Be Hungry

Let me talk to you for a minute about wanting.

There have been times you didn't push hard enough. You know the ones. And you've asked yourself why you're not further along than you feel you should be. Maybe you even miss the kid you were, who looked up at night and figured anything could happen. Somewhere between then and now that got sanded off. Not by one thing. By a thousand grown-up reasons. And maybe you've done fine, and you know in your chest you could do a lot more if you wanted it the way you used to want things.

Success takes a few things. Some talent. Some luck. But there's one thing it can't happen without, and that's a real, hungry want to get the thing done. Not a wish. A want.

Here's a story I like. Back when computers were new, somebody wrote one to play checkers. It could see every possible move. And it was an average player. Why? Because it had been told to make safe moves, moves that kept it from losing. When they changed one line, told it to play to win instead of play not to lose, the same machine started winning.

Most of us are that first program. We spend our days steering around failure, and we call it being careful. But not failing is not the same thing as winning. It's not even close. To win you have to be pointed at winning, and you have to want it enough that it pulls you.

And here's what you get for it: wanting something and going after it makes the days feel worth something. Going somewhere, building, moving, that's a better feeling than any amount of avoiding mistakes.

So this session does one thing. It turns the want back up.

Get comfortable. Let your eyes close when they want to, and be a little curious how far down you'll go.