Day One
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Day One
Welcome back. To you. To me!
I hope you had a chance to rest, reflect, and restore. The two weeks of family time, significantly less doing time, and more being time felt much needed to me. However—not that I am complaining, at all—but I also gained a new level of respect for staff members in early childhood education centers, which is kind of what our household feels like these days when we are all together!
Every time we have the chance to get together, the dynamic is a little bit different. Enjoying time with our kids and grandkids, witnessing them grow, and seeing how the cousins learn and adjust to more people is so rewarding. We also had plenty of time to have vibrant conversations during and after dinner around various global interests and I was reminded of how productive, informative, and valuable good discourse can be. I am proud of our kids for having found their own set of beliefs and of their ability to listen to the beliefs of others while sticking to their own.
So, 2023. Here we are.
What are your expectations for this year? Do you feel optimistic, pessimistic, or indifferent?
It's important to take stock of our emotional geography. That's what pausing and rests are for. It's also why I like New Year so much since it is a wonderful opportunity to for hitting the reset button. Change what's bad, do more of what's good.
Or, as Alex, one of our daughters does every New Year's Eve, she lists all things that she wishes to change on a piece of paper with her husband and then they make a small fire out of them—a powerful joint-commitment ritual for what they won't do next year.
It’s good to identify what isn’t working, of course. But it’s perhaps even more impactful to direct our attention to what you want more of. Where attention goes, energy flows, they say. What we resist, persists is another way of thinking about the same human mechanism in the opposite way. Placebo is proven. Attitude gives altitude. I can go on, but I know you know it's all true.
Jeff Bezos and Amazon have always been committed to a ‘Day One’-type of culture. And at Amazon, it is always Day One. Every day. Day One is different than Day Two. Day One is where our minds are open, our commitments are 100% focused on what truly matters, and you approach every minute with maximum gusto, gumption, and creativity. Day Two is the more established mindset where we tend to be more protective of what we have, more retrospective than future-oriented, and we keep a foot on the brake. Just in case.
There are, of course, situations that require more of a Day Two attitude. But for the start of the year, and for most days in our lives, embodying a Day One attitude is a really good idea. Every day is a new opportunity. Every meeting is a new possibility. And every thought is a chance to reframe, rethink, and redirect our human energies.
One of the things I also like about the New Year is that so many thoughtful writers list things. They summarize what they learned, and what they are looking forward to, and more of them than usual tend to be a bit more optimistic. They write from a higher ground, so to speak.
By far the best list I have found so far (please send me what you have found!) was written by Gurwinder here. The lessons he learned from 2022 are all so valuable to me. I will save them and re-read them. My 2 favorites are 6 and 8. To get you interested to read all 10, I have posted them here.
#6: Surrogate Activities "The more we eliminate struggles from our lives, the more we create artificial struggles - sports, video games, Twitter culture wars - because the mind wants peace, but needs conflict"
#8: Babble Hypothesis: "According to multiple studies, what best predicts whether someone becomes a leader? Their experience? Their IQ? Nope. The amount of time they spend talking. It doesn't even matter what they say, just how much they say it. We suck at picking leaders."
Nicholas Kristof wrote an upbeat attempt on finding optimism in the world. He also admitted to the negative bias of most journalists, including himself, when he said that for 364 days of the year, he is covering bad news but for one day a year he would cover what's good. I wish he moved that balance radically to the good. But I appreciate his effort!
I also thought Phil Wahba's Fortune attempt at optimism was short and sweet. And it directionally resonated with me.
I will leave it there. I am warming up. Let's make the most of this New Year.
And remember. Tomorrow, it is still Day One!
