Pace yourself. Life is a pot of beans

Last week I learned about innovation as execution, as a combo of curiosity & relentlessness as leading change. Also, data analytics and modeling. Individually, they were interesting, together they gave me this light bulb moment:

real life happens in real time.

Stories of success (unintentionally) gives the assumption that the characters knew that they were in a significant moment. That they should pay attention NOW and act in a manner that guarantees success.

I wonder about people who didn’t recognize the winds of radical change that was sweeping through.

As I explore design the amount of uncharted knowledge is astounding. This forces me into either freeze, fight or flight.

Freeze: Stay really still, do what has always been working, don’t dabble into new areas.

Fight: Go commando, engaging each new thing with ferocity.

Flight: Hightail outta there.

In those moments, I worry, is this that significant moment described in all the success stories and case studies? Am I missing something? Can I do X better? Which moments/actions do I focus on? Which do I ignore?

How do I know? How do I know know??

I don’t think it’s possible to know(the future). But, there are close substitutes.

• Pay attention. Be curious and explore. Life happens in real time. Curiosity never hurt anyone, except The Cat. You’re not The Cat.
• Chill, don’t be afraid of missing out or failing badly. There’ll always be something “new”. Don’t lose sleep wondering when it’s going to come. These things are difficult to precisely prepare for looking forward. The dots clearly connect looking backward.
• Pace yourself. There are no quick wins, shortcuts or easy answers. It’s both a marathon and a sprint.

Life is a pot of beans. Enjoy it.