Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Self-inflicted loss
|
80% of the books you read out there are a waste of time. This is still much better than the number of movies: 95%. Or the number of TV shows: 100%. But from time to time, you find good stuff. One of the problems I see today in many people is their will to overachieve. They go to a congress, present volunteer to a group of whatever, but then, they need to go to the hairdresser, pass the inspection of their car, they have to go to the Christmas party of their company, the Christmas party of their group of friends, also the group of other friends, and the group of the group of a thinking group. Never forget to buy gifts to children, nieces, the cats of the neighbours, etc. Greg McKeown in his book Essentialism said that the pressure to “do more” is often self-inflicted. We find things to do (aka excuses) to delay what is important. What makes us happy. What makes us growth, personally and financially. Greg says that we should do fewer things, but better. Stack small wins in essential areas. It does not make sense to be in a party but not being there because you are waiting for an important email that says what you know it was going to say, but you’re anxious about that and you can’t stop reading and your mind can’t stop worrying about it. “Priority” means 1 thing. Just 1. As Greg says: “Give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone.” These and other pieces of advice can be found below.
PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
I’m reviewing a project right now. A mess. Close to failure. Fixing situations like this… is my bread and butter. But the real question is not: “How do we get out of this sh*t?” It’s: “How did we end up here… again?” Because this is not random. Every country has it. Every sector repeats it. And no… it’s not because people are stupid. Governments hire smart people. Companies bring top talent. Advisors look impressive on paper. And still… Same problems. Same patterns. Same endings. So what’s...
October 1962. A room in Washington. A few men in suits. Coffee. Cigarettes. Maps of Cuba. What can go wrong? Welcome to the Cuban Missile Crisis. With the permission of any meeting between Trump with his advisors, the most dangerous meeting in modern history. The problem? The Soviets had possibly placed nuclear missiles in Cuba. 13 days to decide. Simple, right? Destroy the sites. Show strength. Win. That’s what half the room wanted. The other half? “Let’s not start World War III on a Tuesday...
You must speak up. Not in theory. Not on LinkedIn. In the room. Because there’s a lie many professionals tell themselves: “If they valued me… they would know what I think.” Wrong. “They should figure out” Again, wrong. That’s not intuition. That’s resentment… in disguise. Assume ignorance before malevolence. Read that again. People are not ignoring you. They simply don’t know what’s in your head. And you’re not helping. We live in a culture that avoids friction. People stay quiet. Nod. Let...