When Canadian economics professor Larry Smith teaches university classes, he's known to introduce the topic with one distilled point: "Economics is not about money, it's about the science of choice." I love this idea, the science of choice. It makes the seemingly impossible seem much more possible, doesn't it?
His TED Talk called "Why You Will Fail to Have a Great Career" has no real answer to that question, in fact I find his talk to not be about career at all, but rather the human quest for satisfaction in which we all share - that quest to make the seemingly impossible more possible.
And so I launch the inaugural "TED Talks Tuesday" with this 15 minute video that calls into question the many ways we doubt ourselves, the standards we all know as "it's a matter of luck" or "I'm not smart enough" or even "I'm not weird enough to try that."
I'm not. It's not. We're not. UNLESS.
Larry Smith declares UNLESS to be the most evocative word in the English language and watch to find out why.
You can't have dessert UNLESS you finish your dinner.
You can't play Minecraft UNLESS you finish your book report.
I won't start on my painting UNLESS I finish cleaning the bathroom.
All worthy causes to be sure - health and scholarship and housekeeping - and maybe too trite of examples, but I don't know the unspoken passions in your heart, hell, most days it's hard for me to figure out my own let alone someone else's. But I do know we all have them, and we all hear that word in our subconscious mind… UNLESS…and so I ask, what is UNLESS holding you back from?
What's your UNLESS, and how can you wrench yourself free from it?