Seth’s offering the chance to find out.

Tempted?  I am.

You’ve got til December 14th to decide whether you’re in or out.

This week I’m using Italo Calvino’s Six Memos For the Next Millennium as inspiration for my musings on Great Work.

His first memo is on Lightness, and I’m immediately taken to its opposite: weight, and in particular the weight of the world.

The curse of responsibility.

Perhaps it’s because I’m an eldest son, but I feel both cursed and blessed by a great sense of responsibility.  Responsibility to do good, be good, be nice, be sensible, do what matters.

Undoubtedly it’s been behind some of my success and you can see it echoing in my person mission: “To infect a billion people with the possibility virus.”

But the weight of responsibility can just as easily slow you down, shrink you and make you small.

Over dinner with David Allen a year ago, we were talking about plans and ambitions.  And remember, this is a man who’s created a mutli-million dollar business, who is revered by many as a guru and has a devoted following of supporters (all of who are hanging out in sweet anticipation of his next book, Making it All Work).

His point about my various ambitions and plans?

Great.  And relax about it all.

That’s not to say don’t do your best, don’t do Great Work.

But it is to say:  treat it with lightness, with a sense of grace, with a sense of fun.

It not only helps you keep things in perspective (not many of us do anything that’s truly life and death), but it makes it all just that much more fun to do.

“Patience is also a form of action.”
~ Auguste Rodin

I’m a rusher.

Busy busy busy.

Rush rush rush.

And sometimes moving at a rapid pace is the right thing to do - no getting bogged down in miscellaneous detail or perfectionism or the trickling away of courage that can sometimes happen.

And sometimes moving at a rapid pace just doesn’t help.  You make everything urgent, you skip details, you do it OK rather than extraordinarily.

Even though I’m quoting Rodin at the top of the post (and of course I’m writing this because I need the reminder even more than you might), I might just end with Einstein.  He said…

“Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

I think you can replace “simple” with “as fast” and “as slow” … they make an equally powerful point.

==> Where do you need some patience right now?

One company that’s seized my imagination - and others’ too - is Innocent in the UK.

The create fantastic fruit smoothies and other uber-healthy things, all done with a sense of joy, fun and not-taking-it-all-too-seriously.  (It’s worth buying their products just to read the labels on the bottles.  Yep, they’re that good).

Looking at their website recently, I noticed a “lest we forget” page.  On it is a photo and homage of everyone who’d ever worked at Innocent.

Is that an act of generosity, community and simple brilliance?

There’s no commercial reason why you’d do that.  But as a reflection of what’s really important - for instance, actually believing the phrase “our people are our most important asset” - this is about as good as it gets.  Great Work needs great people, and realizing that includes much more than just those in the building is essential.

(It’s also a reflection of how community and connection works today in this era of FaceBook, LinkedIn and the like).

Long live Innocent, is what I say.

Way beyond the usual ones (Here’s what’s flashing through my mind: “Is this Great Work?”  “Should I get a haircut?”  “Does my bum look fat in this?” etc)

These are mind benders from philosophy, and well worth getting stumped by