Infinite Mindset (Closing out 2020)
Savvy Saturdays - 12/26/20
2020 was a year.
COVID, as well as many other circumstances in life, are burned into our lives. Like a branding iron seared onto a cattle, it won’t be easy to forget the changes, difficulties, and pains we’ve experienced in 2020.
Fortunately, we don’t need to let this year define us.
Like many of the roller coasters we’ve experienced in life, we can look at this year and gain some important takeaways from it.
A time of perspective. A time of awareness. A time of unintentional mask cosplaying.
Maybe for some of y’all, there was a breakthrough.
You had your Shakespeare moment (the man wrote King Lear during a quarantine).
Or you became a genius in a field like Isaac Newton (this guy laid down the foundations for calculus while in isolation).
Or maybe, more realistically, you did some soul searching and realized what was important to you. Realizing you were heading in the wrong direction in life, you pivoted instead to start your own underwater basket weaving class (as we all should strive for).
Jokes aside, regardless of the takeaways, it is a reminder that the life we’re living isn’t constrained to the storms a year brings.
Life is not a finite game, where a loss in a year means a loss for the rest of our life. (though sometimes, it may feel that way)
Rather, it is an infinite game where we are not be tied down by a single outcome in our lives and can continue to learn & grow.
Simon Sinek, a British-American optimist, and inspirational speaker wrote a book about this, called “The Infinite Game”.
In it, he shares how companies who play with a finite mindset play to win out their competition or the economy, believing that once they win the “game”, there is no more winning necessary.
But the companies who play with an infinite mindset recognize the “game” cannot be won — there is no end, and so they shift their mindset from winning to aiming for long-lasting change.
This translates to our daily life.
Though on earth, we have a finite lifespan, we can live with an infinite mindset.
Rather than letting a hit knock us down for life, we can roll with the punches life gives us.
2020’s boxing match may have felt like a one-sided beat down, but we have learned our limits, learned to live in limits, and learned even more about our old emotions through new experiences.
We can carry these learnings to 2021 and beyond.
Let’s wipe away the sweat after the beating 2020 gave us, and look forward to the fight that 2021 has to offer.
I guarantee, with careful planning and an infinite mindset, you can throw the first solid punch at the new year. (and maybe get a K.O.)
Questions to ponder: 🤔
Do you have a finite or infinite mindset towards life?
How will you be proactive and throw the first punch for the new year?
Weekly Collections
A collection of resources for you to enjoy… 📰 🎬 🎙️
Faith
“What’s the relationship between being freed from the law with its condemnation, its curse, and its guilt, and the ability by the Spirit to triumph in service for God? What’s the relationship? It’s crystal clear in this verse: we have been freed from that so that we would serve this way. If you turn those around, you don’t have Christianity. You have another religion.
It’s the difference between fighting to get justified, and fighting confidently because we are justified.
It’s the difference between your heavenly court trial being behind you with an irrevocable verdict of not guilty being rendered, and having the trial in front of you, hanging over your head, wondering if your behavior will measure up in the power of the Holy Spirit.
It’s the difference between the freedom of confidence and the bondage of fear.
It’s the difference between rendering to Christ the double glory of his being our righteousness and our condemnation and the power that brings us into holiness, or just giving him half his glory and calling him the one who enables us to perform a righteousness that we will offer to God from ourselves as the foundation of our acceptance with him. I don’t want him to get half his glory. I want him to get all of his glory — his blood and righteousness being the ground of our acceptance and his power being the means by which we are liberated and transformed.
And it’s the difference between your life and your death.”
—Fight Sin Like a Victor, Not a Victim | Ask Pastor John
Strategy
“While it sounds a little silly, Einstein used to sit around and think about how an object could be at rest and yet also moving -- at the same time. Deciding that the apparent contradiction was possible depending on the position of the person observing the object helped lead Einstein to his theory of relativity.
Einstein was hardly alone in that approach; a 1996 study showed that a number of Nobel Prize winners and groundbreaking scientists all put chunks of time into "actively conceiving multiple opposites or antitheses simultaneously."
Proving that, oddly enough, while we all crave certainty, embracing contradictions can be a better way forward.
—
Embrace a paradox mindset -- embrace opposing demands, opposing perspectives, and seeming contradictions -- could result in looking at old problems in entirely new ways.
And finding solutions you never would have considered.”
—Embrace the Paradox Mindset | Inc
Weekly Tidbits
Learnings, verses, & quotes to chew on… 🧐
Being home has allowed me to enjoy people’s Christmas decorations. 🎄☃️🎁 Here are a few notable photos I took during my walks around the ‘burb:
Verse of the Week
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
—1 Peter 2:9
Challenging Quote
A quote about the battlefield, and a description of the people who go out into war:
“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle.
Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”
—Heraclitus
Weekly Update
Personal life stuff… (2020 goal reflection @ the end) 🔔
Hello friends,
Greetings from Dallas! 👋
Hope y’all had a Merry Christmas! 🎄🎅☃️🎁✝️
I, for one, spent my Christmas with the family, eating good food, and enjoying a Zoom call with extended family where the one out of three times I spoke, I got roasted for my lack of comprehension in Chinese. 🔥💀 Now my aunt is suggesting me to take up Chinese classes with my cousins… go-figure. 🙄 (I still love them though, haha 😄)
Anyways, here are several pictures from this past week: 📷
With that, I wanted to recap my goals for 2020 before ending with a word of thanks.
Recap of 2020 Goals
I wrote out some 2020 goals from this post:
Read 12 books - 1 book a month
Write 12 blog posts- 1 blog post a month
Attempt 4 startups or side hustles (or passion projects) this year
Speak at 2 mid-sized/large events this year
Learn to say no to things (because I say yes too much)
Solidify 5-year & 10-year vision for 2020-2030
Scorecard
✅ Read 12 Books - 1 book a month
I actually achieved this, though I didn’t read a book a month. I ended up reading most of my books (10) in the last two months. 😅 (Ahhh procrastination… go-figure.)
Praise God for audiobooks and 2x speed 📖
✅ Write 12 blog posts - 1 blog post a month
Amazingly enough, I pivoted my newsletter to incorporate writing a blog post as part of the newsletter and writing my personal update separately (as noted in this newsletter post).
So starting September, I started to write a blog post every week, which was an amazing commitment and also taxing.
✅ Attempt 4 startups or side hustles (or passion projects) this year
Keyword “attempt”.
✅ Savvy Saturdays - An attempt to create a newsletter of value with updates.
❌ Instagram Stories - An attempt to post content on cooking. Unfortunately, the process required too much commitment. Only the archived stories and food memories remain.
❌ Bakery (a meme) - An attempt my ex-roommates and I made making pizza and bread twice in the summer. Never did it again.
✅ Personal Website - An attempt to make a place on the internet that I can call my digital home. Amazingly still not burned down yet.
✅ Twitter - An attempt to build another place on the internet. Rent requires a lot of words and commitment, and the roof still has holes in it.
❌ Speak at 2 mid-sized/large events this year
I did get to teach at a Sunday school lesson, but unfortunately, COVID prevented any exploration of this opportunity. 😢
✅ Learn to say no to things (because I say yes too much)
I said no a lot. Way more than I ever felt comfortable with.
Things like joining a startup. Jumping onto different ventures. And hanging out with people.
It felt weird and bad to do, but I grew from it and had more time to figure out and focus on what I felt was important. Still have to improve in it, but definitely a big step forward.
❌ Solidify 5-year & 10-year vision for 2020-2030
2020 Soul-searching allowed for some direction to be made, but to be honest, I still have no idea what I’m doing with my life haha.
I guess this will involve some more soul-searching and vision casting in 2021!
Thank You For Joining and Sticking through 2020!!!
Whether you joined in December or were here since the inception of the newsletter (OGs), it’s been a privilege to send out this newsletter to y’all! 🙂
Savvy Saturdays is a passion project for me to figure out how I can best serve the world via a newsletter, and I’m really proud by how much it has evolved! Not toot my own horn, but so much of the format has changed since the first post! 😳 (increased emoji usage 👀, clear distinct sections 💪, repeatable content blocks 👌, etc…)
Thank you to everyone who’s provided feedback, listened to my countless user questions and given me perspective and insight! And especially in being willing to receive this newsletter into your inbox! ✉️ It’s sappy and cliche to say, but this newsletter wouldn’t have gotten where it is without y’all! 🙏
It may sound like I’m ending this newsletter, but this is only the beginning. I hope to serve this newsletter for as long as possible!
Thank you for 2020, and for the privilege of serving Savvy Saturdays to y’all!
With that, hope y’all have happy holidays with those you love!
Stay safe 😷 , keep it savvy 🧠 , and I’ll see y’all in 2021! 😊
Eric
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