{"id":2777,"date":"2015-08-17T07:23:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T14:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/?p=2777"},"modified":"2015-08-17T03:28:38","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T10:28:38","slug":"monday-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/17\/monday-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday inspiration: Pursuing things that actually matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/20\/what-do-i-stand-for-i-dont-know\/\">As I mentioned a few weeks back<\/a>, I\u2019ve been seeking ways to live a more meaningful, impactful life. This doesn\u2019t mean I have to run away to the desert to wear sackcloth &amp; ashes\u2014at least my family hopes not!\u2014but it does mean pushing myself harder, and with more discipline, to ask good questions &amp; to act on the answers.<\/p>\n<p>Before I took my sabbatical to Guatemala, I reached out to Jeffrey Veen, who had just sold Typekit to Adobe. Over lunch he explained that after he\u2019d left his previous gig, he undertook what he called \u201c100 lunches,\u201d meeting up with as many smart, interesting, creative people as he could. In the process he gradually formed the idea &amp; knowledge needed to launch Typekit. In a similar vein, I\u2019ve been talking to many of the bright, thoughtful people I\u2019ve been blessed with meeting over the years, learning more about their journeys &amp; perspectives.<\/p>\n<p>My friend Deepa spent 10 years in product management at Macromedia\/Adobe in SF, then totally reworked her life: she joined <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charitywater.org\/\">Charity Water<\/a>, moved to NYC, learned a ton, and recently joined the Clinton presidential campaign. She advised me to think in lean-startup terms, prototyping changes to my life, seeing what holds promise, and iterating to learn more.<\/p>\n<p>Deepa also mentioned\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thequarterlifebreakthrough.com\/\">The Quarter-Life Breakthrough<\/a>. I don\u2019t yet know much about the book, but I did enjoy the TED talk below from\u00a0Adam \u201cSmiley\u201d Poswolsky, in which he talks about giving up what you&#8217;re <em>supposed<\/em> to value to pursue what brings you real satisfaction. A few key points:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Find believers<\/strong>. They\u2019ll help hold you accountable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stop comparing<\/strong>. It\u2019s the thief of joy. (Okay, he didn\u2019t use those words, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=comparison+is+the+thief+of+joy&amp;espv=2&amp;biw=1177&amp;bih=1078&amp;tbm=isch&amp;tbo=u&amp;source=univ&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0CB0QsARqFQoTCPmms8Xur8cCFZBBiAod9gwIwg\">Teddy Roosevelt did<\/a>, so that\u2019s something.)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Make the ask<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"604\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ddek3gQVt9Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> \u2028<\/p>\n<p>Remembering that \u201cThe journey is the reward,\u201d<br \/>J.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ddek3gQVt9Y\">YouTube<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I mentioned a few weeks back, I\u2019ve been seeking ways to live a more meaningful, impactful life. This doesn\u2019t mean I have to run away to the desert to wear sackcloth &amp; ashes\u2014at least my family hopes not!\u2014but it does mean pushing myself harder, and with more discipline, to ask good questions &amp; to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2777"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2781,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions\/2781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}