Quite a few people I know have (or are in the process) of changing jobs.

Most of them would love to take some time off in between, but they can’t.

Most of their new employers would love for them to show up on day one refreshed and ready to go. Which is difficult to do if you finish one job on Friday and starting a new one on Monday.

Which begs the question, why don’t companies pay you to take some time off before starting?

Even a few days could make a huge difference.

We are really bad at understanding that every choice is a tradeoff (there are no free lunches). We’re even worse at knowing what we are actually trading.

Two examples that come to mind:

Buying vs. Renting a Home

Buying is always better! Or is it?

Most people view the tradeoff as ‘paying your own mortgage’ vs. ‘paying someone else’s mortgage.’

Really the tradeoff is ‘renting money’ vs. ‘renting space.’ Neither option is inherently bad or good, and each individual’s choice depends on a myriad of factors.

Internet privacy

More privacy is good. Less privacy is bad.

This isn’t even really a true tradeoff. But like all decisions, there is one to be found.

It’s ‘privacy’ vs. ‘functionality.’

If you want to stay 100% anonymous online your only option is to never use the internet. Not a very functional internet experience.

If you want a personalized Apple music experience you’ll need to set up a profile and allow Apple to collect data on your listening habits. For some people this might be too much of an invasion of their privacy. For others, the cost in privacy is lower than the benefit in functionality.

Two have recently come to mind that I’m attempting to remove from my lexicon.

‘To be honest’ – The idea is that we should always be honest. Not just when we explicitly state it. Honestly, I use this phrase too much.

‘I know how you feel’ – Whatever you’re going through, I don’t know. Because I’m not you. I might have been in a similar situation. But surely, I don’t know how you feel.

Here are all the previous posts that I’ve used one of the above phrases (or a variant of it). Why am I sharing? So if you’re inclined to search, you don’t have to.

Why is everything a rush?

The 2-1 work cycle

Categorizing

Now it feels like I’m reaching

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Pandemic burnout

I used to be a culprit of this. Especially with books.

Fiction – If you don’t like it, stop reading. It’s a sunk cost! (Same goes for movies)

Non Fiction – Same as above. But at section/chapter/paragraph level. As soon as it’s not of value, skip it.

It’s funny how we hold onto things that are of no value to us.

Why write a short blog post when it could be a tweet?

Control.

Twitter, and all other social platforms, will come and go.

Writing for yourself, on your own terms, on your own website is more robust.

It’s funny how we like to grab onto easily measurable leading indicators as a proxy for lagging indicators.

Are we trying to lose weight? Or are we trying to be healthier?

Are we trying to make more sales calls? Or are we trying to grow revenue?

Are we trying to memorize new vocabulary in a foreign language? Or we trying to communicate in it?

Are we trying to make more money? Or are we trying to be more happy?

Sure there are some correlation between these things and it can be helpful to know about them. But the more we push and measure for leading items, the less it helps with achieving the lagging.

A few days ago was our quarterly 100 Men Who Give A Damn Calgary meetup.

For those who don’t know, we are a group of 100 guys that meet quarterly and give $100 each to a charity in our community. Small group, big impact.

The selected charity this time around was Variety Alberta. Specifically they were looking for funds to support their Go Baby Go toddler mobility program.

Their mission as a charity is to “ensure that all children with specialized needs can be active participants within their communities.” And the goal couldn’t be more noble. Giving these kids an opportunity to participate in activities that they normally wouldn’t be able gives them a unique opportunity to be independent, just like any other kid. It gives their parents the opportunity to see their kids joy when they get to do something fun, all by themselves. And it also teaches a valuable lesson to everyone about the importance of inclusivity.

During the meeting I was thinking about Seth Godin’s post from February of last year titled ‘You can’t say you can’t play’. According to Godin, this was the one rule that a kindergarten Lenny Levine ran his class by. It means if kids are playing games, and another kid comes along and wants to play they have to be included. That’s it.

While there are plenty of opportunities in today’s society for selection (winning/losing and the lessons that come with it, for example), everyone should always be allowed to at least try. Everyone should have the opportunity to be included.

P.S. 100 Men is currently recruiting. If you’re in Calgary and surrounding area and interested please reach out. Also check out 100 Women Who Care Calgary and 100 Kids Who Care Calgary.

I know I’m not the only one guilty of this during the past year (or ever) so I thought I would share.

I haven’t (until recently) been adequately planning time away from work.

What happened was the following cycle:

1. I would work longer than normal, because something had to be finished.
2. This resulted in less rest, the next day I was less effective.
3. Which resulted guilt and then working longer than normal.
4. Which resulted in even less rest and less effectiveness.
5. And the cycle goes on.

The only way to break the cycle is to unapologetically plan (and stick to the plan) time for rest and leisure.

Working more, isn’t going to solve anything.

Efficiency is washing your floor with a hose. It works, but it does a terrible job.

Effectiveness is taking the time to get a mop and soap to do it properly.

Efficiency and effectiveness together is calling a cleaner to do it for you.

Efficiency costs quality.

Effectiveness costs time.

Combining them costs money.

I like when I see companies really lean in to what makes them different.

Take Dairy Distillery for example.

They could have easily said ‘we make vodka, oh and we happen to use unused milk sugars in the process.’ But they didn’t, they leaned in and created a very unique product. It caught my attention for sure.