The Art of Being a Man

In this era when the very essence of masculinity is treated like a felony, a man still needs to have some defining principles.

My best masculinity maxim is; Never explain. Never complain. Never retract. Let them howl

The maxim well encapsulates the stiff-upper lipped-ness of the masculinity , but the timeless wisdom it contains has made it a guiding mantra of powerful, confident, accountability-prizing men up through the modern day.

The “nevers” of course aren’t ironclad and don’t apply to every situation, and even when they should apply, they can be hard to follow through on! But understanding when, where, and why to apply this maxim is truly a great help in becoming a more autonomous and assertive man.

Its four words pack a lot of truth in a small space and work on a few different levels. So let’s unpack them, starting with the meat of the matter — “never explain” — and working backwards.

Never Explain

“Never explain — your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you anyway.” –Elbert Hubbard

Explaining gives power to another

When Winston Churchill was a young cavalry officer, he was always looking for ways to get to the front and experience battle firsthand. With much persistence, he eventually secured a position in the field as a personal attendant to Sir William Lockhart, who was overseeing the British military’s campaigns in what is now Pakistan. When Churchill first joined the general’s staff, he “behaved and was treated as befitted my youth and subordinate station.” But then one day he saw an opportunity to offer a bit of advice that led to him being “taken much more into the confidential circles of the staff” and “treated as if I were quite a grown-up.”

Churchill heard that the general and his headquarters staff had been hurt and angry to hear that a newspaper correspondent who had been sent home from their camp had published a very critical article about one of their recent campaigns. The officers smarted at what they felt were unfair charges, and the Chief of Staff had written up a thorough rebuttal and mailed it off to the newspaper to be published. Churchill at once spoke up and tried to convince the staff that such a move was ultimately a bad idea, and that the piece ought to be intercepted before it was ever printed:

“I said that it would be considered most undignified and even improper for a high officer on the Staff of the Army in the Field to enter into newspaper controversy about the conduct of operations with a dismissed war-correspondent; that I was sure the Government would be surprised, and the War Office furious; that the Army Staff were expected to leave their defence to their superiors or to the politicians; and that no matter how good the arguments were, the mere fact of advancing them would be everywhere taken as a sign of weakness.”

In this, as in many things, Churchill turned out to be quite prescient and wise. Offering explanations does indeed demonstrate weakness, for several reasons:

Explaining gives power to another. When someone criticizes or insults you, gets offended by something you do or say, or questions your decisions and why you’ve chosen to do something a certain way, it’s natural to want to explain why you think they’re wrong — especially if said party has impinged on your integrity or honor. And some kind of response may indeed be in order.

If the person is someone you know and respect as an equal — someone you consider to be inside your “circle of honor” — and they have said something intelligent and interesting, you may want to explain yourself in order to invite further discussion.

If they’re your boss or a customer, you may need to offer an explanation to hold onto your job or their business.

If they’re someone you care about — a loved one or friend — and you’ve had a gross miscommunication, you may want to explain yourself in an effort to preserve the relationship.

But, if the critical/offended/skeptical party is someone you don’t know personally (like a stranger online or the public in general), don’t care about, and/or don’t respect as an equal — someone who shouldn’t have any say or sway over your choices — then taking the time to explain why they’re wrong, or why you’ve made the decisions you have, is ill-advised.

Almost always, the sceptical party will never believe your explanation;watch their expressions as they roll their eyes when you explain.

To be concerned with what someone outside your circle of respect thinks, is to allow yourself to be pulled down to his or her level.

Explaining yourself is essentially an attempt to seek another’s approval. It shows you’re stung that they’ve withdrawn that approval, and desirous of getting it back.

When you show that you care about an opinion that you, and any observers, know you really shouldn’t, you show weakness. In losing the fight between trying to ignore them and craving the catharsis of engagement, you demonstrate a failure of self-control.

Further, when a chucklehead elicits a response, you validate his importance. He’s made you do something against your better judgment. You’ve given to him two of your most precious resources – your time and attention. You’ve gone from the offensive to the defensive. His status goes up and yours goes down.

People — whether irrationally angry customers, estranged family members, or a controlling significant other — will often demand explanations for what you do. They’ll say you are weak if you don’t offer one. But this is the cleverest of ploys! By targeting your pride, they’ll get you to hand over your power.

Of course restraining yourself from responding to someone who’s goading you on is easier said than done! As someone who’s subjected to a constant barrage of feedback on my work, day after day, I find I am able to successfully ignore about 98% of it. It’s when someone says something that impinges on my honor (even when I know they’re not part of my honor group), or when they seem like a dude I can have a good debate with that I get in trouble.

When someone is clearly off their rocker, it’s easy to ignore them as really out there. And when someone has something critical but intelligent to say, engaging them can actually be interesting and instructive. It’s the people who greatly distort who you are/what you did/what you said, but mix together sensible sounding discourse with nuggets of crazy, who prove the most irresistible.

They almost sound like someone you can have a reasonable discussion with; it almost seems like you could explain to them why they’re objectively off the mark. But as it invariably turns out (and this is a lesson I have to learn over and over!), if someone’s mindset/mentality is such that they’re able to grossly misinterpret something, no amount of explanation — no matter how thorough and well-reasoned — is going to change their mind. Quite to the contrary — they’ll simply dig in their heels all the more!

“Never complain; never explain” doesn’t necessarily mean not saying anything to your doubters, complainers, and critics, but limiting your response to a sharp rejoinder. Disraeli in fact formulated his maxim after hearing the advice of fellow politician Lord Lyndhurst, who said: “Never defend yourself before a popular assembly except with and by retorting an attack.” Thus, a short, pithy rebuttal or a humorous, yet withering sarcastic quip (Churchill was the master of these) may be in order. Then you turn heel and don’t engage further.

Of course, even a simple retort may draw you into an argument you never wanted to have, which often makes complete silence the best possible response. In fact, nothing drives someone nipping at you heels crazier than to have their questions and demands go utterly ignored and unacknowledged.

Explaining demonstrates a lack of confidence in your choices/creations/principles.

 Have you ever been looking at a book or product on Amazon and seen that its author or manufacturer has jumped in and responded to people’s negative reviews? I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, even if the negative reviewer sounds like a real ding-dong, and the rebuttal is reasonable, well-done, and conciliatory, I still end up thinking less of the author/company, and cringing a bit on their behalf.

Most everyone knows that authors and companies check in on their reviews at least occasionally, but when you give people demonstrable proof that you’re hovering around, you confirm your insecurity and/or vanity and thus show weakness and a lack of confidence in your work. In stepping from the ranks of the creator, to that of the consumer, you lose status.

If you arrived at your creative vision or set of principles for good reasons, if you said everything you wanted to say, in the best, clearest way you knew how to say it, and endeavor only to put out your very best work, then you can be content to let your decisions and your work stand on its own. You have nothing else to add. People either get what you do and are about, or they don’t.

There will always be those who twist your words, or misinterpret your meaning, or don’t find your design sense to their liking and mistake their subjective taste for objective truth. If you’d rather make money than stay true to your creative vision, then by all means, try to explain and change the minds of those unhappy with your work. Try to hold onto all the customers you can. I don’t mean this sarcastically; sometimes products are not vessels of your values, but merely utilitarian, and it can make sense to be very connected to the needs of your customers.

But, if you’d rather fail and have to try something else, than change your ideas and principles to suit the tastes of others, then choose to be like Jack London, who felt that the public continually misunderstood his work, and contented himself by deciding: “The world is mostly bone-head and nearly all boob.”

Or as the British academic Benjamin Jowett put it: “Never retract. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl!”

Explanations easily turn into excuses. Naturally, even when you endeavor to give people your best, unforeseen problems do sometimes arise. When you’ve objectively messed up, should you explain to people what happened?

People do typically appreciate a little explanation as to the what, when, and why of your blunder. But the explanatory part of your apology should be kept short — for as Lord Acton, yet another explanation-spurning British politician warns: “Beware of too much explaining, lest we end by too much excusing.” You should pivot as quickly as possible to taking responsibility and saying how you’re going to make things right. In the words of an old proverb: “Don’t make excuses; make good.”

A perfect example of this principle in action arrived in my mailbox just the other day from a company called Amazon. I had ordered Daisy something from their catalog for Christmas. I didn’t experience any problems with my order, but I guess some other folks did, which prompted the CEO to send out this letter along with a $50, no-strings-attached gift card to me, and apparently thousands of other customers:



Good customer service and corporate accountability are so rare these days, that I found this letter positively astonishing. Minimal explanation, no excuses, and an attempt at making amends. That folks, is how to do business right.

Never Complain

While “never explain” and “never complain” are two discrete parts of the couplet, a common thread runs through them: autonomy and accountability.

Once you understand why you should rarely explain, you should understand why you should rarely complain. You simply put yourself in the shoes of the party you’re seeking an explanation from, and act accordingly.

If a person or company has failed to meet their own clearly delineated standards, you can of course ask for an apology or file a complaint, asking for your money back or what have you. Keep the explanation for your unhappiness short, moving as quickly as possible into what you’d like them to do to make it right.

If you think your feedback could help someone improve something, offer it in a constructive way.

If you’re in a situation where a complaint will accomplish nothing, then common sense dictates that you should remain silent.

If you’re in a situation where complaining will accomplish far less than going about trying to make the desired changes yourself, choose action over whining.

And if you’re tempted to complain about something on the basis of subjective taste, reconsider. For the party you seek to complain against has a purpose and vision outside of your own needs and desires.

Take professor evaluations in college, for example. Some students will complain that the professor “sucks” because his coursework is challenging, while others students will praise him because the coursework is so challenging. The professor has a purpose and a set of principles all his own, and while you might disagree with him, and decide never to take another of his classes, why complain that his priorities are not more like yours? If people complained against your vision or work, you shouldn’t care, so why should he?

I once read an interview with  my favourite ice cream makers — in which they said they wished they could forward one set of the letters they received to the senders of another set. Because some people would write saying they wished their ice cream had less/smaller chunks of things, while others would write saying they wished the chunks were even bigger and more numerous. Which complainers did the ice cream makers listen to? Neither, of course. They stuck with their own vision of what constituted the best kind of ice cream, and the heavens rained down dough of both the monetary and cookie varieties.

I’ve gone out to dinner a couple of times where the experience was so bad, I felt I couldn’t wait to get home to write a bad review of the place online. But invariably, that feeling would dissipate, and I’ve never written a bad review of anything in my life. Because ultimately…who cares? Maybe my experience was atypical, or maybe some people like the food that I thought was completely gross. The restaurateur is doing things the way he wants to do them, and I’m content to let the market decide whether his vision is a good one or not.

The world doesn’t exist to meet my expectations, and if they’re not met, I figure I can do one of two things — go somewhere else, or create something myself more to my liking.

I never complain because I don’t think I should have to explain myself to other people, and I don’t think other people should have to explain themselves to me!

Here is how the SUNK COST FALLACY is ruining your decisions

If you’ve ever let unworn clothes clutter your closet just because they were expensive, or followed through on plans you were dreading because you already bought tickets, you’re familiar with the sunk cost fallacy.

The sunk cost effect is the general tendency for people to continue an endeavor, or continue consuming or pursuing an option, if they’ve invested time or money or some resource in it.
That effect becomes a fallacy if it’s pushing you to do things that are making you unhappy or worse off.

This idea often applies to money, but invested time, energy or pain can also influence behavior. Romantic relationships are a classic one.

The longer you’ve been together, the harder it is to break up.

Humans get caught in this psychological trap for several possible reasons.

 Sticking with the plan, even when it no longer serves you, could be an attempt to correct cognitive dissonance: the mental disconnect between paying for something and not getting the expected return on investment. It could also be a knee-jerk reaction to regret. Or,it could be an attempt to convince others, and ourselves, that we’re not wasteful.

All of these things are irrational, in the sense that you should realize the money is gone.But I do think people do these things because they want to convince themselves that they’ve managed to recapture the loss.


You still feel the guilt of “wasting” money even when it’s not your own. A recent psychology paper found that we “feel that need to honor other people’s sunk cost in the same way that you feel the need to honor your own” — even if the person who paid the cost isn’t a close friend or family member. If you got sick on the day of a concert, research suggests you’d be just as likely to force yourself to go if a coworker gifted you pricey tickets as if you had bought them yourself.

To reach that finding, research designed a series of experiments constructed to measure the extent to which the sunk cost effect would sway people to make hypothetical decisions. Nearly across the board, the results affirmed the existence and strength of the phenomenon, both as it applies to individuals and others.

In one scenario, people were asked to imagine that they were accidentally scheduled to take two trips — one to Montreal, and one to Cancun — during the same weekend, forcing them to choose one. When they were told one flight cost $200 and the other cost $800, people were significantly more likely to opt for the pricey trip — even if they would have preferred the cheaper destination. This effect held true whether people imagined that they had booked the flights, or that friends had given them the tickets as gifts.

Other experiments further illustrated how the sunk cost fallacy applies to others. Participants were asked to imagine that they felt full after eating a few bites of rich cake at a potluck party. Some were told the cake had been purchased from a local bakery on sale, while others were told the cake was expensive and had come from a shop almost an hour away. Depending on the scenario, participants were asked to imagine that they had bought the cake themselves, or that someone else had purchased it. They were then asked whether they’d finish the cake, despite feeling full. Regardless of who had bought the cake — friends, strangers or the participants themselves — people were far more likely to say they’d keep eating the expensive cake, according to the study.

Research says it’s not totally clear why we feel so compelled to honor others’ investments about as much as we honor our own, even when they work against us. But people should try to overcome both versions of the sunk cost fallacy.

What’s done is done.
There’s nothing you can do to regain money that’s lost — and pursuing something that makes you unhappy not only isn’t going to get your money back, but it’s also going to make you worse off. You’re just digging a deeper hole.

Set realistic goals for that breakthrough that you really want

This is not a pointless collection of random habits.


Most articles that start with phrases like:

10 habits
7 ways
99 things

…are a completely random collection of tips that are — if you are lucky — somewhat associated with the thing you are trying to achieve.

We love to click on these headlines because they satisfy our need for instant gratification. We somehow think they will give us a quick-fix to whatever issue we are trying to solve.

This article is different — even though the title is the same.

I am not going to tell you to meditate daily and to turn off your phone more— even if these are great habits to adopt if you want to change your life. Instead, I am going to share with you 8 extremely powerful meta-habits that will transform your life no matter what you want to achieve.

They work if you want to lose weight. They work if you want to make more money. They work if you want to get promoted at your job or find a new job. They work if you want to have better relationships.

If you can make these 8 meta-habits part of who you are, your life will get exponentially better. Implementing one of them will change your life. Implementing all of them will turn you into a completely different person.

Let’s go!
1. Become an Essentialist & Focus on What Matters Most

“You can do anything, but not everything.” — David Allen

As a Management  Coach, I get the following question a lot:

“How can I fit it all in?”

People somehow think the key to success it to be able to “do it all”.

But in fact, the opposite is true: When we want to do everything and more, we completely lose touch with ourselves and what is truly important. When everything is a priority, there are no priorities.

That’s when we are busy but not productive. Constantly in motion, but never really getting anywhere. Whether it’s getting fit, improving our relationships or writing a book — when we focus on getting it all done, we’ll never generate any real momentum towards achieving the things that truly matter.

Being successful in life and business is not about getting it all done. It’s about getting the right things done. It’s about doing less, but better.

It’s about making progress on your most important goals every single day and consciously deprioritizing everything else. It’s about saying “NO” per default and saying “YES” only to the vital few things that truly matter.

In short, being successful in business and life is about doing what matters most. That’s why the belief that we have to “fit it all in” and “can have it all” is actually holding us back in life. Big time.

The real question is: What do you really want — a life of people-pleasing and struggling to fulfill all your commitments or a life of success in the few areas that truly matter to you?

Focusing on what matters most is the key to happiness, success and fulfillment, according to the author of “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”, Greg McKeown:

”Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, to stop saying yes to everyone, can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter.”

Take Action Now:

Take some time to evaluate what is truly important to you. Make a list of your top priorities for this year. Priorities are areas of life like family, career, health, hobbies etc. Choose only 3. Create an action plan to eliminate, limit and streamline everything else.
Make a conscious decision to focus on these 3 things and accept the trade-offs you have to make. Whenever you are tempted by the fear of missing out and get distracted, remind yourself that focusing on what matters most is what will give you true success, joy, and meaning in life.
Start saying “NO” per default to almost everything because you know that when you are saying “YES”, you are actually saying “NO” to more important things you could be doing instead. Don’t let everyone else prioritize your life — take control of your choices!

2. Remove All Internal Conflicts from Your Life

The best way to hold yourself back from achieving a goal is to want two mutually exclusive things at the same time and as a result, start an internal fight in your mind.

You can’t want to lose weight and simultaneously want to spend your days on the couch eating ice cream and pizza.
You can’t want to build a profitable side business and at the same time want to spend all your free time hanging out with friends.
You can’t want to build healthy, consistent habits and also want to live your life completely spontaneously without a schedule.

When we want two different and opposing things, we create unnecessary resistance in our life that keeps us stuck. Facing an internal conflict is like walking through mud: It’s painfully slow, exhausting and disgusting.

But when we are able to create 100% internal clarity about what we truly want, we can finally break free from the mental blocks we’ve built ourselves and walk the path towards our goals without resistance, almost effortlessly.
Take Action Now:

Ask yourself what you really, really want and make a choice once and for all. Every choice comes with trade-offs — you can’t always have your cake and eat it too. Stop trying to pick the best from two contradictory choices. Commit to one choice 100% and accept everything that comes with it.
3. Start your Day with Your Most Important Thing (MIT)

The gap between knowing your goals and actually following through with them can be traversed by spending your time, energy and mental focus on what will get you ahead.

Most people experience their mental and physical peak before lunchtime. The morning hours are a prime time for doing deep work on important projects and getting in a workout before a busy day.

Yet, most people decide to start their day with insignificant distractions like social media, email and unnecessary meetings. As a result, they struggle to get anything worthwhile done before lunch — yet after lunch, the afternoon slump kicks in and they struggle to do good work. And soon enough, the clock hits 6:00 pm and it’s time for happy hour and Netflix.

If your typical day looks like this, don’t be surprised to find yourself with excuses like:

“I don’t have time to work on my side business.”
“I am too tired to go to the gym after work.”

The morning is your prime time to accelerate your growth and get ahead on your goals, so don’t waste it. The most successful people treat their mornings as a sacred time to proactively work on what matters to them, not everyone else.

They prioritize a healthy morning routine and deep work before checking their emails, taking calls and consuming information. That way, they’ve won the day by lunchtime and it doesn’t matter what comes after. They get ahead on their most important projects even if they have to spend 3 hours of their afternoon on a surprise urgent task.

They stay healthy even if they have a social event after work because they worked out before going to the office. Other people can’t derail their priorities because they proactively prioritize their goals in the morning before the madness starts.
Take Action Now:

Analyze your typical morning and evaluate whether you are spending your time, energy and mental focus on what truly matters in your life. Then, come up with a plan to start your day by spending 10 min on your top priorities like doing a quick workout, working on a side project or doing a quick meditation.

Start with the low-hanging fruits by replacing unnecessary habits like scrolling Instagram in bed for 30 min before getting up and changing morning meetings to afternoons. Then, if necessary, start getting up earlier to get extra time for working on your goals and work your way up to spend 2–3 hrs every morning on your top goals.
4. Obsessively Curate Your Input

“Garbage in, garbage out.”

When you feed your mind with distracting information and unsupportive conversations with negative friends, you are priming yourself for failure.

Watching a funny cat video on YouTube might seem harmless and maybe even puts a smile on your face. However, chances are you are not just watching that one video. And even if you don’t fall down the rabbit hole, imagine how you would feel if you listened to an empowering podcast about achieving goals instead?

Hanging out with friends that are constantly complaining and gossiping might seem harmless too — and maybe you’re even enjoying doing so. But now imagine hanging out with people that are on a similar journey as you and want to achieve the same goals. Imagine them empowering you to take action and sharing invaluable tips and strategies that help you get ahead.

I think you know where I am going with this.

I don’t think social media is bad. I don’t think cat videos are dangerous. And I don’t think everyone that complains and gossips is a bad person.

I just think we could be spending our time more wisely. I believe that when we obsessively curate our input and match it with our goals, we will receive a much much better output.
Take Action Now:

Evaluate your media consumption and the people you hang out with. Where can you make an upgrade that will significantly improve your life? What books, podcasts and Medium articles can you add to your reading list to help you achieve your goals? Who can you reach out to for an empowering conversation about your goals?
5. Train Your Brain to Get What You Want

Britain’s number #1 therapist, Marisa Peer, always says:

“Your mind does what it thinks you want it to do.”

Your brain is designed to get you what you want and keep you away from what you don’t want (pain, danger).

Now, you might think that you’re telling your mind that you want to be fit and sexy…but what about all those times where you are saying to yourself things like:

“I really want to eat that pizza. It’s my favourite. I wish I could eat it.”
“I don’t feel like working out today. I am tired and would rather stay on the couch.”

The problem is, your mind is always listening — not just when you are setting your goals. And when you are thinking things like that, your mind starts to reinforce your thoughts with feelings like a deep desire for pizza which gets you even closer to what you want — the pizza.

Thus, when you want to achieve big goals, you need to completely change your self-talk so that it matches what you really want. It’s actually quite simple: Just tell your mind what you actually want. All the time.

And when unhelpful thoughts and self-talk slip in, just correct them.

Here are some examples:

“Even though I love Pizza, I choose to have a salad and feel great about it. What I really want is to lose a few pounds and I am not giving that up for a few minutes of pleasure.”
“Even though I am a little tired right now, I am going to the gym. I know I will feel greater after and I will be proud of myself for showing up. Staying consistent with my workouts is really important to me.”

You can literally tell your mind how you want to feel. Even though it might seem fake at first, just try it and keep repeating empowering language to yourself — watch how you’ll start to feel differently!
Take Action Now:

Make a list of the phrases you say to yourself regularly about your goals and the habits associated with them. Then, come up with a more empowering version that is aligned with your goals.

Once you are aware of your self-talk and consciously make an effort to reframe it, it will become easier for you to correct your self-talk the next time you slip into unhelpful thoughts that derail you from what you actually want. And over time, your new thinking patterns will become a habit and you’ll automatically talk to yourself in an empowering way.
6. Become Accountable for the Promises You Make to Yourself

Everybody has moments when they feel extremely motivated and inspired to achieve a goal, improve themselves and build a better life.

And everybody has moments when they are tired, exhausted, demotivated or too busy to follow-through on their intentions.

But here is what differentiates successful people from the rest: They show up anyway. They don’t let excuses get in the way. They don’t let their mind talk themselves out of it.

Successful people hold themselves accountable for the promises they make to themselves. And every time they show up despite being tired, unmotivated and too busy, they build resilience and reinforce their habits. That’s how they become unstoppable.

Here are a few powerful strategies to help you show up even if you don’t feel like it:

Make a promise to yourself and whenever you are tempted to break that promise, remind yourself how important it is to stick to your word, why your goals are important to you and how great you feel when you stick to them. When you make it a habit to interrupt your excuses-filled mind chatter with these reminders, it will eventually become your default and excuses are a lot less likely to arise in the first place.
Work with a coach, group or accountability partner and set up weekly check-ins to review your goal progress and keep yourself on track. Social pressure can be a powerful way to make yourself show up no matter what. Doing a weekly review with yourself can also be a great way to hold yourself accountable and get back on track when you fall off the wagon.
Raise the stakes for following through on your goals by artificially creating negative consequences if you don’t. For example, you can create an accountability contract with yourself and define a punishment if you fail. Give the contract to a friend who will ensure that you’ll get your punishment. Another option is to invest financially in your goals by hiring an expensive coach or joining a mastermind group. The high investment will motivate you to follow through on your commitments because you want to make the investment pay off. Another funny example is pre-scheduling a really embarrassing Facebook post at 6:30 am every morning so you have to get up early to prevent the post from being published. There are endless options for negative consequences — just choose a punishment that really hurts and make sure it actually happens if you fail!
Make it inevitable that you’ll stick to your habits by creating success triggers in your life. Your environment can either support your goals or derail them. It all comes down to the type of behavioural triggers that surround you. An example of a negative trigger is hanging out with a particular group of friends that always make you drink alcohol, even though you want to cut back on your alcohol consumption. On the other hand, agreeing with your partner to always pick up the kids at 5:00 pm can trigger you to leave the office early and get more done during the day. Analyze your life to identify and eliminate destructive triggers. Then, create success triggers to help you achieve your goals.
Track your habits with a habit tracker: Apps like Streaks or Productive allow you to define when and how often you want to complete a certain habit and will remind you to do it. Seeing your habit streak in a nice graph will motivate you to keep going to not “break the chain”. Once you have created a nice streak, keep telling yourself: “I didn’t come this far only to come this far!”.

Habit Tracking App “Productive”
Take Action Now:

Choose your personal accountability strategy and set it up.
7. Stick to Your habits

Research shows that it takes exactly 66 days to form a new habit.

Starting something is always hard. Nobody enjoys the first day in the gym after a long break.

But if you stick with something long enough, your brain will form new neural pathways and you’ll become so used to doing it that it becomes a normal part of your day. You’ll feel weird if you don’t do it. Just think of not brushing your teeth before leaving the house — feels wrong, doesn’t it?

When you successfully form a habit, it’s no longer something you do, it becomes part of who you are.

However, it’s not just the familiarity and routine that makes it easier to stick to your habits after 2 months — there is something else that keeps you coming back: it starts to feel really good.

When I started my blog a few years ago, I found it really hard to publish multiple articles each week. The process of writing was just so painful. Sitting for hours in front of my computer and trying to create something out of nothing is incredibly difficult, especially when you are first starting out — after all, as a beginner your work always sucks. I had to motivate myself by constantly reminding myself of my goals and why I put myself through that type of torture.

In the beginning, the only strategy that kept me showing up day after day was the “5-second rule” from Mel Robbins. It is based on the concept that the most effective way to do something is to just do it. It works like this: Count down from 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 and then start. It’s surprisingly effective because it doesn’t give your mind a chance to talk you out of it. And usually, getting started is the hardest part.

Of course, writing every day was still really hard. But a few weeks in, something magical happened: I started to enjoy the process. I fell in love with learning new things from books and coming up with a structure for my article. I became obsessed with seeing my followers go up. I began to love the art of finding the right words. And I enjoyed getting better and better.

I fell in love with the habit itself, not just the outcome.

The beginning is always hard. But if you keep going long enough, your brain will support you by forming a habit and the joy of doing it will keep you coming back naturally. You just need to stick through the painful first phase.
Take Action Now:

Think of a time where you experienced this phenomenon. What is an activity that felt really hard in the beginning but you started to really like as you got better at it and did it consistently?

Now, think of the habits you want to form now and how you can make sure that you will stick to them long enough to fall in love with the process. Use the “5-seconds rule” and your WHY for achieving your goals to motivate you in the first phase.
8. Sharpen Your Saw to Ensure Consistent Peak Performance

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” — Abraham Lincoln

Nobody likes showing up for their goals when they are sleep deprived, sick, anxious or depressed.

And while it’s important to show up no matter what (see point 6), fighting against yourself every day is not a sustainable way to reach your goals.

When it comes to success, you are your most important asset. A healthy body gives you the energy you need to accomplish everything you set out to do. A strong mind gives you the resilience you need to keep going when it gets tough. And a happy soul ensures that you will feel great along the way.

Your body, mind and soul are your saw — and you need to keep it sharp if you want to cut trees effectively!

Here are a few strategies to ensure peak performance at all times:
Body:

Sleep: If you have a lack of energy, start by getting your sleep right before you do anything else. Just like you can’t out-train a bad diet, you can’t hack yourself to feeling great without sleeping well. Most people thrive on 7–8 hrs of sleep per night and a regular sleep schedule — don’t overcomplicate it.
Food: Experiment and find out which type of foods and eating schedule make you feel the best on a daily basis. Some people thrive on the keto diet, while others feel better when cutting out meat. Some people have the most energy on an intermittent fasting schedule while others need regular small meals to keep their blood sugar stable. There is no one diet to optimize your energy, you need to find what works for you! If you have no idea, start with having 3–4 small balanced meals consisting of fresh, real foods.
Exercise: Moving your body, especially when you are sweating, lifts your mood and increases your energy. Thus, daily exercise makes a perfect habit for a high-performance lifestyle.

Mind:

Review your goals daily. Keeping your goals top of mind will help you prioritize what is important in your day.
Feed your mind with empowering input. See point 4.
Review your week. Track your progress and journal about what went well and what you want to improve. That way, you’ll have a regular check-in point to keep your mind focused on your goals.

Soul:

Take time to do the things you love regularly. Only working on your goals and consistently delaying gratification is a sure-fire recipe for giving up. Allow yourself 1 hour of guilt-free relaxation time to do whatever you want each day. Also, find ways to reward and treat yourself in a way that doesn’t derail your goals. For example, if you want to lose weight, watch your favorite movie or buy a new dress instead of having celebration ice cream.

The ultimate destination in life is the journey itself

What most of us long for above all else is 'security', the sense that we are -- at last -- safe on the earth. We pin our hopes for security on a shifting array of targets: a happy relationship, a house, children, a good profession, public respect, a certain sum of money... When these are ours, we fervently believe, we will finally be at peace. We may mock the term 'happily ever after,' synonymous as it is with naive children's literature but in practice, we do indeed tend to live as if we could one day, somewhere over the horizon, reach a place of rest, satisfaction and safety.
It's therefore worth trying to understand why happiness 'ever after' should be congenitally so impossible. It isn't that we can't ever have a good relationship, a house or a pension. We may well have all this -- and more. It's simply that these won't be able to deliver what we hope for from them. We will still worry in the arms of a kind and interesting partner, we will still fret in a well-appointed kitchen, our terrors won't cease whatever income we have. It sounds implausible -- especially when these goods are still far out of our grasp -- but we should trust this fundamental truth in order to make an honest peace with the forbidding facts of the human condition.


We can never properly be secure, because so long as we are alive, we will be alert to danger and in some way at risk. The only people with full security are the dead; the only people who can be truly at peace are under the ground; cemeteries are the only definitively calm places around.
There is a certain nobility in coming to accept this fact -- and the unending nature of worry in our lives. We should both recognise the intensity of our desire for a happy endpoint and at the same time acknowledge the inbuilt reasons why it cannot be ours.
We should give up on The Arrival Fallacy, the conviction that there might be such a thing as a destination, in the sense of a stable position beyond which we will no longer suffer, crave and dread.
The feeling that there must be such a point of arrival begins in childhood, with a longing for certain toys; then the destination shifts, perhaps to love, or career. Other popular destinations include Children and Family.
It isn't that these places don't exist. It's just that they aren't places that we can pull up at, settle in, feel adequately sheltered by and never want to leave again. None of these zones will afford us a sense that we have properly arrived. We will soon enough discover threats and restlessness anew.
One response is to imagine that we may be craving the wrong things, that we should look elsewhere, perhaps to something more esoteric or high-minded: philosophy or beauty, community or Art.
But that is just as illusory. It doesn't matter what goals we have: they will never be enough. Life is a process of replacing one anxiety and one desire with another. No goal spares us renewed goal seeking. The only stable element in our lives is craving: the only destination is the journey.
What are the implications of fully accepting the Arrival Fallacy? We may still have ambitions, but we'll have a certain ironic detachment about what is likely to happen when we fulfill them. We'll know the itch will start up again soon enough. Knowing the Arrival Fallacy, we'll be subject to illusion, but at least aware of the fact. When we watch others striving, we may experience slightly less envy. It may look as if certain others have reached 'there'. But we know they are still longing and worrying in the mansions of the rich and the suites of CEOs.


We should naturally try to give the journey more attention: we should look out of the window and appreciate the view whenever we can. But we should also understand why this can only ever be a partial solution. Our longing is too powerful a force. The greatest wisdom we're capable of is to know why true wisdom won't be fully possible -- and instead pride ourselves on having at least a slight oversight on our madness.
We can accept the ceaselessness of certain anxieties and rather than aim for a yogic calm state, serenely accept that we will never be definitely calm. Our goal should not be to banish anxiety but to learn to manage, live well around and -- when we can -- heartily laugh at, our anxious state.

Is your business coping well in Covid-19 environment?

Businesses are struggling to find continuity and at the same time adhere to new regulations from the Ministry of Health.
Covid-19 has thrown most business models and plans into disarray for the year 2020 and beyond.

 When you were making your business plan at the start of this year, I bet you didn’t factor in the COVID-19 pandemic.


This could be a good time to reassess your business model and operating plans especially for business that operates within the confines of bricks and mortar with breathing customers being important in order to operate.
Businesses that require a personal touch and human presence such as restaurants, night clubs, salons and barbershops have been affected the most.
However, with the government now allowing restaurants to open for business, it is important for entrepreneurs to have a strategy in place both for their employees and customers.
Here are some tips that businesses could employ during this pandemic to make life easier.
UTILISE THE POWER OF THE INTERNET
Now more than ever, businesses should embrace the use of internet and technology for their operations. Restaurants should set up online delivery channels for their products if they don't already have this.

Other service-oriented businesses could set up a booking system for their customers.
Several supermarkets have partnered with various delivery mobile applications that allow customers to shop from the comfort of their homes.
This is also the perfect time for businesses to make their online portfolios by marking their presence on the internet, especially on various social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Not only is this necessary during the pandemic, but it will also continue to yield dividends for your business in future.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS
Businesses should take this time to consistently remain in touch with their clients to foster trust as well as offer reassurance of the quality, safety and continuity of their services.
As most people are working home, the internet, including social media, has become a vital source of information for many.
Businesses can set up their profiles on platforms such as Google My Business which allows customers to know if the business is still operational, including if customers can access in-store shopping or delivery services.
Businesses can list their hours of business as well as pass along important information like what safety precautions the business is taking, updates on what products and services are available, and whether customers can expect delays.
COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR SUPPLIERS
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the economy in a significant way and as a result, many businesses including suppliers have been adversely affected. With that in mind, it is important that business entities have robust and frequent communication with their suppliers.
This will allow companies to plan stock inflow and outflow depending on customer needs as well as be on the same page with suppliers on how much they can supply and if there will be any financial challenges along the way.
REVIEW OPERATIONAL RISKS
With the pandemic, risk factors for businesses have completely changed and this calls for a change in tack.
Even if a business entity had an existing risk assessment, it may no longer be suitable in the current situation. As a result, it is important that businesses which are currently operational to assess all their operational aspects and create a checklist to ensure that both employees and customers are safe.
Businesses can do this by providing handwashing facilities, enforcing social distancing measures at their premises, conducting temperature checks for employees and customers and limiting the number of people.
In addition, business entities will need to be more flexible and willing to change the way they operate, including being open to offer delivery services as well as change their hours of operation. Businesses also need to re-assess their financial risks and find possible solutions for them.
If need be, speak with your bank or other financial institutions regarding the extension of your loan repayment period. It could also be important to discuss new loan arrangements.
CONCERN FOR EMPLOYEES
The pandemic has affected everyone’s lives, this includes business owners and their employees. As a result, businesses need to show concern for their staff.
Although revenues for most businesses have plunged, it is important that business owners be considerate of the plight of their employees.
If the business has temporarily closed down, employers should consider making decisions that will not completely hurt the employee. For example, business owners, in the meantime, may choose to send their employees on leave or slash their salaries by a percentage instead of completely laying them off.
For entities that are still operational, employers should guarantee their employees' safety at work, including providing handwashing facilities, sanitiser and personal protective equipment such as facemasks and gloves.

Most businesses and your competitors are going to despair and hope for the storm to pass soon. If you just keep moving, even at a slower rate than you’d like, you will far overtake them by the time this crisis is over.

And it will be over at some point.”

Savour the present moment

It's one those days that I can't quite describe.

A daybeyond any lazy day.
It's that time that your mind wanders across the mysteries of the universe and the current Covid-19 pandemic crisis that has forced me to stay at home.
Perhaps one of the reasons that we don't like absolute silence is because we don't like where our minds go.
That's me today. I am sitting on my carpet having a shot of Gilbeys gin listening to music and thinking about death;soon or later, death will come, but Covid-19 is now flavouring this fear with some sense of urgency.
I end up reading a history book on Marcus Aurelius. Marcus was the Roman Emperor in the 2nd century AD during one of Rome's less prosperous times, with a decade of plague going across Europe.
The plague — most likely smallpox — was named the Antonine Plague, after the emperor, and saw the decimation of empires and with a massive death toll of around five million people.
Historians write how carts would leave the city piled with thousands of bodies each day. Marcus wasn't particularly a religious or superstitious man but as the leader of the Empire, he had to perform his religious duties as a way of comforting his people.

He was also a man who sought truth and over time became one of the proponents of stoicism.
FEAR
The plague, which they referred to as the pestilence, had ravaged the cities and trade, decimated the population and there was famine.
Many people turned to religion and others became charlatans or con men. Two con men stood out. One preached on wild fig trees in Campus Martius, talking about how the plague was a sign that the gods would strike the earth with fire and that it was the end of the world.
The famous of the two was Alexander of Abonoteichus, who faked a talking snake which he would use to pass "prophecies" and made a fortune. Everyone was looking for answers.
Death and despair became part of their daily life and over time the emperor's views shifted to taking death as a natural part of life that no one should be afraid of.
That's when the emperor took up stoicism. The philosophy called for people to focus on things within their control and not death, which was out of their sway. To emperor Marcus, fear was harmful.
MENTAL STRENGTH
Back to my thoughts about life. I thought about all the people who are processing life now without the right words.
I feel like I'm more stoic and I deal with death and bad things as part of life and not part of a bigger plan or punishment, or a lesson.
Everyone is processing the pandemic today through different lenses. It's important to figure out how you are processing the bad news to be able to cope.
I'm sure that many men connect with me at this point, especially because right now my income streams all froze in two seconds.
It looks bleak and indefinite and we are all starting to feel the effect and the grief.
You may not hold my school of thought, but you need to process this self-isolation period healthily and get through this alive.
It's okay to feel different things at the same time. If you feel it's beyond what you can handle and its overwhelming you, seek help from friends and family and if that doesn't work, seek professional help.

 SOLACE IN MINDFULNESS

Thich Nhat Hanh enjoins us to eat one apple slowly and in complete awareness, as a practice of mindfulness.

However, I notice that in my practice, I am aware of the impermanence of the apple. I wonder that if the apple is going to rot, it is impermanent, and therefore the moment that the apple is ripe is brief and fleeting, perhaps I should just toss it into the compost pile right away. Why should I enjoy a sweet ripe apple, or watch it ripen? Why should we disfavor the apple before it is ripe, or when it is overripe and dripping with juice or covered with flies? How can we savor the apple, when it is impermanent, and so are we? Is there not a case to be made that it would be better to hasten the apple on its route to becoming compost or an apple tree, rather than to enjoy its present moment of perfect flavor and sweetness? Is taking care of the apple so that it becomes ripe and pleasing not a form of craving and sensual involvement?

This could be an argument for suicide, especially suicide right at a peak moment of life, when life is exquisite and can only get worse. Why not jump off a bridge into a rainbow or sunset, at a moment of health and joy, rather than to wait for the inevitable suffering of old age and death and decay? Why not emulate Virginia Woolf, and walk right into the ocean with a pocket full of stones at sunset or moonset, when the sea is perfect and the stars are bright?

A literary example of this sentiment occurs in Goethe’s Faust. Most people are aware of Marlowe’s Faust (if they think of Faust at all), and the creation of a “Faustian bargain.” In Marlowe’s version, Dr. Faust agrees to sell his soul to the Devil, Mephistopheles, in exchange for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures for 24 years. However, in Goethe’s Faust, the doctor agrees to surrender his soul to the Devil exactly at a moment of perfect bliss:

“When, to the Moment then, I say ‘Ah, stay a while! You are so lovely!’

Then you can grasp me: then you may,

Then, to my ruin, I’ll go gladly!"

I have been struggling with this because at times, in the mornings in Ngong hills, I am overcome by the beauty of the present moment. I see the bats rushing home to find roosts before the dawn. I hear the parrots and parrotlets, doves and woodpeckers carrying on, like commuters in a busy city. Life bursts out of the darkness. I am in awe. It is close to perfect bliss. Yet I know that I cannot stay in Ngong  hills forever. I know that it is a hard place to live, and I am getting older each moment. I may leave to live in a shelter for the aged.

Yet, if I were to leave now, because I know that in 15 years this house  and my  beautiful compound will be unmanageable, it would be like throwing a ripe and delicious apple onto the compost heap, just because it is impermanent. This makes no sense at all!

The Buddha instructs us to savor life even as we know it is impermanent and suffering is inevitable. Siddhartha Gautama gave up asceticism — trying not to enjoy food or sleep — after he achieved enlightenment. In Old Path, White Clouds Thich Nhat Hanh tells the story of how Sujata, a village girl, saved Siddhartha’s life:

"As Sujata neared the river, she saw a man lying unconscious on the road. She put down her platter and ran to him. He was barely breathing and his eyes were tightly closed. His cheeks had the sunken look of someone who had not had food for a long time. From his long hair, tangled beard, and ragged garment, Sujata knew he was a mountain ascetic who must have fainted from hunger. Without hesitating, she poured a cup of milk and eased it against the man’s lips, spilling a few drops on them. At first he did not respond, but then his lips quivered and parted slightly. Sujata slowly poured milk into his mouth. He began to drink and before long the cup was empty.

Sujata then sat along the riverbank to see if the man would regain consciousness. Slowly he sat up and opened his eyes. Seeing Sujata, he smiled. He pulled the end of his garment back up over his shoulder and folded his legs in a lotus position. He began to breathe, first shallowly and then more deeply. His sitting was stable and beautiful. Thinking that he must be a mountain god, Sujata joined her palms and began to prostrate herself before him, but the man motioned for her to stop. Sujata sat up, and the man spoke to her in a soft voice, 'Child, please pour me a little more milk.'
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Happy to hear him speak, Sujata poured another cup and he drank it all. He felt how truly nourishing it was. Less than an hour before, he thought he was about to breathe his last. Now his eyes shone and he smiled gently. Sujata asked him how he had fainted on the road.

“I have been practicing meditation in the mountains. Harsh ascetic discipline has left my body weak, so today I decided to walk down to the village to beg for some food. But I lost all my strength getting here. Thanks to you, my life has been saved.” …Sujata listened carefully as Siddhartha told her, “I have seen that abusing the body cannot help one to find peace or understanding. The body is not just an instrument. It is the temple of the spirit, the raft by which we cross to the other shore. I will no longer practice self-mortification. I will go into the village each morning to beg for food.”

Now, there are many huge differences between the Buddha and me. Enjoying the beauty of the morning near the forest in Ngonghills is hardly like begging for a bit of food or accepting a cup of milk. I am enjoying privilege. Moments of living that are not available to everyone. There is a big difference between accepting the gift of a bowl of milk, to save one’s life, and accepting the rewards of work, investment, and inheritance that result in the privilege of a Nairobi National Park view.



Let us say, for example, that someone gives us a ripe apple, and it tastes very good. That is right livelihood, and being in the present moment. If someone gave me some money long ago, and I used it to buy this house, so that now I can sit and meditate and enjoy the view and the breathing sounds of the sea in a second home — that is different. There are two different arguments to contend with. The first argument is about craving, and the abolition of suffering. We should enjoy the present moment. If at one moment we have a ripe apple, and it is very good, we should savor it, not throw it directly into the compost because it will rot eventually. We should not, therefore, make a Faustian bargain, to give our souls to the Devil for a perfect apple. However, in conflict with this argument is right livelihood. If I can buy a ripe apple and you cannot, how can I savor this apple?


I am pretty clear on the first argument — that being happy in the present moment is not only ok, but also a Good Thing. There is no need to end a blissful moment because it will end naturally. However, I am less clear on the second. Is this liberal guilt? Is it fair to savor a perfect moment, while others suffer? So savoring is ok, but fairness remains ambiguous. For now, I am not ready to be a Monk. So I will enjoy the dawn in all its glory, fully awake, aware, and appreciative,conciously  savouring the present moment.

How To Make Your Business Thrive In The Chaos of Covid-19

1. Fight The Enemy — Not The Terrain

The  most well known idea is the concept of the “OODA” loop. OODA Loop stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. This is framework designed to explain the process of collecting information, interpreting it, deciding what to do with it, and then taking action.

Much has been written about the OODA loop (here’s a great in-depth explanation of it) but I want to focus on one particular aspect, the piece that is thought  to be the most important — Orientation.

It’s easy to skip over Orientation or think it’s essentially the same as Observation. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Orientation is about your relationship to reality and the observations you’re seeing.

Orientation is about confronting your cognitive biases, your ego, and your own limited perception of the world — peeling back those layers so you can get a clear picture of reality as it truly is, not as you wish it to be.

In tough, confusing and uncertain situations we often get stuck — frozen in what was — not accepting things as they are because we don’t like them or we wish that they were different.

This is one of the most devastatingly sinister cognitive biases and can put you in serious jeopardy.

 Sum this up beautifully with a simple quote:

    “Fight the enemy, not the terrain.” — Col. John Boyd

Don’t get stuck in your conceptions of what “should” be — don’t fight the terrain (in our present case, Covid-19)— fight the enemy as they are, not as you want them to be.

This is a lesson not only uncovered in  deep dive into human conflict and the path to victory, but shared by world champions and financial traders.

World champion martial artist and international chess master Josh Waitzkin sums this idea up powerfully as well:

    “While I learned with open pores — no ego in the way — it seemed that many other students were frozen in place, repeating their errors over and over, unable to improve because of a fear of releasing old habits. When [our teacher] made suggestions, they would explain their thinking in an attempt to justify themselves. They were locked up by the need to be correct…[They] got stuck, like the guys doing [martial arts] who don’t learn from their mistakes and practice with a desperate need to win, to be right, to have everything under control. This ultimately cripples growth.” — Josh Waitzkin, The Art of Learning

If we fail to properly orient ourselves — to see our own weaknesses, biases, flaws in our thinking and much more, we prevent ourselves from growth and we invite disaster.

Trader Jim Paul describes the same danger of getting stuck in your ego — and losing sight of the best course of action — in his book “What I Learned Losing a Million Dollars”:

    “Taking either success or failure personally means, by definition, that your ego has become involved and you are in jeopardy of incurring losses due to psychological factors. Having tied your self-worth to the vicissitudes of factors beyond your control, you will be primarily concerned with protecting your ego rather than trying to determine the appropriate course of action.”- Jim Paul

You must be aware of your Orientation and consciously work to sweep away ego distortions and cognitive biases so that you can get a crystal clear picture of reality.

A tool like Charlie Munger’s Psychology of Misjudgment (a list of mental models that cause people to make bad decisions) is an excellent starting place for this. Once you’ve done that it’s often easy to Decide what to do and Act on it.


2.Agility;Rapid Tempo

Management Consultants constantly preach the importance of “Agility.” It’s critical to understand that Agility does not mean speed, but rather speed of decision-making.

The ability to rapidly move through “decision cycles”  is what distinguished victory from defeat.

Here’s how  one consultant put it:

    “In order to win, we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries — or, better yet, get inside [the] adversary’s Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action time cycle or loop … Such activity will make us appear ambiguous (unpredictable) thereby generate confusion and disorder among our adversaries — since our adversaries will be unable to generate mental images or pictures that agree with the menacing, as well as faster transient rhythm or patterns, they are competing against.”

This quote also underscores the power and importance of building clear and accurate mental models, which reinforces our need to Orient properly.

If you’re working to grow and improve yourself — the faster you can run through decision cycles (OODA Loops) and break away from the biases and errors that will keep you frozen in place, the faster you will grow. This rapid iteration and execution of OODA loops is how you see some people quickly advance while others seem to be stuck in place.

In life and business — this principle applies to both competitive threats and opportunities. The more rapidly you can Orient yourself to what’s really true, accurately collect information about the problem, the market, your product, etc — the faster you can make the correct decision.

Over time this slightly incremental speed advantage generates massive results. Without a rapid decision-making and analysis tempo, you’re leaving yourself at risk for external forces (competitors, markets, etc) to move away from where you think they are — and your understanding of those dynamics will be flawed and incomplete, leading to a poor Orientation.

3.Schwerpunkt

Pronounced “Shh-where-punked” — the notion of Schwerpunkt is the single most important organizational principle to come out of  work in Patterns. Schwerpunkt is a vital tool for working with others and thriving under chaos and uncertainty.

Schwerpunk is one of those words that doesn’t fully translate from German to English. The meaning is rich with an idea that a single definition cannot express. The definition of Schwerpunkt is something like center of gravity, crucial focal point, point of the main effort, key goal, or commander’s intent.

This guiding principle explains another one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history — the Blitzkrieg of WW2. German forces operated under a largely decentralized decision-making structure that was imbued with mutual trust and the ability for unit commanders in the field to make the key decisions — in alignment with the overall Schwerpunkt of the campaign.

This focus on decentralized organizational structures — where the core goal, key focus, and commander’s intent (aka Schwerpunkt) is communicated and understood by everyone — is a cornerstone of the most successful military campaigns in history.

When you let decisions happen on the “front lines” — you’re empowering people to make decisions not only much more rapidly but with much more accurate and real time information.

More importantly for you and me — it’s also a highly effect management tactic and organizational structure for modern day organizations.

Books like The Outsiders have studied companies that massively outperform over a long period of time and the concept of a highly decentralized organization that pushes decision-making to the lowest level possible is one of the cornerstones of those businesses. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway is a classic example of a highly decentralized company.
You Can Become Someone Who Thrives In Chaos and Uncertainty

The powerful toolkit of Orientation, Agility, and Schwerpunkt will allow you to thrive in any chaotic or uncertain environments. These ideas are literally battle tested in the most unforgiving crucible imaginable — war.

Management Consultants explains how all these concepts fit together neatly and why they are so powerful for thriving under adversity and under stressful and chaotic situations.

    “War is ever changing, and men are ever fallible” -Col. John Boyd

I like to adjust that slightly to:

    “Life & Business are ever changing, and people are ever fallible.”

Cognitive biases and the inherent biological limits of the human brain constantly cause people to make mistakes. If you are properly orienting yourself, not getting frozen in your past conceptions of reality, and rapidly iterating through your decision-cycles — you will be running circles around your competition and aligned with market demand and expectations — setting yourself up for success.

John Boyd ,an ace pilot during World War II was the ultimate bad ass. He lived an incredible life, fought in three wars and transformed the way our military fights and wins.

The lessons Boyd uncovered in Patterns have the power to transform you into someone who thrives under chaotic, uncertain and adverse conditions.

That’s all well and good and believe me I love a good military history as much as anyone (after all I did read Boyd’s massive biography) — but what I really care about is applying these principles to my life and business.

After all, business and war are very different. While in warfighting the idea is to destroy the enemy, in business that is not always possible and you also have to proactively build your own business and grow your sales.

There is a major shared thread between these two domains however. A thread that, once pulled, can lead us some major insights into how we can use the lessons of Genghis John to thrive in chaos and uncertainty.


This common thread, between the military and business, is that in both cases groups of people are working together under immense pressure and stress to try and create results.

As Boyd would say, what are you waiting for, Tiger?