Maeda's SIMPLICITY

What's Next

What's New = What's Next

Although I am not terribly political, it is difficult not to get drawn into the media's coverage of the emerging presidential candidates. A common message seems to be that the American people desire an inspirational leader in which their hopes can be placed, and then subsequently realized through his or her leadership. Seems like a good plan in general.

I haven't been home in a while and was going through my regular cleaning ritual of my main desk, bathrooms (not the Media Lab's of course ... well, not yet at least), closet, and so forth. I could probably outsource all these tasks given my financial status, but it is a normalizing ritual I have developed over the years. So today I thankfully feel quite normal now.

Somehow I have managed to follow one of Mindell's rules of survival, and have not checked my email for the last 40 hours. It has certainly helped clear my mind. Cleaning the real world and neglecting the virtual world.

Under the red couch in my studio I keep a little box entitled NEXT. I completely forgot about it until when I unearthed it today while in the throes of cleaning. In the box I used to keep random messages to myself, and scads of clippings from airplane magazines and the likes. I found an article I clipped in 2002 on mentors--the article's conclusion being that there are no mentors out there that you can depend upon, so in the end you need to depend upon yourself to figure out how to move forward in life. It is both a depressing and empowering thought.

From our leaders, it's easy to ask for a lot. From ourselves, it's comparatively harder to ask. In either case when we don't get what we ask for, we face disappointment. I'm reminded of having read Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I think he has an eight or ninth habit now, but really the only habit of the original seven that I remember is that you can't change everyone around you, but you can always change yourself.

I'd like to believe there are great mentors out there. They exist. I've seen them. And they go. You've met them too. It's okay to believe in what's around you, and to also believe in yourself. Do both is preserved.

Posted by maeda at February 11, 2007 12:22 PM