The Question That Improves Almost Everything

I like having simple guidelines that help me do what I know I should do.

I choose what and how much to eat based on how I'll feel 30 minutes later. I catch myself before saying the reflexive, not-so-kind comment. I invest in relationships with great people who can help one another, not just me.

Of course, like anything, this can be taken too far. If you're constantly optimizing for the future, you can miss the present entirely. That's no way to live either.

Still, I've found one question to be remarkably useful:

What can I do today that my future self will thank me for?

Adversity -> Fuel

One of the most powerful skills we can develop is turning adversity into fuel.

Fear of public speaking is a perfect example. "Nervousness" is physiologically very similar to excitement. The feeling doesn't change. The meaning we assign to it does.

We think of resilience as enduring hardship. But a more useful definition might be: Convert pressure into power.

Feedback You Can Use

I've created, analyzed, and collected feedback from hundreds of thousands of survey responses throughout my career. One lesson stands out:

If you genuinely care about the feedback and intend to act on it, make it very brief and actionable.

For my performance-based activities like keynote speeches, music, presentations, and workshops, these two questions consistently produce the most valuable, actionable insights:

What resonated most?

What would you change to improve it?