Follow the leader (a.k.a. Seth)

Earlier this month, Seth Godin published his 10,000th blog post:

One of those 10,000 posts, back in January of 2015, was one where he challenged fellow bloggers (or aspiring bloggers) to publish one post a day for a week. A “Your Turn” Challenge to build a habit of blogging. Or just a habit of creating something and “shipping it” as Seth calls it.

I took on that challenge more than a decade ago. I had been blogging sporadically prior to that. I’ve been much more prolific since. So, depending on how you feel about this blog, you have Seth to thank or blame.

But for yours truly, I owe him a huge debt of gratitude, for coaxing me out of my cave, for giving me the push I needed to write more often, for helping me find more joy in writing.

When someone uses my work to teach others or to make something better, the work has achieved its purpose. If you didn’t do your work, there’d be no point to mine.

Seth Godin

Seth’s posts are typically short and sweet… and chock-full of food for thought. You can — and should — subscribe here.

If you’re keeping score at home, this is Post #1092 for me.

I may never get to 10,000. But I’m not trying to match Seth. I’m just trying to follow his lead.

Thanks for reading!

The Wanting is the Hardest Part

Seth Godin published the post below a couple of weeks ago. But it’s perfect for the gift-giving and gift-getting extravaganza that will happen in most homes tonight and tomorrow:

The things under the tree are just things. And what you already have — especially if you have family and friends — is more than enough.

It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?

Dr. Seuss

Now Be Thankful

The contemplation above is from Seth Godin’s The Thanksgiving Reader.

It contains many more pearls of wisdom that could come in handy tomorrow.

The full PDF is here. Feast your eyes upon it before the feast.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Read (and write) all about it

From Seth Godin’s daily blog:

Our dreaming opportunity

School and work push us to avoid real dreams. Dreamers are dangerous, impatient and unwilling to tolerate the status quo. Existing systems would prefer we simply fit in.

The dreams we need to teach are the dreams of self-reliance and generosity. The only way for us to move forward is to encourage and amplify the work of people who are willing to learn, to see and to commit to making things better.

It turns out that reading and writing are the cornerstones of this practice, now more than ever. These are the two skills most likely to produce exponential results.

The effective writer can see their ideas spread to a hundred people overnight, or perhaps a million. Writing is still the bedrock tool we use to codify and share ideas, and it forces us to organize our thoughts.

But we can’t say it until we see it, which requires the commitment to reading and understanding, combined with the guts to dream and to lead.

Find the others, see the problem, and then decide to do something about it.

Great stuff, as always, from Seth. Reading expands your worldview. And the pen is mightier than the sword. It’s never been harder to carve out time for reading… but if you do, it’s never been easier to publish your thoughts.

Ditch the rankings

Seth Godin is on point (as always) with one of his most recent blog posts:

This is so true… it’s also tough to put into practice in a world obsessed with “best of” lists and rankings, and a culture obsessed with #winning.

It doesn’t have to be the “best ever”… it just has to be what it is. And we should be focused on the “be here now” of it all. Because the “here” and the “now” are all we’ve got. And that’s enough.