Week 45 of 2023 has arrived. The blood sugar of entire nations has spiked this week... In the U.S., if we are lucky we can stretch the pillowcases of candy all the way out to the day we gorge on turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie... Ahhh, gluttony, my least most favorite thing.

Time to walk over to your 4K Weeks poster and fill in another square. Done?

I'm writing this on Friday. I played basketball this morning, and my big takeaway is: "15 minutes a day is enough!"

Here is the deal.  I have never been a good ball handler. I played center in high school until everyone caught up to me in height. Back then, centers didn't dribble. And so, when I started playing basketball every week back in May, I noticed that I was really terrible at dribbling the ball up the court... even while walking... which can usually be avoided by passing a rebound to a better dribbler, but sometimes not. (Seriously, it was really bad!)

So... as part of the Massive Action Society, I have been dribbling a basketball in the driveway 15 minutes a day for the last 42 days.  (24 to go.)

Today, on multiple occasions, I confidently, at full speed, dribbled the ball up the court successfully, in a way that would have been unthinkable a month ago.

It's not going to change the world, but it is a path forward. You can switch "basketball" with any skill you want to improve. 15 minutes is enough...

Can you do more? Sure. Should you do more? If you can, yes.

But you certainly shouldn't not start because you "don't have time!" 15 minutes is enough.

Commit to a reasonable daily action, and stick with it.

Thanks for being here and reading! These blogs help me "Sharpen The Saw" and hopefully help you to sharpen yours!

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The 4K Weeks Brightsider-A Multicolor Extravaganza!

The 4K Weeks Long View-A Different Horizon

Remarkable Weeks

Week 44 in 1905, Roald Amundsen reaches (uh, with his crew!) Eagle City Alaska to announce that he has completed the Northwest Passage. The first in 400 years of attempts. He was 1737.71 weeks old (33.32 yrs).

Week 44 of 1953, Paul Searls saws through a 32" diameter log in 86.2 seconds at the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge. He was ? weeks old (?). Not everyone is on Wikipedia!

Week 44, of 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel, is buried after being assassinated by an extremist who opposed peace with Palestinians.  He was 3844.71 weeks old (73.73 yrs).

This Week's Quote

"The beginning is always today." -Mary Wollstonecraft

About 2 years in to meeting every Friday, everyone in my mastermind group came to the realization that, no matter how far you climb the ladder of self improvement, you always have 99% of the way left to go.

No matter what has gone before, you are where you are. The journey ahead will test you, and if you are doing it right, you will have just enough skill, strength, and courage to grasp whatever rung is next.

The beginning is always today.

What I am Consuming This Week

Freakonomics Radio:

• #563: "How to Succeed at Failing, Part 3"
• #564: "How to Succeed at Failing, Part 4"

Tim Ferriss Show, "#702 Morgan Housel, Contrarian Money and Writing Advice."  Pretty good... lots of things to think about... I will probably get his book...

People I Mostly Admire: "Nate Silver says we're bad at making predictions". I love Nate Silver.  This is a good convo.

Hidden Potential, The Science of Achieving Greater Things. Adam Grant.  I am only on the first chapter, but it seems like I will like it... 

This. IS. Gold... As a person who measures and cuts things, I feel this SNL skit deeply.

IG Nuggets: I have been trying to boil these down to good content that pushes you forward... but sometimes a hysterical meme will sneak through...

•  Did you Know Llamas spit?
• Main Character S*&%!
• Don't hit the Rock...Rock...Rock...
• Am I wasting my time?

What I am Thinking About This Week

Failure.

Failure has been popping up in my life quite a bit lately. I feel like everyone loves to talk about it these days... Fail Forward!

...The Freakonomics podcast up above, the Adam Grant book,  and a few different instances in my personal life regarding my family, and personally in my work life.

I was thinking there is quite a bit of difference between "having a failure" and "feeling like a failure". Sometimes they are concurrent, sometimes they exist separately.

Having a failure is fine, maybe even essential. I think we are all who we are because of how we handled adversity more than how we handle success.

But "feeling like a failure" is different.

Some of you may feel like a failure occasionally because of how you were raised, or your brain chemistry, or the fact that you were dealt a super shitty hand.

Don't.

You don't have to own anything outside of your control. All you can control is how you take the next step through the world. Are you trying? Are you being kind?  Are you doing your best to make the most of what is at your disposal regardless of your circumstances? That sounds like success to me. You are only responsible for how you act and react.

Who gives a crap what other people think.  As Ms. Lauryn Hill said... You are the standard. 

Spencer, Owner of 4KWeeks.com

From the film the "read time" video is taken from:

"Sometimes there is so much... beauty... in the world, I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in."

Dad Joke O' The Week

Why is is it bad to iron a 4 leaf clover?