👣 Step 55: Focus on What's the Same

The world is constantly changing at what feels like an ever-increasing pace. But some things will always be the same.

I just finished reading Morgan Housel's Same as Ever (highly recommend), and I've been analyzing how to tie in these concepts into leadership and personal development.

Morgan covered a lot of ground, and most of it dealt with psychological biases of the human brain that cause people to act or think the way they do. The parts of the brain that don't change, regardless of the time period or technology at our disposal.

There's a handful of constants I want to focus on (and I'll use his chapter titles if you'd like to read more).

1. The Best Story Wins: I'm very passionate about this one, because the world is built on stories. You, your friends, our society, our history - everything is a story or a collection of stories.

We've all heard the phrase "history is written by the winners," and that's true! Because the winner has leverage over the story. They control the narrative.

The better you get at storytelling - both to yourself and to others - the more effective and influential you become.

2. Incentives - the Most Powerful Force in the World: incentives run human behavior. You eat because you're hungry. You put on a jacket because you're cold. You do what your supervisor says because you respect them and need a paycheck.

Every action, big or small, occurs because of an incentive behind it, whether we realize it or not. In Morgan's book, he talks about how people will justify any behavior given the right incentive, and gives examples of Nazi Germany and how they justified themselves in their thinking because Hitler helped them rebound from WW1.

The eternal point of leverage in all of this: Know how to incentivize yourself and others to take the positive actions that create the outcome you want.

3. Casualties of Perfection: humans are imperfect. We know this. But a lot of times we ignore that and still beat ourselves up for messing up every now and then.

But we should strive to be a little less perfect. We shouldn't aim to be optimized in all areas of life or create the perfect system that never fails. Failure and inefficiency build resilience.

And I'll add another constant to Morgan's list: Humans Need Connection.

We are social creatures. We crave connection and being seen and understood. We thrive off of each other. We will always build teams and communities and group identities because that's what we innately desire. We seek belonging.

Regardless of the technology or societal landscape, if you can recognize that you always need human connection, and if you can help others gain human connection, you will gain fulfillment and influence.

In a world of constant change, find comfort in the things that will never change. And use them to your advantage.

You don't know what technology will come out next year that'll forever change your professional field, but you know that the best stories will always win. That incentives are powerful. That failure brings growth. That humans need connection.

Focus on what's the same.

The environment will change. The psychology won't.

See you next Thursday, Steppers.

We will succeed,

Grayson

​graysonstepanek.com​

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Song of the Week:

ready or noT brakence PREVIEW   ​

Been absolutely hooked on this song since last week and so excited for brakence's upcoming album. This is a great evolution of his sound - more pristine yet complex at the same time. He deserves so much more stardom.