I've made it to another Benchmark on this Writing Journey that I began on January 1st, 2023.
600 Days Straight.
Every single day I come up with an Idea, Write, Edit, and Publish an Article.
Rain, Snow, or Shine.
On Good Days and Bad, With or Without Motivation.
Even on Vacation, I have Written "At Least" 250 Words Daily, but most days I average close to 750-1000 Words.
In Total, I have written over 520,000 Words of Articles - Equivalent to 6 - 11 "Average Length" Non-Fiction Books.
Today, I want to Focus more on what has Changed in the Past 100 Days.
What can Change in Just 100 Days when you are Dedicated to being Consistent toward your Goals?
I have noticed a few things that have Changed in this most recent stretch of Articles.
I noticed that many of my pieces have become more Philosophical in Nature.
More often, I have been asking Larger Questions, and Approaching the Questions with a Broader Perspective.
This has also led to some pieces that were far more Melancholy.
I wrote one piece called, "The Thing That Makes Me Most Sad In My Work", which was an Award-Winning Article, where I ended with the following lines:
"They say that there are Fates Worse than Death.
I have Seen so many Dead People Walking to Know It is True."
There is a Price that must sometimes be paid when we look at the state of the World Purposefully and in Philosophical Ways.
For me, it has been fighting these feelings of Melancholy.
"Awareness opens up responsibility, which is why most of the world would rather be unaware because it's easier to be in ignorance than to be with the truth of the experience."
Once you start asking these types of Questions, you can no longer be Ignorant of the Problems and Challenges that Exist.
This, in some ways, Demands a Responsibility of us.
Which led me to another Article that I wrote, "Am I Doing Enough?"
It is a piece that encapsulates many of the Inner Dialogue Battles I have with myself as I try to look Deeply at these Different Topics to come up with Solutions.
The conclusion that I came to...
"Focus on 'Your' Progress, Doing What 'You' Can with what Is in 'Your' Control, Every Day."
Doing this has allowed me to also write some other Really Interesting Pieces.
Quite a few times in the Past 100 Days, I have Looked at Ideas and Concepts that are generally Well-Accepted and Unquestioned, and I Deliberately Questioned them.
It led to Pieces like...
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Why Stress Reduction Is The Wrong Goal For Leaders Wanting Peak Performance
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Why The Goal Of Master Is Self-Defeating: What You Should Be Aiming For Instead
Many others have looked at these concepts and preached them from pulpits for Decades.
"What People Need is to Reduce their Stress!"
"We Need More People Attaining Mastery!"
"All We Must Do Is Achieve Our Ikigai!" (Ikigai is Similar to "Our Why" in the Western World)
Yet, when we evaluate these, None of them have "Saved" us from Burnout, which 80% of Employees are Experiencing.
None of them are Creating Higher Work or Life Satisfaction in our Modern World.
None of them are Helping Leaders with the Biggest Problems.
So I have begun to Question these Oft-Held Ideas and found some Really Fascinating Problems with them!
Hint: These Concepts are Not "Bad" - Stress Reduction, Mastery, and Ikigai have their Incredibly Important Places - But they "All" are Missing Incredibly Necessary Aspects of Life that I Discuss.
In Writing Articles like these, I have also found myself understanding Concepts around Leadership significantly better, to the point where I have Guestimated, Predicted, and Called Out things Others were Missing and I have been Absolutely Correct.
I made an Estimation a few months back about how much Productivity Potential Employees Lost due to Burnout.
When I found some Research, I Discovered that I was "Incredibly" Close to Correct in my Estimate, which I explained in the Piece, "How Unproductive Is The Workforce?"
I also talked about what would happen at Dell with their Return-To-Office "Mandates" a few months back due to Burnout.
Indeed, in the past 100 Days, I was able to Write a Follow-Up Piece about, "Why I'm Not Surprised That 50% Of Dell's US Workforce Have Completely Rejected Return-To-Office Mandates."
The Psychophysiology Does Not Lie, and that is why I have been able to Estimate and Predict these things.
Then, on a More Fun Note, I Discussed "What Everyone Seems To Be Missing With Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, And Coca-Cola".
While everyone else was discussing how Dr. Pepper was "Upsetting" Pepsi, I pointed out that wasn't True.
What Dr. Pepper "Really" Accomplished is "Significantly" Larger, and is Revealing a "Major" Problem for both Pepsi and Coca-Cola.
These are just a few Examples of how you begin to see the World differently when you Learn, Understand, Expand Upon, and Question these Topics "Every" Day.
It has been really Amazing to "See" these Play Out in the past 100 Days.
But Perhaps the Most Incredible Change I have had in the Past 100 Days is Seeing Some of the Results of my Work.
As an example, on Day 500 I had received 23 Nominations and Awards for my Work this Year.
As of Day 600?
I have Received 42 Nominations and Awards for this Year, and the Year is Not Over.
This is Over "Double" what I Received Last Year!
But this is not all that has been Achieved.
Earlier in the Year, I made a Statement that The Role of CEO is Dead and that the Future belonged to The Role of CRDO.
I Believed this so Deeply that I Changed my Role to CRDO and Put Full Efforts into being an Exemplar of that Role.
We have Begun to See the Initial Results of this Type of Leadership over these past 100 Days.
What are the Results?
In our Efforts for our "Change The World Impact Project #1", we raised nearly $1,000 in the Fight Against Children's Cancer, and then Further Matched It with another $1,000!
Plus, we "Further" Contributed to Regenerative Projects around the World and Achieved More:
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58 Baby Corals were Planted, which completed 3 Coral Stars that Support Marine Life & Tourism, and Further Provided Employment for Victims of Sex Trafficking
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365 Square Meters of Microhabitats were Protected which provides Enough Land for over 200 Critically Endangered Pseudophilautus Amboli (Baby Frogs) and over 80 Critically Endangered Buceros Bicornis (Baby Birds)
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197 kg of Plastic were Collected from our Oceans, which is Equivalent to 10,000 Plastic Bottles
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117 Mangrove Trees were Planted which can Reverse 146,000 Miles Worth of Carbon Emissions
All of that, from a Single Project!
We also Received Results for a Leadership "Regenerative Legacy Design" Pilot Program.
Despite "Many" Obstacles that Changed the Design of How We Originally Designed the Pilot Program, we "Still" Attained a 40% "True Success" Rate (aka A/B Rating)!
Considering that a "Liberal" Estimate of "True Success" in Traditional Leadership Development is 10% (Likely Less Though), this has been a Phenomenal Result!
Especially since "Most" Leadership Development Programs Occur "Without" the Multitude of Barriers we Had.
If we Extend it to "Overall Success" (A/B/C/D Rating, only Excluding F Ratings), Traditional Leadership Development only Achieves 20% "Overall Success" On Average.
We attained a 70%-80% "Overall Success" Rating.
Making this More Incredible is that we went over 7x "More" Leadership Subjects than Traditional Leadership Development Practices "Could" Achieve in the Same Period of Time.
Being able to "See" these Results over the Past 100 Days has been Incredible.
Often, when you are Working Hard, you must Wait to See the Results.
In many places, they talk about this as the Difference between "Seed Time" and "Harvest Time".
During that "Seed Time", it can be Incredibly Difficult, because you put in a "Lot" of Work and Effort, but haven't seen the "Fruits" of Your Labor.
In the Past 100 Days, I have begun to have a Period of "Harvest Time", and it has been Bountiful.
All of this has shown me that even in just 100 Days, much can happen.
It makes me very excited to see what we will see in the Next 100 Days!