As the Live Life Love project moves into its second half, I promised in the last newsletter to provide a curated collection of all the wisdom gleaned from each interviewee over the past twelve years. If that interests you, please click here and accept The Wisdom of 100 as my gift. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from so many amazing people, and I hope you enjoy their collective wisdom packaged as an eBook. If you have any questions, comments, or general feedback about the material, please let me know. I’d love to hear from you.
The good news about 2020 is its end is just three months away. A few days back, I realized I was overly perseverating on all the adverse outcomes of this year. Many of which I have little to no control over. I chose to reinvoke the power and agency we all have to architect and make gains even when things aren’t breaking our way. Instead of continuing to focus on the muck and mire of the past nine months, I reframed my focus on what is comfortably possible in the 90+ days we have left this year. It’s a retooling of the maxim, better to measure the gain than measure the gap. From solving a problem to having more fun, sometimes rebooting through simple story editing can be a helpful strategy in getting you moving forward again.
If 2020 went off the rails for you, too, try focusing on what will leave you fulfilled if you accomplish it by the end of the year. I hope this simple strategy helps you as much as it has helped me.
Alexandre Mandryka is a game design consultant with over 20 years of experience in the game industry. He worked as the design director for Ubisoft and Relic. He is credited with 24 games that have collectively sold over 50 million copies, including Assassin’s Creed, Farcry, Rainbow Six, Prince of Persia, and Splinter Cell. Our interview about games and creating peak experiences can be found here.
Dr. Karen Pollard is a clinical neuropsychologist and the creator of Brain Power Advisors. Brain Power Advisors was built on Dr. Pollard’s expertise of neuropsychology to help leaders and executive teams access and harness their brains’ processing power using evidence-based neuropsychological tools and assessments. Our interview about productivity can be found here.
This quarter’s life experience was a lot of fun for me, but I may have had the most fun living vicariously through my kids who experienced the sport of surfing for the first time. Anna, the kids, and I spent a week in Wilmington, NC, at Sean’s Surf Camp. Although I’ve enjoying surfing since high school, it was the kids’ first time. By the end of the week, they were both riding waves. My 5-year-old (video above) had just recently gotten himself out of floaties, so surfing in the ocean was quite a leap, and something I will relish for years to come.
This quarter I gave contributions to The Comedy Store in memory of my brother (and his love of comedy) to support out of work comics, Mighty Oaks Foundation in support of our veterans, St. Jude’s in honor of Dick Green, the Wikimedia Foundation, and The Lonely Seal Film, Screenplay & Music Festival which helps jumpstart programs for independent artists, with a particular focus on women, disabled, LBGTQIA, and minority filmmakers.
What’s one BIG thing you’ve wanted to do in the Living quadrant of the PLAY model? And, what’s one small (or big) step you can take to get closer to making it happen? Fun through adventure and travel is definitely more challenging during COVID than pre-pandemic, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop dreaming.
For me, that BIG thing is space travel, so a few months back, I took a small step toward that dream by putting down a deposit for a ticket on the Virgin Galactic. We all can use something wild or exciting to look forward to as a reminder that there is still a lot of fun yet to be had. My goal is that this ultimate life experience (going to space) plays out to be the final thing I report on when the Live Life Love project concludes in 2032.
What’s your BIG thing? Better yet, what steps are you taking to make it a reality? I’d love to hear it in the comment section below.
Yours in fun,
Mike Rucker, Ph.D.
