The fire of a good room

Rising to the next level / Issue 1,130

Oh, hi friends! 

The importance of a good room. 

The people inside. Their backgrounds. What you can learn. What you will overhear. What you dream, together.

I’m remembering some of the best rooms I’ve ever worked in — they were full of people smarter than me, people with different histories and perspectives. 

Rooms like that crackle. 

Rooms like that make you stretch. 

You can be an observer or a participant. 

But you walk out inspired. 

If you’re not learning something new every day, maybe it’s not you. 

Maybe you’re simply in the wrong room. 

And maybe it’s time to find another one.

“With her collection of accolades, Obiri knows a thing or two about moving through the pain cave. ‘If you tell your mind, ‘I’m tired,’ you’ll give up,’ she said. So she instead repeats, ‘I’m strong, I’m strong.’

Hellen Obiri was profiled in the New York Times the weekend before the Boston Marathon. 

Yesterday, she won the Boston Marathon.

What you tell yourself matters.

What if you tell yourself: I’m strong, I’m strong.

What then?

Oh Look, a Story Made Just for Me!

Murphy is a 31-year-old bald eagle who was sitting on a rock. He really wanted to be a father, but didn’t have a mate and didn’t have an egg to incubate…so he sat on a rock.

This story has a happy ending. An orphaned eaglet was brought to the sanctuary where Murphy lives. 

Now they’re bonding. And he’s doing a decent job at helping the little eaglet.

Should I try to stretch a metaphor here about how some of our projects are rocks? And sometimes we need to incubate a project that will never hatch before making way for the one that will?

I could try.

Or we could just enjoy Murphy. 

Go have a great Tuesday, my friends.