The things we absolutely have to get right – nothing else matters

The secret of fortune is joy in our hands. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
What if today, right now, no jokes at all, you were actually in charge, the boss, the Head Honcho. Write the “call to arms” note you’re sending to everyone (staff, customers, suppliers, Board) charting the path ahead for the next 12 months and the next 5 years. Now take this manifesto, print it out somewhere you can see, preferably in big letters you can read from your chair.
You’re just written your own job description. You know what you have to do. Go!
(bonus: send it to the CEO with the title “The things we absolutely have to get right – nothing else matters.”)
(Author: Sasha Dichter)

Writing challenge:  Okay Seth.  You asked for it.  You got it.

We all have to chip in.  No excuses.  It takes a village so stop being a consumer and start being a producer.  That means time, money, work.  Not one of them.  Not two of them.  All of them.  This isn't a country club.  This is life and we all get one shot at it.  Make it count for something.

It's not all about you.  Some of it's about you, but not much.  If you keep making it all about you, you will miss out on what really makes life worth living.  Get over yourself.

We have to stop building an institution.  This nostalgia for the past is hurting our chances at an amazing future.  Be grateful for the past and what it's taught us but don't hold onto it so tightly that you make a memory more important than the experience of a new paradigm.  Things don't have to stay the same to be really great.

Lighten up.  In every way.  We've become mired in "stuff" and "things" and spend far too much of our lives pursuing it all.  Clean out, give away, throw away, recycle, and bless someone else.  You don't need it.  If you really are honest with yourself, you don't really even want it.

Try something new every day, and if you can't do that, at least try something new every week.  Take a different route.  Eat a new food.  Vary your routine.  It's liberating.  Try it.

Get rid of the toxic.  Whether it's cleaning products or people.  Move on.  Make healthy choices.

Be grateful.  Stop wanting what you don't have because most of us want what we are told to want, not what we really want anyway. 

Breathe. 

Pray.

Be a friend.  Pay attention.  Set the table every single night even if you are eating alone. 

Call someone who loves you that you don't spend much time with anymore and don't rush the conversation. 

Say "I love you" even if it makes you feel weird, or scared, or stupid, or even if you're afraid they won't say it back, and be happy you did it no matter what they say.  You can't control what anyone else says or does so stop trying.

Be authentically you.  There is no one else who can do that.

Now go and do it.  That's all for now!  But I reserve the right to revise this list at my will and whim!

Be blessed, and be a blessing.

Dang Seth.  Just....dang.