Lagging indicators......................

 Success as a lagging indicator is a phenomenon that holds true across most areas in life. . . .

When I look in the mirror and I’m a little flabby, that is a lagging indicator that, for weeks and months, I’ve slacked on eating healthy and exercising. . . .

Nothing comes from nowhere. Not success. Not inspiration. Not the muses. Not writer’s block. Everything is a lagging indicator. Of whether or not you did the work.

-as culled from this Ryan Holiday post

A common denominator................

The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.

- Albert E.N. Gray, as excerpted from this address

On the proper harnessing of ambition..........

You can't let ambition get too far ahead of opportunity.  I've seen a lot people who had their sights set on a particular job or project, but the opportunity to actually get that thing was so slim.  Their focus on the small thing in the distance became a problem.  They grew impatient with where they were.  They didn't tend enough to the responsibilities they did have, because they were longing so much for something else, and so their ambition became counterproductive.  It's important to know how to find the balance—do the job you have well; be patient; look for opportunities to pitch in and expand and grow;  and make yourself one of the people, through attitude and energy and focus, that your bosses feel they have to turn to when an opportunity arises.  Conversely, if you're a boss, these are the people to nurture—not the ones who are clamoring for promotions and complaining about not being utilized enough but the ones who are proving themselves to be indispensable day in and day out.

-Robert Iger,  as culled from The Ride of a Lifetime:  Lessons Learned From 15 Years As CEO of the Walt Disney Company

Ryan Holiday on....................

........................................................................doing your job:

"Everything we do matters — whether it’s making smoothies to save up money or studying for the bar — even after we’ve already achieved the success we sought. Everything is a chance to do and be our best. Only self-absorbed assholes think they are too good for whatever their current station requires."

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"The great psychologist Viktor Frankl, survivor of three concentration camps, found presumptuousness in the age-old question: “What is the meaning of life?” As though it is someone else’s responsibility to tell us. Instead, he said, the world is asking you that question. And it’s our job to answer with our actions.

"In every situation, life is asking us a question, and our actions are the answer. Our job is simply to answer well."

Call it an investment.....................

When you've done well and another has benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top—credit for the good deed or a favor in return?

-Marcus Aurelius,  Meditations, Book 7:73

      So why on earth do you need thanks or recognition for having done the right thing?  It's your job.

-Ryan Holiday, from today's entry in The Daily Stoic

Reins...................................

The Constitution’s separation of powers is premised in part on each branch being “jealous” of its own powers. What the Founders failed to plan for was a Congress eager to ditch its load onto the Executive.

-follow the link here