Resolutions & The Rear View Mirror
Last year I introduced reflections & aspirations. As today is the last day of 2018, I just wanted to spend this moment to reflect and to express my gratitude to those who read this newsletter. You never know who is willing to invest a little bit of time every time I press ‘publish’, so I do love the numerous emails I receive in forms of feedback. It is also the time of the year that we all get obsessed by lists. Well I have interests beyond the Boss, so without further adieu, here is mine:
Top Ten Books
1. Cant Hurt Me by David Goggins
3. The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
4. The Formula by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
5. Big Potential by Shawn Achor
6. This Is Marketing by Seth Godin
7. Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss
8. Atomic Habits by James Clear
9. Culture Your Culture by Karen Jaw-Madson
Notable Mentions: Turning Pro, Viewability, Lab Rats, The Four, Attention Pays, Radical Candour, Vlog Like A BOSS, Draft NO.4 – On the Writing Process , Love Does, Never Lose A Customer Again, Running Down A Dream, How The World Sees You, The Business of Expertise, One Big Thing, Tribe, Creative Change, The Power of Habit, Your Best Year Yet, Power Cues
Top 10 Podcasts:
- Akimbo with Seth Godin
- Happier with Gretchin Rubin
- The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes
- Tim Ferris Show with Tim Ferris
- Where Should We Begin with Esther Perel
- On Being with Krista Tippett
- Anecdotally Speaking with Shawn Callahan
- Deep Listening with Oscar Trimboli
- Super Soul Sunday with Oprah Winfrey
- The Joe Rogan Experience with Joe Rogan
Top Ten Thinkers: (outside of those above, who I stalk mercifully)
3. Michael Margolis on Storytelling
4. Whitney Johnson on Disruption
6. Steve Sammartino on the Future
9. Jamie Wheal & Steven Kotler on Flow
Top 10 Films:
- Springsteen on Broadway (available on Netflix)
- A Star is Born
- BlacKkKlansman
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Shoplifters
- Won’t You Be My Neighbour
- If Beale St Could Talk
- Blindspotting
- Boy Erased
- Crazy Rich Asians
My Top Ten Blogs: (as evidenced by your ‘opens’)
4. What Is Your Four Minute Mile?
6. Transformation Is About How We Respond
7. Transformation Takes Us Out Of The Closet
8. The Seven Personal Transformers
9. Building Transformational Teams
10. Manage Your Team’s Learning Curves
I also write a Marketing blog every Wednesday and my top 10 from that are:
1. Ten Key Takeaways For Brand Story Development
3. Can Marketing & Sales Be Joined At The Hip?
5. Building Agency Relationships With PUNCH
6. Five Ways To Make Great Creative
9. A Checklist For The Future Marketer
10. How Disney Made Me Fall In Love Again
If you want to subscribe to my Marketing newsletter please hit me up on email at mark@marktruelson.com
In 2018 a lot of my writing has centred on Purpose. Whilst this will still be the foundation, how the organization translates this into corporate wide Passion will be the focus of my writing in 2019. One writer who has delved deeply into this area is Tim Leberecht who outlined Scratch Purpose & Follow Desire
Some of the most impactful experiences in life usually come without a distinctive explicit purpose: art, for example, or romantic love. No one would ever ask for a purpose statement from a date or romantic partner. No one would ever ask Bruce, Banksy, or Beyoncé to write down the purpose of their work. While love and art experiences desperately seek to extract some temporary meaning (primarily through narrative, the stories we are told and tell ourselves) from the seemingly random maelstrom of time, they are not driven by a specific purpose.
Impact is the inevitable product of our impassioned creations, but never the intended goal. Ultimately, “reason is slave to passion,” even Adam Smith knew. We need to allow passion to be the main driver of our pursuits. Passion is not antithetical to purpose, but purpose leads to engagement, while passion leads to open-ended exploration. And both we and the organizations we inhabit need the latter much more urgently in order for us to learn and flourish in a time of accelerated change
I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions and instead last year I introduced the mantra to “Just Say No”. Not to great opportunities. Not to my kids. Not to my friends. Not to my health. Just to all the distractions that don’t add value (like alcohol – yikes). If it is not a ‘hell yes’ it is a NO.
I am glad to report that by and large I was successful. I still had too many distractions but to the amazement of my friends I did say NO to alcohol amongst other things. So for 2019 it is about doubling down on some of the improvements made and being open to saying ‘Yes’ to actions I have always been curious about but never taken the plunge (ie journaling, meditating, weight training, glorious opportunities etc).
I was inspired as a teenager by the book The Dice Man by George Cockcroft (under the pen name Luke Rhinehart). The book follows a character who makes all his decisions by rolling dice and then is committed to following them. By removing his need to make choices he undergoes an extreme transformation and certainly feels more alive as a result. It may be an extreme solution, and impractical outside of fiction, but the insight is a good one.
So this year it is about saying YES to something that I would normally say no to.
By saying yes instead of no for a change, we open ourselves up to new avenues of life and therefore have to be more conscious, aware and awake as we engage in them. It is always easier to say no than yes. Yes requires an openness and generosity and a no keeps things just as they are. Yes involves risk and no does not. Yes requires effort whereas no requires none. One little extra yes per day can be all we need to nudge ourselves to wake up and to reconnect with this world of possibility, and who knows who we may meet as a result?
Just say YES!
Points of gratitude:
A big shout out to Nikk & Yolande Hughes From Inspire Tribe who coached and cajoled me to a positive mindset.
In regards to thinking there are no better practitioner’s than Matt Church & Peter Cook. As Molly would say, do yourself a favour and download their book Think – Pink Sheet Process which is not only free but also has a load of additional tools and frameworks.
Last but not least is the incomparable Lisa O’Neill. Not only she is one of the world’s smartest, funniest & warmest humans she is certainly one of the most loyal. Your work on empowering women is ground breaking and your friendship is legendary.
And for the feedback:
Leilani Abels, Shala Ahmed, Steve Arthurson, Andrea Atell, Matt Avent, Lil Barac-Macey, Mike Beck, David Bloustein, Beau Boundy, Bec Brideson, Paul Broadfoot, Nick Callander, Matt Church, Pete Cook, Evette Cordy, Phil Crenigan, Ben Crowe, Clifton Daniell, Todd Deacon, Michael Edmonds, Claire Edwards, Jennifer Erdmanis, Colin Ellis, Rachel Estlin, Andrew Fairlam, Con Frantzeskos, Nikki Fogden Moore, Dave Fountain, Mark Goulmy, Rory Gration, Celeste Halliday, Troy Hey, Nikk Hughes, Stephen Johnson, Marc Jongebloed, Cameron Knight, Jamie Lobina, Alistair McClausland, Cam MacFarlane, Maurice McGrath, Margaret Manson, Alan Marion, Lisa Messenger, Kanish Nadarajah, Mim Orlando, Tim Ovadia, Racheal Pickworth, Murray Raeburn, Tina Randello, Paul Roberg, Katie Saunders, Trent Schmidt, Amy Scott, Belinda Scott, Rose Scott, Warren Sherwin, Tania Squires, Ben Summons, Matt Talbot, Natalie Thomas, Nick Truelson, Andy Vance, Candice Walker, Ben Wicks, Susie White, Paul Williamson, Camilla Woods, Peter Zarris