This is the Too Many Trees newsletter, where I share what I’ve been writing and reading in the realm of leadership and personal development. My coaching practice is centered around the idea that we are more effective in moving towards our goals when we become more conscious and intentional in focusing our time and attention.
I woke up early this morning thinking about the US election. I am trying to stay prepared for the worst (Trump still has a ~10% chance of winning according to FiveThirtyEight) but am also somewhat hopeful due to the huge effort of millions of people across the country to change the course of the country. I’m not phone banking or text banking this weekend, but I at least wanted to ask those of you who follow me to vote if you haven’t already (as seen above, I voted last weekend). Please vote early if you haven’t already, and if you have a mail-in ballot, please drop it off at an official dropbox rather than rely on the mail, as ballots that arrive late might not get counted.
Republicans are using every tool they can to avoid counting ballots, as in Wisconsin where the legislature is not going to allow mail-in ballots to be counted if they don’t arrive by election day, and were supported in this effort by an error-riddled opinion written by Kavanaugh when the case went to the Supreme Court. As an aside, Kavanaugh’s opinion shows just how hypocritical “originalist” judges are when it conflicts with their politics - did the original Constitution writers expect all ballots to be counted on election night?
They do this because they know they are a minority party. They know that the majority of the American people do not support their agenda of increasing corporate power, and so they are doing everything they can to suppress votes. Why would the Republican Senate rush through the confirmation hearing of Amy Coney Barrett, but not even take up a bill on providing relief for the millions of Americans continuing to suffer from the effects of the coronavirus? Because, as Senator Whitehouse explained at Barrett’s hearing, their financial backers want to reverse court decisions that impede their ability to do whatever they want without being concerned with workers’ rights, the environment, and anything that gets in the way of profit. Advancing that work is more important to Republicans than the American people that need help right now because they have lost jobs, because they are trying to juggle family and work and everything due to the pandemic,
Meanwhile, they have declared “victory” over Covid, while cases are continuing to rise, and thousands of people are dying every week. Why? Because of the “economy”, even though an “economy” where people are sick and dying is not a healthy economy no matter what the stock market is doing. Trump treats his supporters as props, bussing them in for a rally and a photo op, and then leaving them stranded miles from their cars in freezing weather while he flew away. We are not people to them. We don’t matter. At best, we will be ignored, and most of the time, we will be seen as resources to be strip-mined in service of their primary goal, which is to make more money, no matter how much it hurts people or the environment.
So please vote. Get these people out of positions of power. Let’s start to return the United States to being a country “of the people, by the people, for the people”, rather than a country ruled solely by the almighty dollar.
Now back to the normal newsletter content…
LinkedIn: These are ideas or questions that are helping my clients, and that I share via LinkedIn so that they can hopefully help a wider audience.
How are you taking care of yourself? inspired by a Parker Palmer quote: “Self-care is never a selfish act - it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch.”
What got you here won’t get you there. After answering questions at a mentoring session for students in the Xoogler school, I captured a few of the inflection points that occur in a career where the mindsets and skills that made you successful at one level block your progress to the next level.
How do you view mistakes? A quick primer on the growth mindset vs. the fixed mindset, and how risking “mistakes” is the only way to learn and grow.
Links and resources
To the working mamas who feel they are failing. I particularly liked the final paragraph: “I am going to be gentler with myself, even if just a little. When my self-judgment flares and the words "I failed again" start to run through my head, I am going to place my hand on my heart, and say, "Shh. No, mama. You didn't fail. You did the best you could under ridiculous circumstances. You are worthy. You are good.”
How to stop interrupting…and change the world - I loved Nancy Kline's first book Time to Think, and her second book "The Promise That Changes Everything: I Won’t Interrupt You" looks like it will be powerful as well: “this promise not to interrupt, this act of breathing free, is prodigious. It changes things. Even the big things. It bestows sanity. It shapes and reveals and shapes again who we are. It offers ease in the face of uncertainty. It can stop things like hatred and start things like love.”
This conversation between Maya Angelou and Dave Chappelle from 2006 was fantastic, particularly Angelou’s dignity and wisdom. You can see Chappelle just calm down in her presence, as he knows what she has lived through, and his rebellious impertinence shifts to wanting to learn from her experience.
The 5 Hour Empathy skit on Saturday Night Live was hilarious and pointed in showing how those with privilege can repress their empathy so they can ignore the suffering of others.
This newsletter continues to be an experiment, and I would love to hear how I could make this more useful for you. Let me know what is working for you, what you want more or less of, or anything else on your mind at eric at toomanytrees. And if you know somebody that could benefit from my perspective, please forward this to them or let them know they can set up a free intro chat with me.
Thanks for reading. See you in a couple weeks.