Phil Garland

Guilt, disappointment, sadness, and despair are all reactions you can have to your actions in life. Pride, euphoria, happiness, and abundance are also reactions you can have to your actions in life. The only difference in these reactions is your mindset. You have the power to think depressing thoughts as much as you have the power to think happy thoughts.

 My Less-Than Happy Past

Anyone who knows me from three to four years ago would know that I haven’t always found happiness. There have been a lot of situations where I didn’t live in a happy world and took for granted who I was and who I was becoming. My mindset was completely different. Instead of trying to find things that would make me come alive, I spent my time running from my problems.

Each time that I ran in a different direction, the problem eventually caught up. Not only would one problem catch up, but  I created more-and-more problems for myself by running. Then a whole bunch of problems would catch up to me at once and I was faced with a challenging situation. Instead of using my power to find happiness, I used my powers to become more and more depressed.

The Power of Mindset

I could tell I was going to a place that wasn’t good for me. I was aware enough that the life I created for myself wouldn’t find happiness. Instead, it would bring more and more despair. Using my power, I traced my steps, did a lot of learning, and developed self-knowledge into what I really wanted. After some poor performances at work, I realized a change was necessary. So I mapped out a path to escape the world I was living in and to find a new one.

My decision to leave Washington D.C., to travel the country for my new home, and to throw common-sense out the window ignited my mind, it taught me I had power. Since that time I have become ever more self-aware. I have reflected on my hard times and use the knowledge I learned about myself to make sure I don’t repeat past mistakes.

Using my power to change my mindset was the best thing I’ve ever done with my life. Instead of being unhappy, and getting trapped in landslides of depression, I live in a much happier mind. The habits I’ve developed, and the knowledge of my power to be happy, have created a far better world for myself than I could’ve imagined only a few years ago. Your ability to change your mindset is the biggest asset within your power. Use it for good.

Life will hand you tons of opportunities. Some might be fun, some might suck, but each opportunity is a chance to find what you’re interested in, and what you’re not. When you do find interests, you need to mark it on a map or a diagram. Over time, you can combine all of those interests and mark them on a diagram. The intersection, similar to a Vin diagram, will lead to your passion.

Most people believe that finding your passion is something only a unicorn can find. Most people also believe they will never be the unicorn that finds their passion. But that’s merely a myth. Finding your passion isn’t only for unicorns, it’s for everyone.

Finding your passion is about trying new things. It’s about finding what you’re interested in and what you’re not. That lets you know what you hate. And what you love.

Throw the stuff you hate aside and start doing the stuff you love. Once you get a chance to make money off the stuff you love, go full bore on the stuff you love. And keep going.

Each time you take a step towards your passion, you’re taking a step towards your intersection. At the same time, when you hate something, try to cut it loose as soon as possible. That is your guiding light towards the best you.

Thoughts spiraling around in my head. Creative juices zapped from a day of heavy thought.

Developing systems, implementing processes, and integrating applications are as artistic as I get. And they’re beautiful when they work, but they take a toll on brain output.

Writing used to be my creative outlet, but now I must learn to mend system development with the artistic nature of writing.

Both require ample thought, think 15 lemons to make an ounce of lemonade, and both require creativity. Both I have a passion for, and a desire to perfect. In time they will mold together to create a killer combo, but for now, they’re the bain of my brain.

 

Every day billions of people go to work. A majority of them don’t want to be at work. They work not because it brings them pleasure but because it allows them to trade their time/effort into money. That money allows them to buy things they want and to live the lifestyle they desire. Although people know how/why they make money, they seem to misalign their individual beliefs with their global beliefs.

Money is a Natural Outcome of Exchange

It’s much easier to trade goods when you don’t have to barter. Before money, a farmer, who produced milk, would have a hard time going to the barber for a haircut without a form of currency. What if the only barber in town was lactose intolerant? Who would the farmer get a haircut from? On top of that, how would the barber specialize into his industry? How lucrative is it to trade a haircut for groceries or rent?

I think we all agree barter isn’t the solution to exchange. Instead, we developed currency as a means of exchange. This allowed us to produce milk for the lactose lovers, provide haircuts to those who desired a haircut most and pay bills like rent without having to find the landlord willing to accept a lifetime of haircuts. All of this happened naturally out of the need to exchange.

We Work for Money

In a similar sense, the reason we go to work is for income. Some of us might love it, some of us might hate it, but we all have to work for a living. The return on our time and effort is currency, which we can then exchange for desirable goods. Although we live in a world where everybody is participating in a free market exchange people seem to question the viability of free market exchanges as a whole.

Misaligned Beliefs: Individual vs Global

We are all humans and we all have self-interests. No matter the work we partake in, and the means we use to make our livelihoods, we can only think on our personal levels. We are independent. There doesn’t exist another one of us in the world. We are unique. Yet, when it comes to global issues, we try to impose our minds on others, on the globe.

Even though each of us individually exchanges in markets, and we evolved currency, we forget that individuals make up each interaction. Whether a company sells to one client or one million, it’s still a one-to-one exchange. The size of the sale doesn’t matter, what matters is the individuals that went into the transaction, all of whom turned their time/effort into currency.

The problem is a misalignment of beliefs. If everyone took a step back to see the world we’ve created, each and every one of us, we should be pretty impressed with our developments. All great accomplishes have been spurred by individual voluntary exchanges. The world isn’t made up of 7.4 billion dots on a globe, but 7.4 billion individual human beings trying to better their own lives, and in turn, are benefitting the remaining 7.399999 billion of the population.

I’ve taken a deep-dive into learning about start-ups, the services they’re providing, and the problems they’re solving. There are companies all over the globe that have hyper-focused their efforts in solving really small problems. These niches have become their specialty. Combining the services each of these companies provides makes life far easier in general, but each problem is so small you can never master them on your own.

Solving Problems

Problems aren’t easy to fix. We all have them in our own lives, and at our jobs. A lot of problems are really hard and would require years of dedication to research and process improvement to master. Take U.S. sales tax law for example. How many people have memorized all of the codes for Federal, State, County, Municipality, and City taxes? There are a lot of tax laws!

Luckily, we have start-ups who take that task out of our hands. Instead of having to struggle with knowing tax law, we can outsource our research to a company like TaxJar or Avalara. They will calculate sales tax and file sales tax returns for us, without exorbitant fees. There are all sorts of start-ups out there solving big problems like tax law. Specializing on a small topic creates a simpler life on a whole, but specializing isn’t possible by everyone.

Specializing Creates Advantages

Since a business owner doesn’t have to fuss with sales tax returns, they have more time to do what they do best. The time that would’ve been spent futzing with state law can be used to hone their special talent. Because the economy is built up of many specialties, the sum becomes greater than the parts.

Once all of the specializations can be combined, solving problems benefits everyone. Every incremental improvement in our lives leads to a greater output for each and every one of us. Solving problems, and specializing our abilities, becomes a collective advantage for all participants and leads to a better world.

On week three of my weekends off blogging routine and I’m calling it quits. No more weekends off, every day will bring a blog post from here on out. Off/on switches don’t exist. You’re either on or you’re off, but if you’re off you’re not improving. I blog to get better at writing and don’t have time to slack. So, expect a blog post every day for the foreseeable future and better content.

Creating value is a skill always in demand.

Once you learn to create value it’ll propel your life and career forward.

Developing your skills, and ability to improve other people’s lives will forever be your best investment in yourself.

No matter what you do, people need the value you’re capable of creating.

When you work on mastering a language it starts with learning the basics. First you need to learn how to write letters, both capital and lower-case. Then you need to learn how to combine letters to make words. And last you need to combine words to make sentences. After that there are all sorts of other things to master. Sentence structures, proper punctuation, and an endless array of weird language variants. But it all starts with the foundation formed through learning letters.

Building your life is very similar. You have to first build your foundation, your understanding of the world, and only then can you start worrying about things like sentence structure and passive voice. Life is ever changing, but building a solid foundation is the only place to start.

At some point in my post-college career, I became infatuated with supply chain management. I downloaded, and read, a supply chain textbook for fun (yes, I do that kind of stuff!). Then I stumbled upon a book about the supply chain management practices of Alexander the Great. I was hooked. My favorite “hero” from history was a supply chain genius. Although my passion for supply chain management subsided, the lessons it taught me still influence my long-term outlook on life.

Systems From A-Z

Let’s think about a particular item purchased from Amazon, one of the most prolific supply chain managing companies in the world. A person orders an item and within two days the product has arrived at her doorstep. Quite the miracle that can be mapped out high-level and then widdled down to each piece that got it there.

Basically, she ordered the item, someone (most likely a robot) in a warehouse received the request, the robot grabbed the item off the shelf, the item was placed in a box, and the item was packaged for shipment. After that, someone from a shipping company came to pick up the item, delivered it to an airport, and you get the picture…

There is a massive system to get from a mouse-click on Amazon’s website to the front door of this lady’s house in only two days. But we only see A and Z, we don’t see B-Y. Life is very similar. We rarely see inside a person’s individual decisions leading us to only seeing outputs.

Life Isn’t as Simple as High-Level Supply Chain Management

Once you get a grasp on basic supply chain management you start to understand all the little parts, and planning, that goes into having a product go from point A to Z. Instead of a miraculous button-click to delivered package you start to realize the supply chain is an ingenious, man-made process with planning down to the smallest process. Each little process adds up to create the system, and each process is extremely fine-tuned.

Life, your life, is the output of all sorts of systems and processes. What people see on social media is merely the output of the processes you put in place. It doesn’t tell the story of the underlying thought processes, and day-to-day activities, that led you there. The goal in life isn’t to have glorious Instagram photos (output Z) but to have awesome processes (inputs B-Y) that lead you to an awesome, Instagram-worthy, brunch in Manhattan.

Life as a Process

It has taken me years to realize life is a process. Each little input into my life affects my outputs. Each process I add to my life adds to my long-term output. When one process fails, I fail to achieve my desired outcome (Z).

Although I sometimes set myself to high expectations, I find when I don’t do everything in my power to control my life, my processes, that I end up letting my goals slide. However, when I take control and execute my processes like a master supply chain manager, my life becomes a work of art. Output Z looks great to the people on the outside, but they have no idea the processes (B-Y) that made it a reality.

Each day I have to remind myself that life is a long-term game. And much like supply chain management, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. For every little process I incorporate into my life, the end goal is easier to achieve. The more times I execute on my path, the more the engine keeps humming.

Life is a process, the output is merely your internal supply chain producing results. Although we all love the dopamine hits, and instant gratification of recognized outputs, the real beauty of life is the inner feeling of improving our processes.

There is nothing more rewarding than highly-functioning internal processes and, once we understand long-term happiness is achieved from the sum of these processes, life becomes a game against ourselves to improve each hub on the supply chain.

Entrepreneurs, startup founders, and technology-forward employees are glorified for their dedication to the craft. Praise is handed down for their blood, sweat, tears, and time. A common statement is something like this: “You worked 100 hours last week? You must really believe in what you’re doing.” Yet, that goes against everything science knows about not only happiness but productivity. A 100-hour work week will not create a better product or service all it will achieve is burn out.

Everything in Moderation

Entrepreneurs have a fire, a passion, a vision that pushes them forward. Sometimes it becomes an obsession and, as the old saying goes, everything in moderation (yes, even business). I firmly believe our best thoughts come when we are most open. And to be open we can’t be putting 70+ hours of work on our minds.

Instead of stressing our minds with more work, we need to focus on the most productive work and give our minds a break. If you’ve noticed, over the past two weekends I haven’t written blog posts. That’s been intentional as I’m trying to test my ability to bounce back. I’m passionate about writing every day, I want to get better at it, but I also think our minds need a break. So I’ve been putting my theory to the test. So far I’m succeeding.

Start/Stop Approach to Blogging

After no posts Saturday/Sunday of the last two weeks, I have posted every day following the weekend. This not only shows me I can stop/start, but it also shows me that my writing gets better with a clear head. I’ve been skiing in the mountains over the weekend and enjoying the moment. When I don’t have the “I have to write a blog post” thought hanging over my head, I’m more mindful of life around me.

The stop/start mentality is something missing from entrepreneurs and it eventually will suck the life out of them. As humans, we are not meant to work all the time. Our ancestors spent a few hours a week hunting-gathering and then enjoyed leisure time. It’s important for the mind to relax, connect synapses, and develop away from work.

Live Mindfully

Instead of busting our butts for long-hour accolades it’s actually more efficient to stop when we need a break. It may be hard as obsessed entrepreneurs but we must do it for the long-term. Life is meant for love, passion, and happiness but that can only be achieved from living our lives mindfully.