I heard Jeff Bezos talking the other day about “Minimized Regret”. His concept for making decisions, by looking out in time when he will be 80, and making decisions today by doing things that he would regret not having done later in life.
It’s a great formula. It’s the way that I ultimately made my decision to leave Procter & Gamble in 1999. I was torn by the decision, but when I thought of myself talking to my children when they were older… what was the story that I wanted to tell them? Did I want to tell them that Dad had a great opportunity to explore a new world, and chose the comfort of the known big company… or did I want to tell my boys that I was willing to “leap off the cliff” and chase my dreams. I jumped. I chased. And, even though our experience in the dot com world did not turn out exactly as expected… it changed the trajectory of my life for the better… and it makes a heck of a story…
Leaving P&G wasn't the "smart" answer. It wasn't the "right" answer. It maybe even wasn't the "better" answer. Leaving P&G was MY answer, because the question was about MY story.
(And, as I have gotten older, I realize it's not about what "other" people think about our own story - but very most importantly, what we think OURSELVES, about OUR own story!).
Our “IS” today and moving it toward the “IS” we desire in the future, defines our “WANT”. Not from the standpoint of always necessarily wanting MORE, but wanting DIFFERENT.
Ultimately, my decision to leave Procter & Gamble, was NOT about money, but about the POSSIBILITY of a life that FIT who I was better… It was about being able to tell a story that excited ME, not just my boys.
Harmony is ultimately the beautiful feeling we experience, when we are constantly moving in the direction of our own truth… when we are creating the authentic sound of our a life that feels appropriately authentic…
So, thinking out in time… not to “WISH” that life was different, but to “check in” on what matters to us… on what the story is that we want to tell… and then coming back into our moment, acting on the moment, in the direction of the WANT…
It felt right then, and it feels even more right now…
We all on some level look out in time to our future and think about how we want our lives to be. And, that is nice… but that is most often NOT specific and NOT actionable…
When we look out in time with a SPECIFIC question about our behavior, our direction TODAY…
“When I look back on this moment… how will I see it then? What direction will I “wish” I had taken…? What direction would have made me prouder? What decision would have felt more authentic to who I wanted to become? … independent of how it turned out?”
Then that thought – leads to specific action…
It leads to powerful, transformative moments…
Because…
It leads to the authentic YOU!
The TRUE YOU!
The YOU…
In harmony,
Nestor
P.S. Bezos kind of means "kisses" in Spanish... made me smile. He is a bold man... And, he is changing the world.