The Daily RICHual

It seems like I have been operating under some kind of misconception. I joined Twitter in December of 2008. When you wanted to post or, excuse me, Tweet, the question you theoretically answered was “What are you doing?”

Sometime between then and now they changed the question. Now the question is What’s Happening and it just doesn’t do it for me. I’m a child of the 60’s and What’s Happening is only really asked with a slightly stoned tone like: What’sssssHappening…..

OR I hear it and think of RAJ, Duane, and ReRun.

What’s interesting about our strengths is the SUBjectivity that swirls around them.

First, without significant self-awareness you might not know them and with significant lack of self esteem, you might not think you have any or many.

Then, there’s those pesky other people on the planet, they may see you differently than you see you.

So how do you figure it all out and come to some sort of accurate awareness of your strengths.

So, you’re on the Dating Game. Host Jim Lange has you primed and ready to go to compete for the date of your life on national television.

The date selector on the other side of the screen who must be cuter than all get out, begins to ask you and your two competitors questions. They begin rather easy: what foods did you hate as a child, what color eyes are your favorite.

Then, the biggie hits: why should I pick YOU?

Peter Drucker said, "Most Americans do not know what their strengths are. When you ask them, they look at you with a blank stare, or they respond in terms of subject knowledge, which is the wrong answer."

Understanding what you're good at, where your expertise lies can go a long way to having a more successful business, and maybe a more successful life.

Gary Vaynerchuk said, “A key to success is being able to deploy hard work against your strengths.”

As the Star Wars folks would say today:  May the 4th be with you

It’s a beautiful day in the pandemic world and to celebrate May the 4th be with you day, I thought I’d share a couple of my favorite quotes about the Force.

My first is from Obi Wan Kenobi who said, “the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.”

Luckily, we don’t have to be Jedi to feel it.

In 1992, training methodologist Tudor Bompa and his colleague Fred Koch wrote on the theory of Overcompensation.

As Jim Loehr would discuss the value of disengagement, Bompa and Koch would show you the value of recovery in your physical performance.

The idea is that after the body receives a major stressor, a hard workout for example, and is allowed to recover the correct amount of time, it will bounce back to a fitter level, it will overcompensate, so to speak.

Yesterday I mentioned Jim Loehr’s idea that in order to be fully engaged, we must periodically practice full engagement.

While I’ve been doing a good number of things to disengage, I want to mention three as they are the most significant AND the ones I would like to take with me into post pandemic life.

1) meditation. I’ve had the Headspace app for a year and a half and will say I am not the most dedicated. I’m finding, however, that it’s really helping me chill and making the work easier to do.

I’ve been working a lot during the pandemic.

Not my usual work, which has me traveling from place to place delivering courses and classes.

Mostly I have been tweaking old content, placing it into today’s context, creating some new stuff, reading about the things that interest me, and facilitating ZOOM classes.

So, I’ve been busy trying to be fully engaged during this so called “down time.”

I’ve also been actively re-charging my energy levels.

Saturday I was heading to the grocery store to grab a few essential items and I noticed that the streets and roads were packed. And I mean packed like a fairly normal Saturday.

And we’re on Stay at Home, right?

Buzz Aldrin said, “People were excited when we landed on the moon. You go to the moon a couple more times and they’re not so excited.”

No judgment here, but I think the biggest Corona virus issue at this time is that people have moved on.

Muhammad Ali once said, “My definition of evil is unfriendliness.”

I’d like to say right up front that this quote might be a little harsh for the circumstance I am about to describe. Butt covered? Yes.

A thing that I’ve noticed out on the trail since the “Stay at Home” order is that there are two kinds of people out for a walk, run, or ride:

The ones that are very friendly and just SO happy about being out doing something that makes them feel good.