How to Be Great

By Leo Babauta

Start by admitting that greatness doesn’t come from the distraction and busywork that often fills up our lives.

It comes from making a difference in the world.

Now consider how you can make a difference in the lives of others. Consider your current work, which perhaps already makes a difference — how can you refocus yourself on this work? Or consider creating a side project, and carving out the time for this.

Be the example of compassion for others around you.

Know that it doesn’t matter if you achieve the compassionate result you set out to achieve — what matters is the intention to improve the lives of others. You can’t control the result, but you can control the intention.

And you can show up, every day. With that intention.

Carve out the time. Put aside everything else. Realize that this life is limited and precious and amazing, and you shouldn’t waste a minute of it.

Pursue this compassionate work with single-minded devotion. This one thing matters, and all else can be put aside for now, unless it’s in support of your work. (Good health supports your work, including a whole-foods diet, exercise, and sleep.)

Practice until you’re amazing.

This compassionate work, with good-hearted intention, pursued with single-minded devotion: this is greatness.

Why The Crazy Ones Succeed

by Peter Diamandis, Founder of X Prize

Excerpt from Peter's book Abundance

In 1997 Apple introduced its "Think Different" advertising campaign with the now famous declaration: "Here's to the crazy ones":

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

If you were to just hear these words, they'd seem like bravado -- marketingspeak from a company not known for marketingspeak. But Apple coupled sight to sound. Accompanying those words were images: Bob Dylan as a misfit; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a troublemaker; Thomas Edison as the one without respect for the status quo. Suddenly everything changes. Turns out this campaign is not all bluster. In fact, it seems to be a fairly accurate retelling of historical events.

The point, however obvious, is pretty fundamental: you need to be a little crazy to change the world, and you can't really fake it. If you don't believe in the possibility, then you'll never give it the 200 percent effort required. This can put experts in a tricky situation. Many have built their careers buttressing the status quo, reinforcing what they've already accomplished, and resisting the radical thinking that can topple their legacy -- not exactly the attitude you want when trying to drive innovation forward.

Henry Ford agreed: "None of our men are 'experts.' We have most unfortunately found it necessary to get rid of a man as soon as he thinks himself an expert because no one ever considers himself expert if he really knows his job . . . Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing is impossible." So if you're going after grand challenges, experts may not be your best coconspirators.

Instead, if you need a group of people who thrive on risk, are overflowing with crazy ideas, and don't have a clue that there's a "wrong way" to do things, there's one particular place to look. In the early 1960s, when President Kennedy launched the Apollo program, very few of the necessary technologies existed at the time. We had to invent almost everything. And we did, with one of the main reasons being that those engineers involved didn't know they were trying to do the impossible, because they were too young to know. The engineers who got us to the Moon were in their mid to late twenties. Fast-forward thirty years, and once again it was a group of twentysomethings driving a revolution, this time in the dot-com world. This is not a coincidence: youth (and youthful attitudes) drives innovation -- always has and always will. So if we're serious about creating an age of abundance, then we're going to have to learn to think differently, think young, roll the dice, and perhaps most importantly, get comfortable with failure.

Read more here

Masters Graduation

I am very excited to announce that I am a proud Masters of Arts graduate of SIT Graduate Institute!

My thesis presentation on Leading Happiness went really well, thank you everyone for coming out to be there with me! It's been wonderful to sit back and relax now that everything is finished.

If you'd like to read my thesis Leading Happiness you can download it for free as a PDF here and at sit.edu.

You also can find it in paperback form here on Amazon.com.

The Presentation

I was also able to record my thesis presentation as well.

If you'd like to watch it, please click the video below.

Thank you everyone for your wonderful support.

Now I'm going to relax for a little while and next week I'm excited to update you on more exciting things to come!

Is America The Goodest Country In The World?

 Yes, I meant Goodest.

In his TED Talk Simon Anholt, founder of The Good Country Index, asks the question, "Which country does the most good for the world?"

According to him there are Good countries, Gooder countries and the Goodest Countries. I think that's a fun idea.

What he shares in his talk isn't an opinion. It's research.

It's a very detailed scale that measures every country in the world based on what they do for others, how generous they are and how much of a positive difference they make in the world.

I love that question and it doesn't only apply to our countries, it applies to our organizations, our families and our personal lives.

Today, on our Independence Day here in America, I think it is an especially powerful question to ask.

Tomorrow is B Corp's Interdependence Day, which I love, and I hope each of us takes that next step.

It's important to be independent, strong, confident and passionate about your beliefs. But like I wrote earlier this week in 3 Things I Know About Love, I think interdependence, compassion and love are an even greater adventure.

We might not be the goodest country yet (the U.S. is ranked 21st right now) but I dream one day we will be.

As Simon says at the end of his talk,

"Ultimately that is what will make the change. That word "good," and the discovery that's behind it have changed my life. I think they can change your life, and I think we can use it to change the way that our politicians and our companies behave, and in doing so, we can change the world. I've started thinking very differently about my own country since I've been thinking about these things. I used to think that I wanted to live in a rich country, and then I started thinking I wanted to live in a happy country, but I began to realize, it's not enough. I don't want to live in a rich country. I don't want to live in a fast-growing or competitive country. I want to live in a good country, and I hope that you do too."

Happy Independence Day America.

And, in case I don't see you tomorrow, Happy Interdependence Day too.