Last year, I met a friend who gave me a new frame of reality.

His name is Dan. We met in Joe Hudson’s cohort, Master Class, which focuses on inner work. On our first call together, Dan told me he was going to take the program as if he had invested $100,000.

I, on the other hand, was squeezing the homework in between writing sessions, course building, and client calls. I skipped half the webinars and watched the rest at 2x speed.

The cohort still changed my life, especially because Dan and I became close friends. As part of the program, we would do a quick call every morning for 7 minutes to exchange gratitudes. We were meant to do it for 6 weeks, yet continued for 13 months.

So when I was invited to speak in Vancouver, I was excited to ‘pop over’ to Dan’s home in Toronto to meet him in person.

I observed a trait we can all learn from.

Give it your all

On our second night together, we attended a lecture called The Great Conversation. It was about how technology and builders have shaped history. It was a cool talk, but often I found myself drifting to writing my next idea in my head.

Dan sat next to me, engrossed. He is a podcast host and an incredible coach, and this talk was right up his street. As the lecture drew to an end, the speakers invited a Q&A. Dan leapt out of his chair toward the microphone.

“Keen bean,” my British judgement kicked in—where we have been taught to shame any form of enthusiasm. Dan asked a deeply profound question, which lit up the speakers. It led to a great conversation, and I gave him a quick fist bump when he sat back down.

After the talk, the speaker’s mum came and thanked Dan. She gave him a free poster. Later, at the pub, the speaker himself came over and said Hi.

I got to watch this unfold as an observer. I couldn’t stop thinking about how much serendipity Dan sparked from the same energy he brought to our cohort one year ago. And then I began to imagine what happens when you run this frame over a long-time frame (and the cost of not).

Stop skimming the surface

I am guilty of spending far too much time in my head.

Be it thinking about the work I need to do, the next sentences I need to say, or the pressing problem I need to solve. This comes from good intentions—wanting to do the best I can—but the opposite effect occurs.

You end up so busy trying to control the future that you overlook the present.

And the present is where the good stuff lies.

The difference between Dan and I was participation.

We were doing the same thing, but he was taking part at a deeper level. Sure, this was just an evening lecture. But how many trees never grow because we did not plant the seeds in the first place?

There’s an old adage that you get what you put in. Well, the people who get what they want out of life get it because they participate in life.

Since I’ve seen this, I can’t unsee it.

At the gym, you can spend a hundred hours lifting weights yet never put any thought into the mind-muscle connection.

In conversation, you can speak for weeks and never really say anything. It’s just two people making mouth noises, circling around the things they wish they could say.

In business, you can bounce from offer to offer, never truly committing because you always think there’s a better idea around the corner.

But everything you want is right in front of you.

Charlie Munger once said, “It’s the work on your desk. Do well with what you already have and more will come in.”

When you participate, you elevate your experience.

The gym becomes a meditation. Conversation becomes idea ping-pong. Business becomes a deeply fulfilling game. And the resulting consequences begin to compound. You realise that doing the best with what you’ve got is all that you’ve got to do.

So I hope you join me this week and try to be more like Dan.

Whatever you’re doing, do it well. Even as we finish this conversation, don’t just click away to the next (and most likely worse) newsletter in your inbox. Stop and think about what you’ve just read, and think of a specific way you might apply it.

How could you give 10% more to something this week?

Hope this helps,

Kieran