What really matters
Helping Friendly Newsletter 02.12.21
This week: an efficiency-resilience smackdown, crisis clarity, revenge bedtime procrastination, and more…
An Efficiency-Resilience Smackdown
A recent column from Michael Pollan on the food supply connects to a theme that I encounter frequently in my coaching work: the tension between efficiency (or productivity) and resilience.
This paragraph grabbed me:
Why don’t we pay as much attention to the benefits of resilience as to the benefits of efficiency? We tend to get good at what we can measure, and it’s easy to produce numbers that support efficiency, such as crop yields per acre. Resilience cannot be easily measured, though. Its benefits are most evident during the catastrophes that can’t be predicted and the trends that haven’t been foreseen.
Pollan is talking about macroeconomics, but his point is also valid for you and me. Our default measures for success tend to be income, profitability, and other metrics that are easily quantified. But the real goods of life are significantly more personal—and much harder to tally. Measurable output and earnings are means to an end, which we need, but they aren’t worth much if they undermine wellbeing.
Crisis, Clarity, and Change
Crisis can cut through confusion and reframe what really matters. If that’s happening for you right now due to COVID or some other life event, I’m sorry. The experience can be painful. However, it can also be transformative. To stay afloat in the process, remember:
Everything is always changing.
You must only be “faithful to the next step.”
It is never too late to learn something new.
Guilty🙋🏼♀️
Not that we needed science to tell us this, but revenge bedtime procrastination (staying up way too late in order to have some free time) is real. The term emerged organically from social media, but recent behavioral research gives it weight. Ironically, the key to unlocking the cycle is getting more sleep.🙄 You can also help yourself by taking breaks during the work day and amping up the quality of your free time. (Translation: put down your phone.)
I’m Loving (and You Might Too)
Time’s New Black Renaissance series
Tim Cook’s fiery critique of Facebook’s business model (fair, IMO)
The Greatest Nature Essay Ever1
These two covers by Willie Nelson, which are definitely a #mood:
Have a great weekend! I’ll see you again soon.
Jenny
Via Austin Kleon.