[COFFEE] =
Last weekend we went to Charlotte, NC for a few days and of course, checked out some local coffee shops. (You’ll see the reason for the trip below - keep reading!) The Hobbyist was a huge hit. Great pour over coffee (although they don’t sell the beans 🤷♂️ ), great music (90’s hip hop), and open garage doors with 70-degree sunshine in early March is hard to beat.
Since that’s not actually a bean, here’s what I’m drinking today:
Hopscotch’s Ethiopian Nesbo Werka. It’s solid. 4/5.
[MUSIC] =
A little gift to myself, I picked up another LIVE Bruce Springsteen concert album: Rochester NY, 1977 from his website.
Because I wanted to be able to listen to THIS cover of The Animals’s It’s My Life in the car, on a run, or wherever…
(If you click play, I set it to start at 7:45 so you don’t have to listen to the story at the beginning. You could… but you don’t have to.)
His old stuff is soooo good!
The hunger, drive, desire…the passion for doing whatever it takes to carve out one’s place in this world and live the life we dream of… 🔥 🔥
[BOOK] =
The Gulag Archipeligo by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The author is a survivor of Soviet forced labor camps (known as Gulags) and the book details life in those camps along with an investigative look into the Gulag environment as a whole.
Nazi Germany wasn’t the only perpetrator of horrific mistreatment of millions of humans. If you’re not familiar with this chapter of Russia’s history, this might be a worthwhile read.
[MORE ON BOOKS]:
I tried Blinkist - an app that condenses books into 12-20 minute “reports” so you get the gist of the book in a fraction of the time.
I hated it.
The idea, in theory, is appealing, but the execution failed - mostly (for me) because of the boring NPR-style, monotonous narrator who put me to sleep. I just couldn’t get into it. Disappointing, but maybe you’ll have a better experience if you check it out.
[PODCAST] =
Nothing really stands out… looking through my podcast player and the only episode I’ve listened to since last time would be a news update from Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar.
I’ve mentioned this podcast before - Breaking Points is a news podcast/YouTube channel with the goal of upending traditional cable news outlets as the go-to source for trustworthy information.
Here is their YouTube channel if you prefer to watch your news.
Be That Person
Life & Leadership tip: Change your perspective.
We live inside our own heads, so it’s easy to get caught up in our own stuff. The problem is, this prevents us from seeing things as others do.
The fix = The witness, or objective view. We talked about this “airplane” view recently.
But now, WITH that view, we can go a step further:
Rather than viewing ourselves from the inside (first person perspective) switch to an outside, objective view - as if Morgan Freeman was narrating our every move.
From this objective view, it becomes easier for us to see the reality of the situation facing us - and those involved with us.
From this objective perspective it’s also easier for us to see what they need from us in order to be successful.
Once we see what they need, all we have to do is, is be that man (or woman) for them.
Be THAT person they need us to be.
Spouse
Team members
Boss
Nation
What does my spouse need from me this week? What does my team need from me in order to succeed? How can I make my Boss’s life easier or help him/her win?
Remember, leadership is an energy. An energy of service.
Be that person for them. The one they need us to be.