Jon Acuff's Blog, page 28

The life changing power of pants. (Work from home tips.)

I’ve worked from home full time for 7 years. 

I spent the first 15 years in corporate America and then made the transition to a home office when I started my own business in 2013. It wasn’t easy. I had to quickly learn how to be productive in my house without the helpful structure a company provides. 

Right now, you might be in the same position. With the Coronavirus, more workers are at home than ever before. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some tips that have helped me, starting today with the simplest bit of advice I can possibly give you:

Put on pants.

Too fast for you? Let me repeat it. Put on pants.

I know what you’re thinking. “But isn’t the dream to work from home in your pajamas?” Isn’t flannel our final destination when it comes to our career aspirations? Won’t knocking out work in a robe show us we have finally arrived? Let me answer those questions with one of my own.  

Have you ever spent the whole day in your pajamas? 

Around 11AM you start to question every one of your life decisions. Even the people on the Price is Right got showered, dressed and made it in time somewhere to be part of a studio audience. They might be aggressively average at guessing the price of a vacuum cleaner but they did something today. 

It’s impossible to do great work while wearing pajamas.

Pajamas are clothes melatonin. 

By day three, flannel feels like failure. 

And yet, that’s our goal as employees. 

The work at home dream is that you can do your job in your pajamas. Is that what’s been holding you back all these years, belts? Is the most challenging part about climbing the corporate ladder that you weren’t wearing flannel?

What about pants? How come we boast to each other that, “I worked from home today and didn’t even put on pants.” 

Was that previously an issue? You sat in meetings, furious at the corporate norms that kept you in pants. “I hate these pants so much. Someday, I dream of a world where I won’t be kept down by the pantiarchy.” 

That’s ridiculous. I’m not saying you need to put on a tuxedo. You don’t need tails, a top hat and a monocle. You’re not Mr. Peanut, but I promise you that getting dressed each day for work even if you’re at home will pay dividends. It’s not about the pants, it’s about the routine they help trigger. You forget how many triggers your normal work day used to have in an office. 

Your commute was a trigger. 

The music you listened to on the drive in was a trigger. 

Making sure you had your badge to get into the building was a trigger. 

The sound your feet made walking across the marble lobby was a trigger. 

Even the terrible breakroom coffee was a trigger. 

Each one was telling your mind, “It’s go time!” We’re here to work. We’re here to be productive. We’re here to be successful. Each trigger was reinforcing behaviors and actions you’ve been propelled by for years. 

Pajamas are triggers, too. They tell you it’s time to relax. It’s time to slow down. It’s time to binge watch a show about a dude who owned way too many tigers and definitely should have lived in Tampa, Florida. How in the world did, “The Tiger King” end up in Oklahoma?

When you work from home, you instantly lose access to a thousand different helpful triggers. It’s your job to recreate the ones that will encourage you the most. There are a lot of ways you can do this, but I suggest you start with pants. Start with a shower. Start with getting dressed up like you’re going somewhere. Remind your mind that some things have changed but some are still the same. You’ve got work to do. 

It’s go time. 

Put on some pants. 

Jon

P.S. I’m going all in on YouTube this year. If you want fresh, funny content that’s surprisingly helpful, subscribe to me today! 

 

The post The life changing power of pants. (Work from home tips.)  appeared first on Jon Acuff.

What a weird week.

“Jenny, does my voice sound scratchy to you?” I ask this subtly so as not to alert her to what I am really thinking.

“You don’t have Coronavirus,” she responds. Nineteen years of marriage has given her highly-tuned worry radar.

“That’s not what I was asking,” I say. That was exactly what I was asking. I wait a few more minutes to throw her off the trail.

“Do my eyes look a little red to you? Like redder than normal?” I ask casually.

“You don’t have Coronavirus,” she responds, not even looking up from her phone to properly check the redness of my eyes.

“I feel congested.” I say, pressing on, as I try to make Jenny play a game of “Couch WebMD” with me. She will have none of it.

“It’s allergy season. You ran five miles today outside. Through a pine forest. It’s spring and you guzzled pollen. You don’t have Coronavirus.” She says.

We’ve had this conversation approximately 97 times and we’ve only been home together for a few days. Please tell me you’ve done this same thing with a spouse or friend? No? It’s only me? Fine.

Last week was weird for all of us. It didn’t have a shape. I never really felt like I knew what day it was or what my proper response was supposed to be. Freak out? Go about business as usual? Something in the middle?

After spinning for a bit, I decided to make a choice. When things feel out of control, you often forget you have those. But the truth is, you do. Even if you have to work from home. Even if you have to self-distance. Even if your job, city and future appear to have changed dramatically. You always have a choice. Here’s one:

Fear or Faith.

This week, you get to choose fear or faith. Regardless of what happens, that’s a choice you have access to every single day.

What does that mean in a practical sense though? Here’s an example:

Ask the news you’re watching and social media you’re using a simple question – Is this feeding my fear or my faith? Is what I’m watching, reading, and listening to, building up my faith or stoking my fear?

It’s not a complicated question, but it is a powerful one.

I caught myself watching a program the other day that had a rolling death toll. It was like a stock ticker, but instead it was tracking global deaths. Was that feeding my fear or my faith? Hmmm, that’s a tough call. Really hard to tell the answer to that one.

What about the friends you’re talking with right now? Do you have that one friend who is constantly predicting global destruction? They didn’t predict the Coronavirus, they didn’t see that coming at all, but now they try to tell you exactly what’s going to happen a year from now? “In mid 2021, we’ll be out of socks. The sock economy is going to completely crash and you’ll have to go barefoot. My uncle is in the sock stock market and he told me.”

Why does every negative prognosticator always have a friend of a friend of a friend who is an expert? I had no idea so many of my friends knew doctors, politicians and high ranking members of the military until last week.

Does engaging with that person who talks about doom like it’s their hobby, lead to more fear or more faith?

If it leads to more fear, you have another choice to make. Change what you’re doing.

That’s why I’m limiting the news I’m watching.

That’s why I’m being more deliberate about the social media I’m engaging with.

That’s why I’m looking for fresh ways to move to action, instead of getting stuck in anger.

One specific way is with Instagram. I’m doing more Instagram live to share new content like:

Tips I’ve learned from working from home for 7 years.
Tricks I’ve picked up about career transitions from writing my book “Do Over.”
Hope I’ve discovered even in the midst of trying times.

On weekday mornings, I’m going to share what I call “The Get Up!” It will be 3-10 minutes of positive content. If you want to see what I’m doing, follow me here: @JonAcuff.

These are weird days, but we’ve got choices too.

Thanks for choosing to read my emails.

I’ll continue to encourage you in the best ways I know how. First though, I have to check with Jenny about this runny nose I’ve developed.

Jon

The post What a weird week. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

Want to make every workout better? Use the Spare Change Principle.

I ran 1,000 miles last year.

How?

The short answer is I ran a lot.

The longer answer is I learned the “Spare Change Principle.”

I know what you’re thinking, “Did you carry pockets full of coins to throw at neighborhood dogs who broke through their meager electric fences because their desire to bite you was so overwhelming?”

That’s a good guess and my wife does still make fun of me for bringing a Masai Rungu with me on a long run for protection from packs of hyenas native to the Atlanta suburbs. You might know the Rungu as the wooden throwing club common to parts of Kenya. Obviously.

No, the Spare Change Principle was my willingness to do an extra .2 miles at the end of my runs.

If I was planning to run 3 miles, I ran 3.2. If I was supposed to run 5, I ran 5.2. If I was scheduled for 6, I ran 6.2.

I always had a little more in me and although it didn’t seem like much, it added up over the year.

I ran roughly 300 times last year. That .2 spare change turned into an extra 60 miles.

The principle worked so well that I started to in incorporate it into other parts of my life.

I don’t write for three hours. I write for 3.5 hours. I don’t send 5 thank you notes to 5 clients. I send 6 thank you notes to 6 clients. I don’t read 20 pages of a book, I read 24.

I spare change as many areas of my life as I can because it works.

Save a little more, write a little more, sell a little more, run a little more.

It turns out that over time, a little bit more is always a whole lot.

Jon

P.S. I love sharing life lessons like this. Don’t miss the next one I email to my friends. Sign up here.

The post Want to make every workout better? Use the Spare Change Principle. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

1 way to beat 3 voices of doubt.

My doubts get loud whenever I think about time. 

At the start of the week, as I look ahead at what I would like to get done, I hear three different voices:

You don’t have enough time. 
It’s too late. 
You’re too far behind to catch up. 

When confronted with those doubts, I have two options:

Hope they go away on their own.
Fight them head on. 

I spent years hoping number one would happen. Maybe doubt would get tired of bothering me? Maybe there was someone else doing more meaningful work that needed harassment. Perhaps I would wake up one day and find that all my doubts had vanished. 

That has not happened. 

So, I had to fight my doubts, to meet them on the battlefield of a Monday morning and push them back once more so that I can write books, run a business, be a father, be a husband, give speeches, serve clients and a thousand other things. 

How do I do that?

With facts.  

Doubts hate facts. 

When doubt tells me I’m out of time, I do one simple thing:

I look at my calendar.

I say, “That’s not true. Look how much week or month or even year I have left. There’s a ton of white space that I get to fill up. I’m not out of time.”

Whenever I miss some goal in January, I look at my calendar and say, “Aha! But, there’s February and March and I even see an October waiting for me you scallywag!” (Doubt also hates when you use pirate jargon.) 

I need a huge reminder on my wall of how much time I really have to work on the things I care about the most.

I love the calendar for a lot of other reasons. It’s dry erase, it’s beautifully designed, the weeks are organized Monday – Sunday instead of Sunday – Saturday and it’s a great catch all for all the things I’m working on.

But the real reason I’ve used it for 9 years is that it reminds me of the truth.

I have more time than doubt wants me to believe and you do, too.

Today, you can add a new weapon to your arsenal against doubt. It’s 25% off and will give you a simple way to remind yourself of the truth. 

There’s a year waiting for you. Go out and live it without doubts. 

P.S. Click here if you want to get a calendar.

The post 1 way to beat 3 voices of doubt.  appeared first on Jon Acuff.

The simple trick I use to finish first drafts.

My first drafts aren’t funny.

My first drafts aren’t particularly positive.

My first drafts don’t have the right words.

My first drafts are written in passive voice, since I failed to learn how to beat that in the 7 th

grade and have simply trudged along since.

My first drafts don’t make sense.

My first drafts are only a connection of ideas loosely strung together with the thinnest of

thread. That used to drive me crazy. I’d look up from a few hours of writing and pace

around my office in anxious frustration. Then, I decided to admit something.

I write in layers.

The first layer is just a sketch. All I’ve done is taken a bunch of ideas that feel related and

put them on the same page. The transitions are flimsy, the logic is fuzzy, the cohesiveness is

none existent, but that’s OK. That’s how the first layer ALWAYS is.

I don’t even care about the words in the first draft. I’ll type NEED BETTER WORD and then

just keep going. This isn’t the good words layer. This is the concept layer. Then, once I’ve

spent enough time away from the first layer to be somewhat objective, I’ll come back and

do the second layer. Now, I care a little more about the words. I care about the transitions. I

care about the flow.

That’s better, but it’s still not very positive. Despite appearing very positive and tall online,

I can be pretty negative. I don’t know if you’ve ever picked up on this, but I can be a smidge

sarcastic. With that sarcasm comes some negativity. My initial drafts are so mopey. They’re

dark little storm clouds best suited for the liner notes of a Cure album.

So, I work in more positivity. It has to be honest, it has to be genuine. It can’t be syrup. If I

Def Leppard the whole thing and just pour sugar over it, I won’t hit the mark.

Once I get the positivity on point, I amplify the humor. In the movie industry, they often

hire comedians to “punch up” a script with more jokes. That’s what I’m doing with this

layer. I’m going back through the entire piece and making sure there are some genuine

laugh out loud moments. I look for the ridiculous and then turn it up a few notches.

The next layer I add on is to make sure it’s helpful. I like ideas that move me to action. I

don’t just write to write, I want to inspire you to do something. So I read what I’ve written

with a filter of “What’s in it for me?” I want you to learn something practical that you can

use today.

When I’m done with those layers, I finally make sure I’ve got the right words in place. In

some ways I’m doing that all along, deciding that Def Leppard is a funny band name to turn

into a verb, for instance. But during this final layer I meticulously go through every

sentence to decide if I have my favorite words.

I don’t write drafts, I write layers and that word distinction matters. While researching my

new book on overthinking, I discovered that the names we give our work have weight.

“Drafts” is too serious for me. A draft is a complete work. That word awakens my

perfectionism and makes it hard to move beyond the first rendition of my work.

The word “Layers” gives me more freedom. It’s just a layer. Other layers will come. Other

layers will do their job. An architect would never stand on a muddy job construction site

and say, “Why did you only do the foundation? What a failure of a first draft!” Instead,

they’d recognize that big projects come in layers. The foundation was just the start. There’s

an electrical layer and a plumbing layer and a framing layer.

If you ever have a hard time finishing a first draft, try a layer instead.

Mine are:

1. Concept

2. Positivity

3. Humor

4. Actions

5. Words

Yours will be different, but every writer has them.

Write down three of yours today.

P.S. I love to share the writing tips that helped me become a New York Times

Bestselling author. Sign up here so you don’t miss the next one.

The post The simple trick I use to finish first drafts. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

The broccoli trick to achieving your goals.

When our kids were young, we had a simple rule that saved us countless nights at the dinner table:

“You don’t get to hate something you’ve never tried.”

When we’d serve them a new recipe, they’d take one look at it and say, “I don’t like this.”

This is an amazing defense mechanism against something that has broccoli in it. Upon seeing the tree-like stalks of broccoli poking their smelly heads through the crust of a casserole my kids would react instinctually. The mere presence of broccoli would cause alarm.

“I don’t like this.”

At which point I would say, “You don’t get to hate something you’ve never tried.”

Until you’ve tried something, you’re not really allowed to have an opinion. You might love it. It might be your favorite thing in the world. It could change your life! But you’ll never know if you put up defenses before you’ve even tried it one time.

It’s January, a perfect time to do something new in your life. But, you’ll be tempted to judge it as ineffective before you’ve even really tried it.

That exercise program will never work for me.

That writing approach won’t help me finish my book.

That savings plan isn’t for me.

That set of Facebook Ads won’t help my business.

No matter what your goal is, you’ll catch yourself saying, “I don’t like this” about new things. When you do, tell yourself what I told my kids.

“You don’t get to hate something you’ve never tried.”

And then, do it anyway. You just might be surprised how much you like it.

 

The post The broccoli trick to achieving your goals. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

Here’s the worst gift I ever gave my wife.

What’s the worst gift you ever gave someone?

I’ve given some terrible ones over the years. I would love to say it’s because my personality style doesn’t value gifts or maybe it’s not my love language, but that’s not the truth.

The truth is that sometimes I just wait until the last minute and wing it.

The worst gift I ever gave my wife Jenny is a pair of snowshoes when we lived in Boston.

Here’s why that particular gift was so dumb:

1. She’s from Florida and hates the winter.

2. I only bought one pair. I guess I just imagined her going off to snowshoe in the frozen tundra by herself?

3. They were expensive and we didn’t have any money. When I buy bad gifts, I like to overspend, too.

4. She hadn’t expressed the slightest indication that she would ever want snowshoes.

5. I gave them to her the year we were trying to move back to Georgia, a state not exactly known for its thick, powdery snow.

We still have the snowshoes in our attic somewhere. We haven’t used them once in 19 years and I think we keep them more as a monument to foolishness than as a means of transportation.

That was a dumb gift, but over the years I’ve learned that there’s something amazing you can give just about everyone on your list – belief.

There’s something powerful that happens when you give someone a gift that says, “I believe in you.”

When I started writing books about goal setting, I started to see this happen. A wife would come up to me at an event and say, “I’m giving my husband your book. I see something in him that he doesn’t see in himself. I want to help him see it, too.”

The something was always different. Sometimes it was a writing goal or a career goal or a small business goal.

That’s to be expected I suppose, spouses should believe in each other. That’s how a good marriage works. What caught me off guard was when kids would buy one of my books for their parents. They’d always say the same thing, “My dad wants to write a book.” Or “My mom wants to start a business.” The words were different because the goals are different but at the heart of them was the same message – “I believe in somebody.”

Christmas is the perfect time to give someone a bit of belief because January is right around the corner.

In January, even people who doubt they are capable believe in themselves a little bit. It’s an amazing time to encourage someone because they’ve got a brand new, fresh year ahead of themselves.

I have two things that I think make great gifts for people you believe in.

1. The Finish Paperback

2. The Finish Calendar.

At just under $11, the Finish Paperback is a fun, easy way to give someone a kickstart to their year.

The Finish Calendar is a roadmap to adventure. At 25” x 36” it gives you a massive look at the year ahead and comes in paper or dry erase since plans always seem to change.

Maybe when you read this, someone came to mind. Maybe when you read this, YOU came to mind. Some of the best gifts we’ll get this season are the tiny ones we give ourselves. Like an $11 book or a dry erase calendar that says, “I believe. I believe 2020 is going to be the year I finally do that thing.”

Believe in your family.

Believe in your friends.

Believe in the simple question of “What if?”

A little belief will take you a lot further than snowshoes.

Buy the Finish book here.

Buy the Finish Calendar here.

Jon

The post Here’s the worst gift I ever gave my wife. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

3 Tips to a better work-life balance

How do I balance work, business travel and family life?

I’m glad you asked my opinion on this because I am an expert. I ALWAYS get work-life balance right. Over the last 21 years I have not made a single mistake when it comes to the idea of work-life balance, and I’m probably in line to get a Nobel Prize for this soon because I’m that amazing.

(In case you can’t feel the sarcasm here, I’m obviously joking.)

Like just about everyone else on the planet, I don’t always get the work-life balance thing right.

It’s incredibly hard to master, and I certainly haven’t yet…but I have learned a few things over the years that I want to share with you. These ideas have been learned from 15 years of working for someone else and 6 years working for myself as an entrepreneur.

1. Balance isn’t the goal.

Why? Because perfect balance is a myth. It doesn’t exist.

The reason it doesn’t exist is because every life has seasons. April is challenging for accountants. December is challenging for people who work at churches. The fall is when I speak. The winter is when I write all month long. The summer is when I gain too much weight from cheese consumption.

Almost every profession and life is like this in one way or another, so the idea that work-life balance is this singular thing that can be achieved and maintained all year round is not a reality I believe in.

I spoke once in July and a dozen times in October. Think that affects how much time I spent with my family during those months? Of course it did. Balance would mean I try to speak the same amount of times each month all year long. But the spring and fall are conference season. That would be like an NFL player, yes our body types are similar, saying to his coach, “We play too many games in the fall. Can’t we play one game a month, all year long?”

I didn’t shame myself into feeling guilty in July because I wasn’t working as much. I knew that season was coming in October. Likewise, I’m not going to spend October feeling guilty that I’m not with my family as much. That’s just what happens in October in this season of life, and it’s why we did so much family stuff in July.

Your profession might have a different rhythm or schedule than mine, but don’t shame yourself in a natural season of busyness. Be present when you can be present. Admit the season you’re in and lean into it.

2. I don’t demonize work.

Once in a while I remind my kids that the fun things we do don’t happen without the time I spend working.

When I took my daughter McRae to New York City last year I made it a point to remind her that the reason I was able to be there with her on a Friday afternoon creating fun (expensive) memories was that I was away on business a month earlier.

Did I bring it up several times a day during the trip to beat her over the head with it? No. But I did mention it, just to remind her that work is a part of life, and that it’s a good thing because it makes some amazing experiences possible.

To the best of my abilities, I don’t demonize work in front of my kids. I want them to respect it, and I also want them to realize that because of it, we can make some awesome memories as a family.

It’s crazy that in our “I hate Mondays” culture we criticize our own jobs vocally in front of our kids for 18 years and then act surprised when they don’t like to work in their 20s.

How you talk about your job today impacts how your kids will think about their jobs tomorrow.

Whenever I can, I tie my work into the fun things we get to do in real life as a family.

3. We share calendars.

Like a lot of families these days, we use shared calendars to our advantage in the Acuff household as much as possible. Whether it’s digital or paper, we’ve found that communicating our activities and planning time together leads to less hassle and more awesome.

At any time, my kids can look at our shared Google calendar and say, “Oh dad has a phone call,” or, “Oh dad is out of town that day,” and know that I’m not available. Likewise, I can see when I’m supposed to take someone to swim practice so I don’t double-book myself.

We also use our gigantic Finish Wall Calendar to plot out adventures for the year so we can see how much time we’re spending together as a family during every season. (We plan in dry erase, because life when you’ve got a family is very rarely lived in ink. Something unexpected always happens!)

It kills me that in every other area of our lives we plan when things are going to happen, but when it comes to family time we assume that it will just magically appear like a double rainbow (do we know what it means, yet?). Of course it won’t! We don’t just hope family time happens, we plan it (and track it) strategically on our wall calendar.

(This is my favorite, by the way. I’ve been using it for 9 years. You can get yours here.)

Balancing work life and family life perfectly is a myth. Every profession and every season is different. Lean into the season you’re in, don’t demonize work, and plan your adventures with your family ahead of time.

Jon

P.S. The 2020 Finish Wall Calendar features a landscape orientation on one side and portrait on the other, and it’s less than $30! Get yours here.

The post 3 Tips to a better work-life balance appeared first on Jon Acuff.

The loneliness of a new idea

Iggy Pop is a punk legend.

Although his band, The Stooges, was never massively successful from a commercial standpoint, his influence is undeniable. Often called the, “Godfather of Punk,” Iggy Pop has a long legacy of bands that have followed in his wake. From the Smiths to the Ramones to Nirvana, countless bands list Iggy as the reason they first played music.

An article in the New Yorker recently chronicled Iggy’s influence and one particular quote stuck out to me. Josh Homme, the lead singer of the Queens of the Stone Age, said, “He (Iggy) has been so ahead of his time, for so long. That’s lonely. Part of the nature of a good idea is that no one around you gets it.”

That’s one of the truest things I’ve ever read.

The problem is we expect the opposite to happen. It’s impossible to casually have a really good idea. Good ideas grab you. Good ideas kick the doors down in your head and your hearts. They refuse to go back to wherever it is that good ideas come from and set up shop in your life until you will actually do something with them.

When we share that idea with someone else, we expect them to get it, too. How could they not? It’s soooo GOOD! We tell them and then watch their face, expecting them to have the same reaction to the idea that we had. Surely, they will be just as over the moon as we are.

Only, they are not.

They aren’t that interested.

They don’t see what the big deal is.

They don’t get it.

You have a choice in that moment.

You can give up on the idea and pretend you never got it either. Maybe your friend is right. Maybe it’s not a good idea. Maybe if everyone else doesn’t get it right away you were wrong. Isn’t it easier to agree with the crowds instead of being lonely with only the new idea to keep you company?

That’s your first option, but fear not, you have a second one.

The second one is to double down on the idea. If good ideas are always lonely, then you just got confirmation. If everyone got the idea right away, maybe it’s because the idea has already been done a million times before. Maybe instant acceptance is just a sign that the idea is too familiar. Everyone understands vanilla ice cream at this point.

Every time I’ve shared a new idea about a book I’ve expected everyone to get it instantly. They never do. This can be discouraging or a confirming. I choose confirming.

I think you should, too.

P.S. We’re headed toward Christmas. What do you get for someone who already has everything? This.

The post The loneliness of a new idea appeared first on Jon Acuff.

How to be nice in 7 words.

I know a few jerks who have made it pretty far in life. To pretend otherwise would be a lie. Jerks occasionally win. They make lots of money. They get famous. They accomplish lots and lots of things. They succeed in a million different ways, but, there’s a catch.

Jerks who win, only win temporarily.

The people around them are just biding their time. They’re waiting until they get brave enough to leave, have a slightly better option or life catches up with the jerk and they finally lose.

When any of the above three happens, people will abandon ship as fast as they can, because no one healthy likes a long-term journey with a jerk.

Being nice is a much better long-term plan. Not only does it allow you to build something really amazing with really amazing people, it feels a whole lot better, too. Being a jerk is always an experience that empties you out. It might gift you with outward success, but inwardly, being mean, cruel or dismissive to other people hollows you internally.

Nice works better.

So how you do you be nice?

I will give you 7 simple words that will completely change your ability to be nice.

Ready? Here they are:

“Pretend you live in a small town.”

When you live in a small town, you are not anonymous. People know you. Those people will see you again. You can’t burn bridges because small towns don’t have many. You might disagree with someone, but when you realize you’ll probably see them at the grocery store, the elementary school, church and the movie theater, you have greater incentive to be nice.

When you’re anonymous, it’s a whole lot easier to be a jerk. (See the Internet.) The worst of you can come out because you don’t think you’ll see those people again anyway. Who cares? Say the passive aggressive statement. Cut off the stranger. Climb over someone because they were just in the way.

Maybe right now you live in New York City and think this is the silliest idea you’ve ever heard. You don’t live in a small town. There are millions of people flowing through that city every day. Fair enough, but keep this in mind, every industry is a small town.

You will work with the same people again. You will see the same people again. You will run into the same people again.

I got a speaking engagement at a company recently that has 100,000 employees. It’s one of the most valuable companies in the world. The person who booked me said, “One of my coworkers worked with you 20 years ago. He’d love to say ‘hi’ when you’re in town.”

I shared an office with this person at the first real job I ever had in 1999. Did I think I would see him again? Did I think we’d both change cities and industries multiple times only to cross paths two decades later? Of course not. Thank goodness I wasn’t a jerk to him.

That’s not always been the case. I’ve burned some bridges. Some out of necessity, some out of immaturity and arrogance, a dangerous cocktail. I wish I’d been nice.

I think you’ll wish you had been, too.

Nice wins long term, for you and everyone around you.

Pretend you’re in a small town, because you are.

Every industry is smaller than you think.

Don’t be a jerk.

P.S. This is the nicest piece of paper you will ever see and you will love what it helps you do.

The post How to be nice in 7 words. appeared first on Jon Acuff.