The Good Hydra

7-40 Challenge | Round 4, Day 2 I just finished Josh Kaufman's How to Fight a Hydra. It's a short fable about facing an ambitious, terrifying challenge — the kind where you cut off one head and two more grow in its place. The hero enters the arena not knowing if he'll survive, gets staggered, … Continue reading The Good Hydra

Three Days Out

7-40 Challenge | Planning Week, Day 8 Round 4 starts Monday. I’ve spent the last ten days doing something I don’t do well: stopping. Not stopping completely — I’ve still been writing, walking, going to the gym, keeping the habits that needed keeping. But I pulled back from the pace that carried me through three … Continue reading Three Days Out

What Twenty Minutes Will Tell You

7-40 Challenge | Planning Week It’s 80 degrees. I’m in jeans and a black shirt, walking downtown in full sunlight with a balding head, talking into my phone passing a bus stop at 12:45 in the afternoon. I’ve got about 14 things on my to-do list and I’m trying to unload my brain before it … Continue reading What Twenty Minutes Will Tell You

The Skill That Felt Like Thinking

7-40 Challenge | Planning Week Chris Guillebeau wrote something today that stopped me mid-scroll. He said the skill that built his career was something he hadn’t labeled for a decade. It came so easily he didn’t count it as a skill. It felt like thinking. I know that feeling. Years ago, I’d come home from … Continue reading The Skill That Felt Like Thinking

Not All About Me (Fourteen Years Later)

7-40 Challenge | Planning Week In 2012, I wrote a blog post called “It Is Not All About Me.” I was writing about collaborative leadership — about casting a vision and then letting other people help shape it instead of dictating every step. It was a good post. It was also about half of the … Continue reading Not All About Me (Fourteen Years Later)