Questions for the Chicken - Week 4 - "A Little Better Every Day"

We aren't born perfect, much to our parents words after we're born. We are born with the ability to suck and cry. Quite literally. And many of us never get beyond that stage. We remain almost infantile in a way. It's easier to complain than it is to change.

I wonder if animals had voices and thoughts like humans, and if we could understand them, what they would say. I'm imagining a bunch of penguins right now cursing whoever put them on this planet to live in the coldest regions of the earth.

This week's topic is about putting every day up for review, up for understanding. Allowing yourself to learn to embrace the suck. Embrace the pain. Embrace the crying. Embrace empathy. Just embrace.

How can you get even a little better? It's not about 100% overnight, it's about just 1% every day. That's all you need to change. Don't be superman, or superwoman. You'll burn out and like the storm that gets you moving for cover, you'll be soaking wet trying before you even get under the cover if you try and gather everything. And then depending on your personality and mindset at the time, you'll either embrace it or fight it, realize it was meant to be or be angry about being wet and pouting.

Be selective with your change, it's within your superpower ability.

This week's questions are:

What bad habit did I curb today?

Which of my possessions owns me?

Am I doing deep work?

What do I truly prize?

What is my Mantra today?

What am I studying, practicing and training?

What ruler do I measure myself against?

OH MAN...now these are some questions.

It's ironic actually this week has comprised of a lot of new things, a lot of challenges that are sending me in new ways of thinking. As I was talking to a friend today, Xav Horkman I said I was never formally trained in any of what I am looking into as a career (photojournalist/journalism), so I feel like my plan of attack takes 3 times the effort. But in the end I figure it out. Because that's what business owners/freelancers do, they become excellent problem solvers. But he said something curious that struck me right when I needed to hear it -- "Not even the so called experts may totally know what they're doing." That struck me hard, because here I am reaching out to people I consider experts for help on things. And it never occurred to me they may be just as confused. The only difference is they have more channels to procure content and answers from.

This week has been ALL about deep work, repeating the mantra of "Remove: should, could, would and try. Replace it with: do, doing, did, and done."

No one is as in control of you life as much as you are. You make the decisions. If there's bad weather coming up, it's on you to do something about it.

Finally, what ruler do I measure myself against....wow. That's a great question, one that I've never truly contemplated. What ruler does anyone measure themsevles against? Your past seems to be the only real logical answer since we haven't figured out how to time travel yet. You can't measure yourself against the future, and you certainly need not be measuring yourself against anyone else. If you do that, you will be either always taller, or always shorter. Full of shortcomings or overqualified.

But what about this, measure yourself against goals. Write those damn goals down. An empty pen is a useful as an empty mind. Get that shit out of your head, and make space for the solutions mindset. If you write it, you will do something about it. It will hurt when you find the list weeks later and your goal isn't crossed off. It will hurt even more if you realize it's not ready to be started.

As Xav and I talked last week, goals are nothing until you can lay down the groundwork first. Commit small, then grow from there.

Everything about change in life is best served in 1% increments. And the beauty is 1% can be as big or small as you want it to be.

Don't quit your job if you know you have no back up plan. Truthfully, that's a bad idea. Kwik Trip may have jobs available, but you're just going to find yourself back in the same position you're in now. Don't listen to the advice of others under the guise of FOMO.

Set yourself goals and make them attainable at first. Then once you have achieved say 50% of those it's time to consider leveling up. Give yourself a 2, 5 and 10 year plan. And be aware that goals are exponential.

This is important friends, goals are moving targets, and most of all they're exponential. What matters now, in 2, 5 10 years may be small time peanuts. Don't lock yourself into a proverbial 40 year fixed mortgage that you know you're never going to pay off.

Alright, well, I think this is a good spot to end. My ramblings can go on forever, but your attention span's probably ended 3 paragraphs ago.

Thanks for coming to this week's Questions for the Chicken series!