Brady Helps

You’re only going to get better at the thing you’re trying to do if you keep at it. Incremental effort produces results.

Sometimes your eyes are bigger than your mouth. Life brings you tons of opportunity, and you jump on each one. It’s okay to have those moments when you over indulge, but… it’s better to savor and enjoy moderately. “It’s a marathon, not a race.” — too many people.

I’m subbing for a show in town called “Country Sunshine.” I received the music two days before my first show. I never had a chance to rehearse the show with others.I show up quietly. I don’t try to make too much of an impression, just enough to let others know that I’m here for them. When I play, I must play like I’ve played the show my whole life. I must not hesitate. If I make a mistake, I make it big. When I finish, I must leave just as quietly as I arrived. When the regular returns, the others should believe that person never left. So what’s the life lesson here? How do we relate to customers like a sub?Your customers, students, donors, fans have a life outside of you and your work. Your job is not to dominate their life. Instead, you jump in at certain points, make your mark effectively and with intention, and then leave just as quietly as you arrived.

When visiting a new place, try the following steps:Aimlessly walk and go with the flow of people. Move in the opposite direction of tourists. Visit grocery stores and look for farmer’s/wet markets. What do the staples appear to be? Are there lots of spices? What items do people crowd around? Where do city/government/construction/transportation workers get their coffee and lunch? Spots like these tend to cater to those on a budget and prefer “local” staples and flavors — every day food. Ride the mass transit (bus, train, subway). How do people sit? Where do they look? What stops appear the most popular to non-tourists? Get off and explore those spots. I follow those 4 steps when I travel now. I developed them when I worked on cruise ships. I don’t think they’re novel. In fact, many people from outside of the US travel that way. That’s a benefit of diversity. Strangers influencing you to find and live a better life.

If you want to get the most of the something — like visiting a big city, then it’s better to do one or two things and let life show you the rest. Trying to do it all rarely pays off.

When we over optimize our work and our life, we eventually stop being the mouse looking for the cheese. We become the cat.

If you know someone that is looking for a job, they are likely doing mock interviews. Go to that person and suggest they record their next interview and keep a transcript. Suggest they upload the transcript to ChatGPT and ask ChatGPT for improvement suggestions.Helpful results.

An idea that I am working out. Bear with me.Our eyes and minds don’t perceive things in real time. There’s always a delay, and ours minds fill in lots of gaps.Our minds also lie to us.If all that’s true, wouldn’t we benefit from slowing down more to take things in? To see things more as they are? Slightly delayed.

Dad has Alzheimer’s. When people ask how he’s doing, I answer truthfully: he sucks. Because who would enjoy that?

That said, what if there was a way to enjoy it?

My dad forgets what I say easily. At lunch, he asked me many times what I do for a living. He would ask me to clarify and simplify each time. Eventually I got so good at answering the question he stopped asking a follow up.

I don’t see my dad as a “tool.” But I do get to experience aspects of my dad that I always found valuable: his obsession with making things simple.

Alzheimer’s sucks. If you ever ask me how dad is doing, I’ll tell you he sucks. But we seem to be enjoying the suck.

Life ain’t always pretty. But that doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful.

The best friends I have are the ones who vehemently disagree with me. I can throw any idea their way, and I’ll be assured a beautiful push back. I love it. I love it because that push back, that passionate disagreement, makes my ideas better. I get to see what I missed or didn’t consider. Cultivate these people in your life. Choose people who are smarter than you, but don’t have an agenda to push. People who just care about helping you find the right answer. People who care about helping you make your work better.