter of doing the work?
A big idea for me this year Take Action.
90% of the time, you don't need more ideas. You need more execution.
📸 Photo of the week:
Used bookstores are extremely underrated.
This week, I bought 14 biographies on some of the greatest entrepreneurs, inventors, and creatives that have lived for $50. Plus, it's environmentally friendly!
What book are you most excited to read this year? Reply to this email and let me know!
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If you have ideas or feedback or just want to be friends, please reach out 😊
Reply to this email, leave a comment, or find me on Twitter @tommy_dixon_
Much love to you and yours,
Tommy