Lately I’ve split out daily practices, listing what I Learned and Improved (sound interesting? Let me know!). Writing what I’m learning has been very easy. In fact, it couldn’t be easier. I’m thoroughly enjoying all that I’m learning. I even enjoy explaining it to my wife. Whether she enjoys this is not something I’ve learned yet.

Contrast this to What did I improve? This is exactly the opposite. Tangible Improving has been a constant struggle. Since I want to improve my improvement, I need to understand why this is a struggle. First, I need to consider how improving is different from learning.

What is Learning

Learning is easy to define, unless comparing to improvement. With this in mind, defining learning is more challenging. While they are similar, they are different things in spirit and result. In the simplest terms, Learning is intangible knowledge acquisition. It’s a source to draw action from, but is not action. Improving is more tangible, but is not just action.

What is Improvement

Improvement seems easier to define, but this ease of definition doesn’t make it easier to achieve. If Improvement is the applied practice of knowledge to a specific aim, then we must practice to improve. It’s deliberate, moving towards a direction. This very practice is what stumbles us.

Learning can happen easily and passively. It happens while we’re laying on the couch enjoying a good book, or traveling the highest pass of the Himalayas. Learning happens to us. Improvement is active. It takes will-power, planning and control. Improvement doesn’t happen to us; we must cause it.

Therein lies the problem

In order to Improve, we must plan to improve. When we plan, it mentally exhausts us. This is before any action is taken, merely the planning of action is fatiguing. If we deplete our energy just by mustering the first step, how can we expect to take a second? Fortunately, humans are built for this but we don’t believe in ourselves.

Enjoying (or at least finding interest in) an activity, regardless of how mentally taxing it could be, causes us to regenerate our motivation and energy. Problem solved, at least in theory.

Humans are also fickle creatures. Even knowing this and knowing a wide variety of things I want to improve, and know I’ll get into a state of flow, and lose track of time and feel great, I still fail to schedule this time. I think I just don’t believe it won’t leave me feeling more exhausted, even though all evidence says it will.

If we’re improving the things we care about, the only uphill step is the first one. After that, it’s all downhill.

Life without knowledge is death in disguise. -Talib Kweli

I feel very fortunate to have lived through a very diverse and wide range of experiences in my relatively short life. I had an uncommon upbringing, especially amongst highfalutin technical folks. I was very fortunate with my family, especially my mom and grandma. I entered the work force just before the .com bubble burst, allowing me to see amazing success lead to wide-spread failure.

The worst professional day for me, which resulted in a feeling of profound emptiness was when I achieved the empty goal of merely being a developer. I was working in a stable job, writing code and doing things I enjoyed. What next? That question haunted me.

Inspired by Seth Godin, questioning just what is school I have to wonder something about a subject very interesting to me. What is inspiration?

There is a growing clamor for mindfulness, peace and happiness in society. Over the last 150 years we have excelled in an industrious capacity, producing and consuming in fantastic quantities. However, this doesn’t provide the type of meaning nor happiness. Inspiration and motivation are common words attached to this low-happiness life.

Without definitions, how can I be effective in chasing the dream of a meaningful, happy life? What follows is my subjective view on what inspiration and motivation means to me. Feel free to tell me what they mean to you, more (genuine) information is always better.

I am speed. I’ve never identified more with a movie than during the opening scene of Cars. Maybe I love speed would be more accurate. I love to drive, especially swiftly. As I grew up and made fewer dumb choices and more smart choices, I also changed the way I studied the concept of going faster.

Want to lose weight? Grab a smaller plate. Want to do more? Plan to do less.

I’ve previously written about my strategy for accomplishing more through the days. Since it’s very brief, I’ll do a recap. At the end of the day, before “clocking out” I:

1. Write what I will do tomorrow.
2. Put things away and verify everything is complete.

This type of simple loop is beneficial, but it requires discipline on two fronts: First, never (ever ever) commit to something you can’t do. Second, do everything on your list.

There is a problem with having fun. Fun has a hidden cost. A cost that people think they can handle or may never acknowledge. This cost creeps up, compounding and can really bring havoc. It just lurks, waiting to explode and disrupt your life.

We shouldn’t not have fun. In fact, I fully support having fun. But just like practicing a skill, having fun should be very deliberate. Unlike a skill, though, the dangers of not being mindful of our fun can be harmful. In any moment we haphazardly pursue fun, we are putting off important things in our life.

The other day I heard a good way of categorizing products but it needed more work. While it was a very simple way of defining a product, it didn’t go any deeper. I had to think hard about the products I develop; and rethink how to describe the features and requirements. This lead, ultimately, to rethink the ambitions as well.

Products are remedies. They treat symptoms, have side-effects and are potentially (hopefully) habit-forming. Now I have an easy to understand list of points to address, as well as a framework for answering critical questions that otherwise lack structure and guidance. This lets me tackle each step clearly and with an agenda.

Life is not fair. I was raised with this understanding and never expecting fairness has served me well. The depth of this simple statement was lost on me until recently. Time itself isn’t fair. The value of a minute changes, and what could be fair for me now is not fair later. This leads us to another popular expression: When it rains, it pours.

I try to keep myself busy in general, but I still often times find myself with 5 or 10 minutes where I’m idling. I never valued these minutes, or saw how they exist in conjunction with the world around me.Right now, these moments are usually occupied by humankind’s favorite pastime: talking. It does’ thane to be. Those five minutes can be more valuable than five minutes at other times.

I haven’t been writing lately and I really have been missing it. I also haven’t been working on TDP as much as I would like. I have not been idle though!

Towards the end November of 2012, I flew out to New York to meet up with the guys at Cojourneo. They were looking into the future and figuring out the ever important what’s next question.

My experience in building TDP and studying the methodology of small, consistent steps to achieve great things struck a chord with them. We really hit it off, they have a great team and together we came up with a vision that will create real, lasting improvements.

Long story short, I’m now their CTO. This is against my own previous statements, as I was opposed to the idea of a startup. I don’t like the required grind, and have a special distaste of pleasing some investor who is detached from the real mission.

Being opposed to shallow and manipulative sales tactics has limited my view. I was close-minded. I have been reading a lot from Ramit Sethi and he advocates using scripts. Initially I thought this was some gimmick, designed to exert influence without going for a proper win/win outcome. They aren’t.

Scripts are merely a way of preparing how we are going to act and what we are going to say. We do this anyway with habits, or worse, we blurt out something and embarrass ourselves.