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It's the Little Things

It's the Little Things
By Clay Lowe • Issue #14 • View online
It’s the little things.
I’m staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Chester, right next to the race course. Parking was simple. The lady checking me in was friendly. The WIFI doesn’t require a password nor an email address to use it. If you’re a guest of the hotel, you get complimentary tea and coffee and fruit at the breakfast bar 24/7. If you’re not a guest, you get unlimited coffee and tea for £3 a person, which is great considering hotel lobbies are meeting magnets for digital nomads and road warriors.  
They had me at free coffee and hassle free WIFI!!
Then again, I am a simple man with simple pleasures.
This morning I had to “call an audible.” For those of you not familiar with the phrase, calling an audible is an American Football term. Essentially it’s when the Quarterback changes the play at the last minute based on how he sees the defense lining up.  And when I say last minute, I mean his team-mates are already lined up and ready to run the play they discussed in the huddle. 
The audible I called had to do with my 2019 goals and ambitions. Everything is set. The plans are all mind-mapped out. I’m focused and ready to rock and roll and then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Too much dad-bod accrued in the weeks leading up to the New Year!!
Fitness is always on my list, the focus generally being on maintenance. But after what I saw today, I’m going into obsession mode with my fitness. That means, everything else is secondary.
Everything!
Speaking of obsession. If you want to know the secret to achieving any goal or ambition you have, it’s obsession!
You have to become obsessed with your object of desire. 
Forget balance.
Throw balance right out of the window. Greatness is not achieved through balance. Ask any pro athlete, superstar musician, actor, founders of billion dollar companies, and rebels who have overthrown the political establishment of their country. Nine times out of ten, you’ll find they were obsessed with achieving their ambition even in some cases to the detriment of their family, friends, children and spouses!!
So yeah, if you really want what you desire, get obsessive!!
No-half measures.
Clay

Today's Learning
I Used to Be a Human Being
I Used to Be a Human Being
An endless bombardment of news and gossip and images has rendered us manic information addicts. It broke me. It might break you, too.
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19 Daily Journal Prompts that Will Change the Way You Begin 2019
19 Daily Journal Prompts that Will Change the Way You Begin 2019
Lady Gaga keeps a journal. Oprah keeps a journal. Eminem keeps a journal. Successful people all over the world—those who consistently experience positive growth in their lives—reflect daily and learn from their life experiences. And they often use some kind of journal to accomplish this.
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The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Why don’t successful people and organizations automatically become very successful? One important explanation is due to what I call “the clarity paradox,” which can be summed up in four predictable phases: Phase 1: When we really have clarity of purpose, it leads to success. Phase 2: When we have success, it leads to more options […]
hbr.org  •  Share
I ask Honoré at what age we become “old”. He refuses to supply a number. “I use the word ‘older’ in a very elastic way,” he says. “The definition is so fluid, and to box people in and say: ‘This is old’ narrows horizons. What do we gain by saying: ‘This person is old’?”
www.theguardian.com  •  Share
How Exercise Shapes You, Far Beyond the Gym -- Science of Us
How Exercise Shapes You, Far Beyond the Gym -- Science of Us
Ask anyone whose day regularly includes a hard bike ride, sprints in the pool, a complex problem on the climbing wall, or a progressive powerlifting circuit, and they’ll likely tell you the same: A difficult conversation just doesn’t seem so difficult anymore. A tight deadline not so intimidating. Relationship problems not so problematic.
www.thecut.com  •  Share
Why do we work so hard?
Why do we work so hard?
One of the facts of modern life is that a relatively small class of people works very long hours and earns good money for its efforts. Nearly a third of college-educated American men, for example, work more than 50 hours a week. Some professionals do twice that amount, and elite lawyers can easily work 70 hours a week almost every week of the year.
Work, in this context, means active, billable labour. But in reality, it rarely stops. It follows us home on our smartphones, tugging at us during an evening out or in the middle of our children’s bedtime routines. It makes permanent use of valuable cognitive space, and chooses odd hours to pace through our thoughts, shoving aside whatever might have been there before. 
www.1843magazine.com  •  Share
The fallacy of obviousness
The fallacy of obviousness
A new interpretation of a classic psychology experiment will change your view of perception, judgment – even human nature.
aeon.co  •  Share
Quote of the Day
I am nobody?
Who are you?
Are you nobody to?
I am nobody!
Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Emily Dickinson
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Clay Lowe

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