Help with an app?
Before we dive in … I’m building a free web app for Life Story Magic.
The idea is to have an easy, DIY app that anyone can use to interview friends, family members — really anyone they care about.
I was hoping there might be a few Understandably readers who are curious, and who might be willing to try it out, test it, give feedback, and help me get it to where it needs to be.
Click the link and let me know if you’d like to help out. I suspect it will take 30 minutes or so to try it out. Thank you!
27 things I seem to have to learn over and over
Speaking of commuting (which we were yesterday)... a few years back on Halloween, I got into the spirit by wearing a full body lion costume all day.
I almost chickened out, because I was nervous what folks would think. We were encouraging costumes at work—but I had to walk about 10 blocks and ride the subway to get there.
Would people make fun of me? Would I be embarrassed? Would I run into anyone I knew?
I’ll bet you can predict what happened: Nothing! Nobody cared!
That’s an important lesson, and one I admit I have had to learn over and over.
Whatever I’m worried about on any given day, it’s probably totally overblown. Nobody cares!
Anyway, this is not the only lesson I find myself having to learn over and over.
In fact, here are 27 more of them. I’ll be interested to hear how many readers have a 28th to add to the list!
1. Take the first step.
Best personal example: Sending that first email (actually a Facebook message) to my then-ex-girlfriend and now-wife, back in 2012. Carpe diem.
2. Try three things at once.
I’m a devotee of the Tom, Dick, and Harry Strategy. It goes back to the book and movie The Great Escape, in which Allied prisoners of war dig three tunnels out of their camp, on the theory that probably only one of the tunnels will make it all the way to the wall before being discovered.
3. Focus on just 1.
Identify the winners and work at them. I’m all for quitting things if they aren’t working, especially if you’re freeing up time and effort to work on more promising things.
4. Your inner voice is usually right.
Whether you call it your intuition, or your conscience, or a guardian angel, it’s surprising you often know the right answer to almost any question you pose to yourself.
5. Be open to the 5% of the time when it’s wrong.
It’s surprising how often your intuition is right, but occasionally, it’s wrong.
6. You only get one body.
Exercise, eat right, go to the doctor when something seems wrong, all that stuff you already know.
7. Forgiveness is easier to get than permission.
This was Admiral Grace Hopper’s mantra.
8. Act.
Fortune favors the bold. Don’t be the guy or the woman reminiscing years from now about the time you wish you’d been brave enough to try.
9. Decide.
Decision is the prerequisite to action. Move purposefully through life.
10. Sleep on it.
There’s a difference between being decisive and being rash.
11. Forgive when asked.
Holding a grudge or refusing to forgive harms you more than the person who seeks your forgiveness. But, there’s a big difference between forgiving and forgetting.
12. Ask for and accept forgiveness.
Everybody hurts somebody else sometimes. When you do, own up to your mistakes, apologize, try to make amends–and move on.
13. Forgive yourself.
You aren’t perfect, not even close. So forgive yourself when you fall short.
14. Forgive when not asked.
“Life becomes easier when you learn to accept the apology you never got.” - R. Brault
15. Say thank you.
When people do nice, thoughtful things, express your gratitude.
16. Say you’re welcome.
It’s so much better than “no problem” or “yep,” because it acknowledges that you think enough of the other person to do something worthy of thanks.
17. Give up your seat.
This is a metaphor for being giving and polite–which costs you almost nothing and makes people like you more.
18. Be authentic.
Heck, maybe even vulnerable. It’s so easy to say, and yet so hard to do.
19. Stay interested.
Interested in what? Other people, learning new things, experiencing new places, challenging your deeply held beliefs.
20. Stay interesting.
Be the person who has done or learned something truly intriguing. If nothing else you’ll be a lot more popular at parties.
21. Get rid of stuff.
We’re Americans. We have a lot of material stuff. Most of it gets in the way.
22. Start with the end in mind.
This is right out of Stephen Covey, but it’s smart. If you don’t know where you’re going, chances are you’ll never get there.
23. Embrace the different outcome.
Don’t be afraid to find that success might look different from what you originally imagined.
24. Remember who will care the most.
The corollary to the very first rule about how most people don’t care–a small handful will! They’re probably the key to your success. (By the way, apropos of nothing, I love my readers!)
25. Be part of the solution.
Complaining without trying to find a solution often just adds to the problem.
26. Go to reunions and funerals.
Everybody goes to weddings, but your friends and family really need you at funerals. Reunions are for your benefit.
27. Kids are great.
Since you read to the bottom, you get the best of the list. If you’re not a mom or dad, granddad or grandma, be the best aunt, uncle (official or not) that you can. I only had to learn this rule once–but it’s one of the most important.
Other things worth knowing …
CNBC: U.S. forces began launching strikes against Iran at 8 p.m. Wednesday, retaliating against Iranian missile attacks on American forces in the region. The resumption of strikes marks the latest turn in a conflict that has whipsawed oil markets and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since fighting erupted in late February.
Reuters via Yahoo: Iran is expected to receive a first shipment of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers as it rebuilds its defenses amid the war with the United States. The purchase, valued at $60-70 million, is one of Tehran’s largest-known efforts to strengthen its short-range air defenses since the outbreak of the war.
KCUR: A Missouri couple who had recently returned to Guatemala after the husband was deported and the wife went to be with him were found bound and shot dead in a sugarcane field. Nixon Giovanni Pérez Paz and Glendy Marisol González de la Cruz were killed just weeks after González de la Cruz self-deported to be with her husband, who was deported by ICE last year after being detained on his way to a roofing job. Their 14-month-old daughter, Giovanni was discovered crying beside her mother's body.
NBC News: Dr. Anthony Fauci declined to answer senators’ questions at a contentious hearing Wednesday on the origins of Covid, invoking his Fifth Amendment right over concerns that Republicans would use his testimony to prosecute him for perjury. The surprise decision set the stage for a hyperpartisan hearing that yielded no new revelations about the origins of the coronavirus or the government’s pandemic response.
The Independent: FBI Director Kash Patel’s $10 million defamation lawsuit targeting a blogger who called him a “Kremlin asset” and an “incompetent chud” has been thrown out by a federal judge. Patel had claimed that Jim Stewartson, who writes on Substack, accused him of working for the Russians, trying to “overthrow the government,” and helping organize the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
NYT: AI companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands. The future of artificial intelligence depends on finding more skilled humans for some very physical jobs.
Yahoo Tech: A Filipino cartoonist has sued the company behind AI ad generator Memes.ai, alleging it sold access to his best-known comic as an advertising template. Elmer Saflor, creator of “Running Away Balloon,” claims the company offered the strip — which he registered in 2024 — to paying subscribers, while urging customers to “fire your ad agency.” Agencies, he notes, license the content they use.
Thanks for reading. I wrote about some of this at Inc.com. See you in the comments.
Good newsletter. I would add two more Covey points, both what I consider master levers:
1. Be proactive, focusing on important but not urgent
2. Seek first to understand
When will we completely deplete our missiles? Iran is already beefing up their supplies thanks to China. They will just wait us out and then go to town.
Now we see what happens when we deport people that have been contributing members of society for years.
Fauci shouldn’t have to put up with the Rand Paul grandstanding. He has done his job, well.
KasH Patel? What an incompetent person.
Maybe a 28th - question yourself when you are sure you are right. Because sometimes you are wrong.
And the reason nothing happened with the lion suit is because of where you wore it. Try that in small town, Midwest America and you will have a different result (not bad but you will get comments!). This prediction from a New Yorker now living in the Midwest.