5 Ideas Over 5 Years That Just Stuck

For the past five years, I’ve kept track of the one idea each year that truly stuck with me. I’ve since incorporated each more consciously into my outlook on life.

Hopefully, one of these will resonate with you and regardless I’d love to hear which most powerful ideas have truly stuck with you throughout the years.

All of the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

Not all cheesy quote boards are worthless. In fact, the first truly sticky idea since I started tracking them came from a St. Francis of Assisi quote that I saw on one of those inspirational quote sites.

This quote always bubbles to the top of my mind when I feel overwhelmed. When I feel like the entire world is turned against me and nothing is going right. It reminds me to stay positive no matter what the situation is. This positive mindset, like the single candle in the dark, can keep me going even if everything else has turned to black.

Source: St. Francis of Assisi

The true power of a network comes not from the number of individuals, but the strength of the connection between them.

This was when I truly started to invest brainpower and thought behind how to strengthen my own personal network, both professionally and personally.

I realized that the best approach was actually not through the expansion of the network (i.e. more LinkedIn connections), but instead through the strengthening of the bond between myself (one node) and another person (another node).

The more strong bonds you have within a network, the more powerful any resulting expansion and interaction becomes. A large, but loosely connected network is much less powerful to participants and external nodes than one that is smaller, but more foundationally solid.

Source: Myself

If you want to get better at something, practice it publicly.

This idea is the one I’d have to thank for my daily writing habit on Medium. I had heard about this concept here and there across the web in 2017, but no one articulated it as well as one of my favorite writers, Nicolas Cole.

“When we talk about productivity, we often think of ways to seclude ourselves in our bedroom or office, alone, in the dark, with only the light of our laptop to keep us illuminated. But sometimes that approach actually ends up netting a poor return on your time investment because you aren’t getting outside feedback. Find ways to practice in public. Use the digital tools we have access to, like social media, to release test versions of whatever it is you’re working on: Whether that’s a book, an album, a startup, a comedy sketch, anything. Practicing in public gives you feedback, and feedback speeds up the learning and development process.” — From his post “10 Ways to Increase Your Productivity”

I elaborate a bit on this in my post about the real reasons I write daily, but essentially it boils down to the self-recognition that extrinsic motivators have a much greater effect on me than intrinsic ones.

Essentially, factors outside of my own will power push me to succeed more often than those that come from within myself.

This was eye-opening and has really changed my outlook on motivation.

*Source: *Nicolas Cole

Spend half of your time teaching (or contributing) and half of your time learning.

I have Catherine (Kit) Ulrich to thank for this one. I remember one of my first meetings with her here at FirstMark where she shared this approach to engagement in the workplace (and it extends outside of work, as well) and it just immediately clicked.

I’ve probably butchered the paraphrase, but in essence, the point is that you should make a conscious decision before each meeting to dedicate half of your time towards providing input and the other half towards actively learning and listening.

This simple distinction can vastly improve your approach to retaining information, being cognizant of the participation of others, and being a better coworker all at the same time.

*Source: *Catherine (Kit) Ulrich

2019 | Stress is your body preparing for peak performance.

Last year, I had the great pleasure of interviewing Nir Eyal through my role at FirstMark. One of the most resonant thoughts he shared was that stress is not innately detrimental—it’s our reaction to it that can be so self-harming. Instead, he urges us to think of stress as the body preparing itself for peak performance.

Now, anytime I’m feeling really stressed, I think of this and it immediately makes me feel more in control of my stress and, more importantly, my reaction to it.

Read more of what he had to say in my interview with him here:

Bestselling Author Nir Eyal On How To Handle Challenges, Distractions, & Stress*Nir Eyal writes, consults, and teaches about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business. The M.I.T…hackernoon.comSource: *Nir Eyal

What ideas have stuck with you? I’d love to hear.

Share them with me on Twitter at jackcohenphoto.