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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Bill Burnett
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February 20 - February 25, 2023
Dysfunctional Belief: It’s not working for me here. Reframe: You can make it work (almost) anywhere.
When designing your work life, you need to know that designers don’t think their way forward. Work designers build their way forward.
The mind-sets are: curiosity, bias to action, reframing, awareness, radical collaboration, and—the bonus—storytelling.
The truth is, when we live our lives waiting to get somewhere, the only place we get is stuck.
one of the secrets to a happy life is to learn how to enjoy what you have.
What makes life meaningful and what maximizes your happiness and longevity are relationships—who you love and who loves you.
Create relationships with people, not things—that’s one way to get you off the hedonic treadmill.
Ron Howard, the Stanford professor who is considered the father of decision analysis, says, “Never confuse the quality of a decision with the quality of the outcome—they are really two different things. The only thing you can control is the quality of your research and the quality of the resulting decision.”
What did I learn? What did I initiate? Who did I help?
Why work? What’s work for? What does work mean? How does it relate to the individual, others, society? What defines good or worthwhile work? What does money have to do with it? What does experience, growth, and fulfillment have to do with it?
Why are we here? What is the meaning/purpose of life? What is the relationship between the individual and others? Where do family, country, and the rest of the world fit in? What is good? What is evil? Is there a higher power, God, or something transcendent, and if so, how does this impact my life?
Money, impact, and expression—three different ways for people to measure what they make, at work and in their lives.
I decide how much money, impact, and self-expression works for me.
There are two axes on this map—one is about the “type of impact”; one is about where that impact occurs, the “point of impact.”
Renewing and Repairing things Sustaining and Supporting things Creating New-New things
point of impact—the places where we touch the world—which could be near to us (personal) or far from us (global).
Expert Consultant Dave Question #1: What’s going on? (Then he listens to the very long answer the client gives him, he takes a thoughtful pause,
Expert Consultant Dave Question #2: Okay. Now, what’s really going on?
In most situations, there’s what psychologists like to describe as the presenting situation and then there’s the underlying situation.
You don’t really have to figure it all out—all you have to know is enough to choose.”
anchor problems are often about fear. Rather than trying something new and maybe failing, it is sometimes more comfortable to hold on to our familiar, impossible-to-solve problem—our anchor. The inaccessibility of that preferred solution is a great place to hide.
“You cannot prevent the birds from flying over your head. But you need not let them make a nest in your hair.” Which means bad thoughts will come (including dysfunctional, destructive, mood-destroying thoughts), but you don’t have to wrestle with them, or let them make a permanent home in your mind.
To build on the process of passion-building, stay curious and pay attention to what attracts you.
“What steps would be involved in exploring how someone like me might become a part of this organization?”
The truth is: People who make extraordinary offers end up with extraordinary clients.
We are going to acknowledge that (1) we’re in a disruption and (2) the disruption tossed us into the Waiting Room, and (3) we don’t have to be stuck there.
Acceptance is always the presumptive start of design because you can’t solve a problem you’re not willing to have.
Wayfinding means making the best guess you can about which direction to try (not which destination to arrive at), then venturing forward for a bit, then stopping and taking note of where you are and what you can see from this new vantage point.
The myth of efficiency is that whenever you find yourself doubling back over old ground or moving in any direction other than a straight line, you’re wasting time and energy, and you’re doing it all wrong.
“Thanks so much for your time. I have just one last question. If you were me, what would you do next?”
What was the highlight of (your day, yesterday, your weekend)? What was one thing you learned recently? Give us three words that describe how you are feeling today.
Life Design is always a work in progress.
We both actively try to focus on what’s good enough…for now. But because our lives are constantly changing, the story of our life is constantly changing as well.
Life design is never done. It’s never perfect. But it’s good. Sometimes it’s very good.
