The Dichotomy of Life
Savvy Saturdays (2/27/21)
“A leader must care about the troops, but at the same time the leader must complete the mission, and in doing so there will be risk and sometimes unavoidable consequences to the troops.”
―Jocko Willink, The Dichotomy of Leadership
Have you ever felt like you had to balance many things in life?
Two opposing views always seemed to come to mind, but when you went too far one way, you ended up becoming too extreme, losing balance, and reorienting by going to the other extreme, only to fall once again?
I’ve lived that unhealthy lifestyle constantly.
Going back and forth, finding balance seemed impossible to achieve, and it never seemed to end.
But there were moments when I achieved serendipity.
When I experienced balance while facing the two opposing views.
When everything fell in place.
Those moments were concretely revealed in Jocko Willink & Leif Babin’s book, “The Dichotomy of Leadership” (a follow-up book to “Extreme Ownership”).
Though the book was about leadership, I gained takeaways to become more creative and effective in my own life through the secret I’m about to share with you.
The secret is to learn to have a paradoxical mindset.
A paradoxical mindset is the ability to face two opposing views and accept them both at the same time.
It’s what allows teachers to execute tough discipline, “being cruel to be kind”.
It’s what allows leaders to love their teammates, and yet be able to focus on the mission.
It’s what allows artists to accept the current norms of life, yet go against the grain and create art beyond our imaginations.
By learning to accept two opposing views, we can learn to:
analyze the cost-benefits of two opposing political, social, and economical sides.
be emotional and yet radically logical decisions at the moment.
accept reality, yet go to the edge of innovation.
This is a powerful concept.
A paradoxical mind will not help you get through anything in life.
But it will help you make decisions as you go through life
Ultimately, recognizing the dichotomy of life will allow you to embrace the dichotomies in life.
That awareness will not only help you to not get stuck on extremes but also bring clarity on how to balance both sides.
To desire security while embracing change.
To maintain systems while changing the status quo.
To lead and yet be able to follow.
“So as a leader it is critical to balance the strict discipline of standard procedures with the freedom to adapt, adjust, and maneuver to do what is best to support the overarching commander's intent and achieve victory.”
―Jocko Willink, The Dichotomy of Leadership
Questions to ponder: 🤔
What dichotomies do you recognize in your life?
How can you learn to take a paradoxical mindset in the opposing views you face in life to journey towards balance?
Weekly Collections
A collection of tweets & resources for you to enjoy… 📰 🎬 🎙️
The Curious Bunch by Vidya
If you are curious and want to get curated resources (like mine), check out Vidya’s newsletter, The Curious Bunch!
She is aiming to help others be productive & creative in whatever they do, and her recent issue offers a free database of tools & resources just for that!
3 interesting reads—3 tools to boost your productivity—3 insights to be creative at what you do. All in one newsletter!
(a sneak peek of what she provides)
“It’s not a bug, it’s a feature”
“Daft Punk” Sample Flip - Rest in Pieces
Weekly Tidbits
Learnings, verses, & quotes in tweet format to chew on… 🧐
Verse of the Week
Challenging Quote
Weekly Highlights
Update for the busy… 🏃⏳⏰
Been changing the focus & format of the newsletter. This year’s focus for the newsletter is growth and innovation, while last year’s focus was creating quality content. I’ve been trying new things, but to spill the tea for y’all 🍵, I’ve been exploring sponsors, scheduling cross-promotion with newsletters, and planning out a referral system! Exciting stuff!
Been doing Twitter for 7 days, which inspired this week’s newsletter, and experienced a lot of growth. Even though it’s been tough, and I’ve honestly wanted to quit many times, I don’t want to forsake my commitment. I want to ride the dip, achieve a lot of growth, and see where this mini-journey takes me!
If you’d like to help me get closer to my goal of 10k in 100 days on Twitter, follow me @ericjmlee and share my kickoff video!
I was going to work at a startup 2 years ago, but due to unforeseen circumstances, they moved out of town, and I had to decide to either go with them to Seattle or stay in Austin jobless. I decided the latter, found the place I’m at currently and learned that this startup closed down several weeks ago. So praise God for His sovereignty, and for allowing me to have a job amidst a pandemic!
Completed the New Testament after almost ~2 years of reading! Slowly going through the Old Testament now!
Meeting a lot of amazing people this past week, through Lunchclub.ai & my entrepreneurship community. So many cool people out in the world and Covid isn’t going to stop me from meeting new people!
Weekly Update
Personal life stuff… 🔔
Hello friends,
And to all the new people, welcome! Greetings from Austin! 👋 Let’s jump right in!
As you’ve seen, I’ve been changing up the format a lot.
New sections, a feedback form, & a Twitter-themed newsletter, what’s next? 🧐
I’m also starting to share my updates more in the “Weekly Highlights”. I know I’m supposed to be consistent as a newsletter writer, but I believe the highlights will be more succinct, and I can utilize this area for more important updates, pictures, & other personal stuff.
As time goes on, you may see even more subtle changes to the newsletter.
To elaborate on the deets (and spill the secrets):
I’m in the works of finding sponsors for my newsletter 😳 We’ll see if that ends up working out.
Also, I’m planning to promote a newsletter each week, partially because I think they’re cool, but also cause they’ll be promoting me in their newsletter, so I’m pretty excited about these partnerships! If the newsletters resonate with you, check them out! But if not, you can always scroll right by. 📜
Finally, I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I’d love to figure out how to create a sustainable referral system that other newsletters have in order to create incentives in sharing the newsletter!📢
We’ll see what happens.🙂
Anyways, here are several pictures from this past week: 📷
Thanks for reading to the end! Appreciate y’all bearing with the change in format!🙏
(It’ll go back to normal for all of y’all Twitter haters after this week)
Anyways, please stay safe 😷, keep it savvy 😎, and I’ll see y’all in the next update 😊
Eric
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