…a note you’re supposed to drop in the mail.
…a hand you’re supposed to shake.
…a soul you’re supposed to encourage.
…a call you need to make.
…a sunrise you’re to appreciate.
…a sunset you’re to enjoy.
…a moon you’re to muse.
…a day you’re to make.
…a laugh you’re to laugh.
…a breath you’re to breathe.
…a life you’re to live.
Don’t pass on the role you were cast for.
For you there is no Plan B.
Gus Levy is credited with coining the phrase ‘long-term greedy’. He chose these words for the culture he built in the 1960’s and 70’s at Goldman Sachs.
On first hearing these words we get a little uncomfortable. The word greedy rarely rings as something pure and worth pursuing.
However, this concept of long-term greed is simply another way to discuss the Law of Harvest and the Law of Cause and Effect.
Long-term greed does its homework.
Long-term greed honors the relationship.
Long-term greed saves a penny, earns a penny, and sees the penny multiplied.
Long-term greed responds and doesn’t react.
Long-term greed sees tomorrow in the moments made today.
We should all be greedy for purpose, meaning, and fulfillment.
Let us not be shortsighted for such a destination…it’s going to be a long flight.
My favorite thought from last year was in an article on Tony Hsieh’s thoughts on ‘accelerating serendipity’.
The last thing we want from our days is for them to be consistently similar.
In the end, our lives and our businesses are ideas about ideas and more often than not our new ideas come to us when our paths have hints of randomness and serendipity.
Read the random book.
Shake hands with the stranger.
Take the long route to work.
Listen to the weird tunes.
This is how one accelerates serendipity.
And then you will…
See what you never saw and hear what you never heard.
…present in the moments ahead.
…with this week.
…engaged with this year.
…inhabited in this experience.
Fully be here – right here.
Right now.
We miss the majority of what was meant for our soul’s consumption today when we’re fixated on ‘what’s next’.
In the words of Annie Dillard, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
Why do we cut flowers, stand them in a vase, and display them in our home? The hope, at least for my home, is be a reminder to bloom…a reminder to grow…a reminder to be alive.
Why do we hang painted canvas on our walls? We do so because they point us somewhere, don’t they? They point our imagination out of the box. They take us to a treasured place, time, or moment. They remind us to paint something ourselves.
Why do we write or read another’s writings? The heart of a writer is not to have you enlightened, but to remind you of what you already know deep inside of you. Success to a writer is having you agree ‘that’s right’ – not having you exclaim ‘that’s new’. On the other hand, success to the reader is saying this author ‘gets me’.
And what about our true heroes and mentors? Not the ones that dunk basketballs, but the ones we have on speed dial. If they’ve earned the badge of such a title it’s probably due to their investment in getting to know us. When we go astray they are our ever-gracious compass to show and remind us where North is.
Why are you here?
Probably to remind us of something.
This is your friendly reminder to be, become, and live out a metaphor that reminds us all as to how things are.
Do your thing.
Ashton.Gustafson 