“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

(Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) – Lewis Carroll

Sound like anyone we know?

OK. Me…And maybe you. And pretty much everybody else out there. The targets keep moving.
Part of the problem – at least for me – Is that I tend to get caught up in the minutia and ignore the important.
I can easily spend all day wrestling with an insignificant  – although seemingly critical issue – and completely disregard dealing with the thing or activity that will actually move my life and practice in the right direction.

You’ve all heard the definition of insanity right?  “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

The following is an excerpt from the new book by Tim Ferriss: Tools of Titans. Please ignore the names/politics and focus on the message. ( Again. I receive NO compensation for any book, podcast, product or website I reference. I am just passing along things that I like and find helpful.)

“Am I hunting antelope or field mice?”

“I lifted this question around 2012 from former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich. I read about it in Buck Up, Suck Up . . . and Come Back When You Foul Up: 12 Winning Secrets from the War Room, written by James Carville and Paul Begala, the political strategists behind Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign “war room.” Here’s the excerpt that stuck with me:

Newt Gingrich is one of the most successful political leaders of our time. Yes, we disagreed with virtually everything he did, but this is a book about strategy, not ideology. And we’ve got to give Newt his due. His strategic ability—his relentless focus on capturing the House of Representatives for the Republicans—led to one of the biggest political landslides in American history.

Now that he’s in the private sector, Newt uses a brilliant illustration to explain the need to focus on the big things and let the little stuff slide: the analogy of the field mice and the antelope. A lion is fully capable of capturing, killing, and eating a field mouse. But it turns out that the energy required to do so exceeds the caloric content of the mouse itself. So a lion that spent its day hunting and eating field mice would slowly starve to death. A lion can’t live on field mice. A lion needs antelope. Antelope are big animals. They take more speed and strength to capture and kill, and once killed, they provide a feast for the lion and her pride. A lion can live a long and happy life on a diet of antelope. The distinction is important. Are you spending all your time and exhausting all your energy catching field mice? In the short term it might give you a nice, rewarding feeling. But in the long run you’re going to die. So ask yourself at the end of the day, “Did I spend today chasing mice or hunting antelope?”

Another way I often approach this is to look at my to-do list and ask: “Which one of these, if done, would render all the rest either easier or completely irrelevant?”

So, Alice, it does matter a great deal which way we go. And it matters what we spend our time on. Remember, we all have 24 hours a day. “Running out of time” is more often a case of “Running without a plan.”

Let’s try to hunt more antelope from now on. A little strategic thinking at the front of the day can save us a lot of frustration on the back.

*****************************************************************************

My 14 year old daughter was VERY ANGERY at me the other day. This is nothing new. I’m used to it.
Anyway, she stormed off down the hall and shut her door loudly ( not quite a slam…very close, but not quite. She’s very skillful that way.) and proceeded to crank up her music to:
A. Avoid any further conversation with me that might make her even MORE angry.
B. Create the right sonic environment to complete and compliment her devastated life.

So I started to think about that.
I remember – sort of, it’s been a long time – That feeling of teen angst. The pure rage and frustration that you can only feel when you are young and forced to live with people who have never ever felt like you do.

And I wondered what I listened to. Probably to whatever KTRF, the local AM station had rolling. ( It’s really difficult to really feel proper teenage pain and anger when all you can find is Glenn Campbell. After nine PM they switched to a rock and roll format, but it’s hard to time your catastrophes. Sometimes you just had to work with what you had.)

But here is what I wanted:

Hüsker Dü came boiling out of Minneapolis in the early 80’s. It’s fast, it’s loud it’s heavy and it would have been just what I was looking for. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic has been quoted as saying Nirvana’s musical style was “nothing new; Hüsker Dü did it before us.” Nirvana would never have existed without  Hüsker Dü.

Give New Day Rising a spin. It’s not for everyone. And it’s not for me now. But it would have been prefect in 1978.

Have a great weekend! And thanks for reading this far. Comments are always welcome.

PS. If you know someone who might like these notes, just let me know and I will make sure to add them to the list. Or they can go to my website  – the green link below – and subscribe.

GO BISON