Picked On

March 24th, 2008Blog0 comments

Song of the Week: This amazing bluegrass version of Modest Mouse’s Float On.

In fact there’s a whole “Pickin’ On” series of bluegrass covers of everything from Metallica to Tenacious D. Yes, you haven’t really lived until you’ve heard “F**k Her Gently” in the country soul stylings of bluegrass guitar.

I’ve been thinking about the “power of yes” lately — that is, the idea of saying yes to everything and seeing how it opens up new opportunities, experiences, etc..

After careful study of this concept, I would say that saying yes to everything creates more problems than opportunities; you wind up doing a lot of pro-bono work that you don’t want to do. Plus you develop the rep of being someone that always says yes — read: A sucker.

I think the thing to do is not to blindly say yes to everything but to answer challenges. To take on tasks that will test your skills, that have deadlines that are tricky (but not impossible!), and that have clear and desirable rewards.

Note that some rewards may not be visible at the beginning of the challenge, but may pop up later on. Going big on things has a way of attracting positive attention and prizes that you may not even be aware of.

More on this later once it’s solidified in my head.