Blog — Quotes

Yes, we need to make a living.
But how do we make a life?

Mindfulness is healthy, it’s professional, and it allows us to be our best self. It is also maddeningly difficult, particularly in a culture that prizes busyness over just about everything else.

But mindful isn’t the opposite of busy.

Mindfulness demands intention. Mindfulness is the practice of simply doing the work. Without commentary, without chatter, without fear.

More isn’t the point. Better is.

Work is the expression of our energy and our dreams. We owe those along for the journey the same dignity and connection we would like to receive in return.

Pathfinding is at the core of creating with significance, and finding the path is largely the work of finding non-paths until the path is evident.
That doesn’t mean that we’re sloppy. In fact, it’s precisely the opposite.
There’s a rigor to this exploration, a nonrandom way to explore the possible.

And that doesn’t mean we ship junk. We can make mistakes together, in private often, testing and measuring and improving.

And then we can ship the work. Work we’re proud of. Deliver it to people who care and begin again.

The foundation of all real skills is this one: the confidence and permission to talk to one another. Not to manage, belittle, intimidate, or control. Simply to seek to be understood, and to do the work to understand.

The alternative is to bring actual wonder to the conversation, to be with a person in their story and narrative. Wonder is the open-ended version of curiosity, without seeking an explanation to solve the problem.

Without tension, we wait. Without a deadline, we meander. Without urgency, it’s easier to stall.

Because significant organizations spend most of their time and energy not being where they were yesterday. In fact, the uncertainty and the dislocation are the point, not a temporary inconvenience.