What Are You Amplifying?
Happy New Year!
I wrote most of my New Years' reflections last week here (in case you missed them.)
I suspect you, like me, had a "different" New Years' celebration this year. But hopefully still a good and meaningful one.
As you know from reading these newsletters, I am rather obsessed with the notion of RESPONSIBILITY and the fact that, sadly, too many public conversations are centered around someone else's responsibility. So, I thought, “What could be better than recommitting ourselves at the beginning of this new and important year towards more introspection, more self-reflection, and more self-renewal?” As they say, feedback is data. And data contains information. And this year, we certainly got a lot of feedback. So, what did we learn and what are we going to do about it? We need to start with ourselves.
I was particularly intrigued by Seth Godin's blog on amplification. It's a really great point. What are we amplifying? What behaviors are we modeling? What ideals are we channeling? Are we blocking posts we don't like and only liking things that we'd like more of? All of us, particularly collectively, have tremendous power. As a retailer, I feel especially strongly about supporting our local restaurants and shops. When we spend money at our local stores, that money stays in our local economy. It helps our neighbors. Tangibly. Every day, we all make many decisions that communally make a big difference. We vote with our voices and our choices.
So, the point (albeit short this week) is this: let's make our voices heard. For good. Let's be mindful curators of what we want more of and amplify that. And equally, let’s try to act as mufflers for messages, ideas, and behaviors that we don't want to spread.
Thanks to Scott Galloway, I found Liz and Mollies' great work. I was inspired by some of their images. You can find more on their Instagram page here. Here are two that I found particularly relevant when entering a new year:
A few things I’ve read or listened to that grabbed my attention:
The aforementioned Seth Godin Blog on amplifying possibility.
Of course, David Brooks would write a powerful opinion piece on the last day of this strange year. Loved it. Can you frame what we experienced this year better than this?
This is the year that broke the truth. This is the year when millions of Americans — and not just your political opponents — seemed impervious to evidence, willing to believe the most outlandish things if it suited their biases, and eager to develop fervid animosities based on crude stereotypes.
I thought this Tim Ferriss blog about New Years Review rather than Resolutions was helpful.
I thought the new US Dietary Guidelines around cutting sugar consumption were disappointing, to say the least, in that they rejected their own Scientific Advisory Recommendations.
I re-read Gabrielle Hamilton's moving post about shutting her restaurant down during COVID. It's so sad. We have to help restaurants get back to our streets. There is no life without them.
Finally, a few things on BREATHING. I have written about it before. James Nestor has written a really good book on why it matters more than you think (especially HOW you are breathing.) This is a good podcast interview with James where they cover the gist of it.
Here's to a sensational 2021. Let's be amplifiers of goodness!
