The more irons you have in the fire, the less time you have to cry over spilled milk. 

The sheer volume of projects simply won’t allow for that kind of unnecessary dwelling and sulking. 

That’s how entrepreneurs keep up a steady pace of work and efficiently insulate themselves against the inevitable disasters and rejections and disappointments of doing business. The managing of multiple projects at any given time becomes a redundancy system that prevents the company from relying on a single point of failure. 

No one problem can knock you off course. And you never feel like you have to start from scratch every time you fail. 

Investors have been using this strategy for years. In volatile markets where asset values rarely move up and down in perfect synchrony, having many irons in the fire reduces the investor’s exposure to risk. 

Shakespeare was accurate when he wrote:

My ventures are not in one bottom trusted, nor to one place, nor is my whole estate upon the fortune of this present year, therefore, my merchandise makes me not sad. 

And so, keeping many irons in the fire not only protects the enterprise, but also preserves the spirit. It relieves the pressure of having to put all your eggs in one basket, allowing you to sustain momentum over the long haul. 

Whether you’re running a small company, managing a project or searching for new job opportunities, stay diversified. 

Acknowledge the likelihood of rejection and build hedges against it. 

It’s a highly efficient strategy for assuring that your eyes remain alive with hopes for the future.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

How many different projects are you working on right now?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

We don’t have to wait until we are completely free from suffering to take positive action in the world. 

That’s just an excuse. A clever way of taking ourselves off the hook. A slick trick that uses pity to justify procrastination. 

And the worst part is, nobody calls bullshit on us for doing it, out of the fear of appearing cold, insensitive and uncompassionate towards our pain. 

But the joke’s on us, because we’re only cheating ourselves. Which sounds like a chalkboard cliché that our third grade teacher would say, but that doesn’t make it any less true. 

I’m reminded of a mesmerizing interview with a psychiatrist who shared a few of the questions her patients often ask. 

Is there a danger of using depression as an excuse? 

Is it fair that my mental illness allows me not to follow the rules? 

Does the label of having a chemical imbalance give me license to underachieve? 

There’s no right or wrong answer. But it’s an interesting dilemma. One that has nothing to do with mental health and everything to do with being honest with ourselves. 

For example, here’s one of the hardest questions I’ve learned to ask myself. 

Am I really doing everything I can to reach my goal? 

More often than not, the answer is no. There’s always something more I can do. But the problem is, nobody knows this but me. And so, it’s a matter of being able to live with myself when I know that I didn’t give it my best. 

Godin’s theory around deniability puts it perfectly. 

How much of the time you invest in a project is spent preparing excuses, creating insurance, seeking deniability and covering your ass just in case things go poorly in the end? At some point, that effort becomes so great that you never actually ship anything, which of course, is the very best protection against failure. 

The point is, just because times are tough, sales are down and worries are up, doesn’t mean we’re excused from taking positive action in the direction of our dreams. 

We must ask ourselves how we can contribute to our, vision right now. 

Otherwise, if we’re just going to let ourselves off the hook and out of the hard work of living with intention, then we deserve everything we don’t get. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What lies are you telling yourself to justify your procrastination?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

Since we’ve been culturally conditioned to attach so much of our personal value to our earning, we mistakenly confuse self worth with net worth. 

We believe that we have no value and dignity apart from our financial bottom line. And until some great monetary windfall magically comes along to make everything better, we will continue to feel less than whole. 

After all, who are we without our steady paycheck and our disposable income and our healthy bank account? 

Exactly zilch. 

But of course, that’s scarcity thinking. Confusing self worth with net worth doesn’t help us create a healthy relationship with money that supports and enhances our overall experience of prosperity. 

It merely allows us to adopt a critical voice towards ourselves. 

And so, like the salesman who accepts himself with every cold call, whether he gets a yes or a no, we must also learn to be accepting of ourselves in every moment, whether we are earning a lot or a little. 

We must trust that we are fine, we are richly supported, even when monies are not as forthcoming as we’d like them to be. 

Ultimately, this belief that we have enough, we are enough and we do enough, even in the wilderness of an uncertain future, is a practice of abundance that allows us to hang tough during the lean times. 

Remember, poverty isn’t the absence of money; it’s the absence of possibility. 

How we perceive and interpret our financial situation is more important than how much income we actually have. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you rushing to make money the problem to justify your fears?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

Most lottery winners lose the money within the three years. 

Most heart surgery patients return to poor diets within two years years. 

Most people with second and third marriages experience a higher divorce rate. 

Most prisoners released back into the world are arrested for a new crime with five years. 

Proving, that most people are poor historians with short memories. And that moving on to the next thing won’t help if we haven’t done the work to learn how to do that thing differently. 

Kreider’s satirically brilliant book about the dark truths of human existence summarizes it perfectly.

I’ve demonstrated an impressive resilience in the face of valuable life lessons, and the main thing I seem to have learned is that I am capable of learning nothing from almost any experience, no matter how profound. 

That’s the mistake so many of us make. We just leave and hope to choose better next time. We learn nothing. And we start the loop all over again. 

I’m reminded of a gripping documentary about big wall mountain climbers. The film beautifully chronicles the journey of men battling sub zero temperatures, near fatal injuries, catastrophic avalanches. 

But while there is something undeniably cool about these daredevils who are not afraid to defy death, frankly, watching three grown men risking their lives and torturing their families to repeatedly to accomplish something that has no practical meaning or purpose, only proves further that humans learn nothing. 

The star of the film even admits it himself. 

The best climbers have the worst memories, he chuckles. 

But this is no laughing matter. We need to learn how to learn. From our successes and our failures. We must be willing to look foolish and to let life teach us. We must be willing to grow from whatever new truths our actions may reveal. And we must embrace failure as a learning opportunity rather than treating it as a source of shame. 

Our mantra must simply be, this must be a place where I need to learn. 

Because if we’re willing to ask ourselves what role our behavior might or might not have played in these broader problems, the likelihood of us making the same mistakes diminishes greatly. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go buy my weekly powerball ticket. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What obstacles are you creating that hinder the full engagement with your learning?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

I love getting up early in the morning and walking down the street and feeling like I have the whole world to myself. 

That experience never fails to give me the proverbial stab of joy. 

Of course, one man’s pleasure is another man’s poison. Some people loathe doing that. Because at six in the morning, the streets are dark and quiet and vacant and they feel vulnerable to muggers and attackers. 

A perfect reminder that the biggest communication mistake we could make is assuming that other people are having the same experience we’re having. And if we refuse to slow down and see things from another person’s point of view, we’ll never have a chance at true intimacy and connection. 

It will be impossible to make the empathetic leap. 

The goal, then, is to show concern in a way that they would experience as loving; as opposed to assuming they have the same wiring as us. 

One strategy I find helpful is using curiosity to disrupt my own point of view. To engage with people from a place wonderment, fascination and the genuine desire to learn how they might process decisions differently than myself. 

A tool my mentor once gave me was, when somebody is finished sharing, you can say to them:

I acknowledge that you _____, and I appreciate that you _____. 

That person will feel seen, heard, felt and appreciated. Every time we have that kind of opportunity to peel back another one of those layers, we ought to be grateful. 

It’s an infinitely interesting and satisfying feeling too admit, wow, all of this can be looked at from another angle.

Remember, once we are shown that our own point of view is only one of many options, we can respond to people from a deep reservoir of empathy and care. 

Next time you sit down to dinner with someone you care about, resist the temptation to cling to your point of view. 

Commit yourself to understanding the experience of others and see what kind of wisdom unfolds. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

When was the last time you allowed a new perspective to knock you off your intellectual perch?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

The pressure we put on ourselves to be special has never been greater. 

Thanks to the chorus of voices from parents, teachers, authority figures, corporate marketers and mass media brainwashers, we’ve spent the past several decades constantly adhering to a superhuman expectation of originality. 

And as a result, we get down on ourselves for not being special, standing out and doing remarkable things. We torture ourselves for falling short. 

But the reality is, very few people are likely to be the most or the best or the world’s foremost expert at anything. 

And so, perhaps it’s time to let the air out of that balloon. To start adopting more realistic and compassionate standards for ourselves. Maybe even embrace the liberation of exquisite ordinariness. 

I’m reminded of a brilliant commencement speech by the president of a corporation that makes war robots. 

In world where individual accomplishment is praised above all else, he said, people create artificial attempts to attract attention. But it’s just a mass obsession with petty specialness. Individual differentiation for its own sake. And it’s a recipe for disaster. 

Proving, remarkability without purpose and consistency is just a stunt. That there are more important things in life than being amazing. 

Besides, since when did we decide that being special solidified our standing with the gods? Who runs this remarkability committee that says if you’re not the most gifted and talented person who ever lived, you’re an underachieving bag of shit? 

I understand that human being have a competitive code in their chromosomes, but if job number one is being number one, then we’re in for a world of disappointment, fatigue and insecurity. 

Say the following mantra with me. 

I no longer feel the peer pressure of having to do that anymore. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Who were you before the world told you that you weren’t enough?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

During a recent approachability workshop with a group of human resources managers, one of my audience members shared a touching mantra that she recites with her employees. 

I want you to tell me all of your quirks and faults and secrets, just so I can say that I love you anyway. 

Can you imagine how profoundly freeing it must feel to be seen in that moment? 

It’s no wonder employee turnover at her company is among the lowest in the industry. The company leaders aren’t trying to escape the human condition. They’re not approaching imperfection is as a personal problem, but as a natural part of existing. 

Something that can be talked, understood and even leveraged openly. 

More organizations should embrace this communication style. More executives ought to be giving their team members license to tell them each other about their flaws. Because when once you’ve let enough people into the closet, there’s no more room for skeletons. 

You’ve left yourself nowhere to hide, and nothing but the naked truth to guide your efforts forward. 

Talk about a dream job. 

Sadly, most organizations in the world are run by big swinging dick macho narcissists who have convinced their marketing departments that allowing employees to be human beings is some sort of competitive advantage. 

But it’s not. Engaging the whole person isn’t a perk, it’s the right way to lead. 

Remember, we all need someone who knows us to endorse our value as a person. 

To be known and still be loved may be the greatest gift of all. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Are you a champion of people’s strengths, but also compassionate towards their weakness?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

Buddha said that attachment was the root of all suffering. 

But that doesn’t mean it has a monopoly on any one form of suffering. We get rope burns from clinging to anything that’s inherently impermanent, good or bad. 

And so, attachment isn’t limited to the sinful pleasures, glittering temptations, fleshy indulgences and wicked delights of the world. 

It could also mean thinking that the bad times are going to last forever. Over identifying with our negative feelings, allowing them to keep building and building by feeding them extra ammunition, that’s a form of attachment too. 

It’s not as glamorous as the more familiar ego traps, but it’s equally as insidious. And if we want a real shot at true happiness, we have to trust that the sadness will run its course. Otherwise we’ll grow addicted to our own brokenness, presuming that this slump, rut, loop, setback, infinite regression or whatever other catchy label we affix to our own suffering, is who we are. 

But it’s not. Especially if we consider it in financial terms. 

Any good economist would tell us that no recession lasts forever. That’s a fundamental violation of the natural law of change. History has proven dozens of times over that once the economy reaches its depth, the recovery will begin. And in time, the market will initiate an upward economic trend towards prosperity once again. 

It might take a few quarters or even a few years, but certainly not forever. It just feels like forever when you’re knee deep in the thick of it and you just want your life to make sense again. 

As each economic recession contains the seeds of the next recovery, so it goes with our emotional lives. Because we already have the capacities for the personal growth that needed to emerge out of the bad times and into the good. 

The question is whether we have enough patience and resilience to buttress our hearts in the interim. 

Remember, the point isn’t to clean up our lives just enough to keep us going until the next crisis, but to legitimately step into the next stage of our evolution as human beings. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What is your attachment to your story of suffering costing you?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

Rollins wrote that faith wasn’t about religion, rather, it was about engaging in an ongoing transformative dialogue instead of seeking some static final understanding. 

What a relief. Especially in a world that places a premium on certainty. Where people we try to be experts because they’re scared and grasping for order don’t want to feel foolish or look stupid and lose control. 

It’s just a defensive edifice against the mystery. 

The reality is, we never get to understand everything. And so, we don’t need more information, perspective and epiphanies and revelations, we need an increasing ability to forget what we know and to surrender the need to understand. 

I don’t have to question every occurrence to see how it fits into the larger plan. 

I don’t have to figure out life and intellectualize everything. 

I don’t need to figure out how I should feel and when I should start to feel differently. 

I don’t have to put everything in a tidy little box so I can understand the world five percent better. 

I accept that I do not, and will not, ever understand or command this place. 

I reserve the right to be puzzled. 

It’s actually quite relaxing. Kicking the addiction to chasing down simple answers and gaining unequivocal assurances frees us up to actually enjoy life for once, instead of always trying to make sense of it. 

That’s not willful ignorance, but joyful surrender. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

Once you accept that you don’t have magical control over the world and finally learn to tolerate mystery, what might be possible for you?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

During prolonged periods of sadness, part of me wants to just suck it up and bide my time and wait for the pain to disappear so I can begin living my life again. 

But another part of me knows that’s another just carrot on a stick. 

Because the moment will certainty be gone as quickly as it came. 

Once I get there, there disappears, a new problem presents itself and the misery loop starts all over again. 

And so, instead of deferring peace to some future occasion when all my problems are magically solved, I choose to be happy right now. Instead of trying figure out when I will finally feel differently, I take the limits off my joy. Instead of sitting here in limbo like a bird without a song, hoping to one day wake up and laugh about how it used to be, I allow myself the luxury of delight. 

Instead of waiting until life gets back to normal and all my precious little routines are back in place, I choose to experience authentic pleasure. 

And not the counterfeit kind of pleasure that’s counteracted by a toxic undercurrent of guilt, resentment and unworthiness. 

The real stuff. The joy that brings me hurtling back to the present and make me realize, if only for a moment, that everything is going to be okay. 

Every life needs moments of exultation. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…  

What choices do you need to make to choose happiness right now?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 

A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat. 

Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.