4/3/24

Howdy,

We’ve just returned from 18 days of honeymoon in Kenya, a stopover in Dubai, and the Maldives. What a trip! After our wedding went so smoothly, I thought something was bound to go terribly wrong on the honeymoon. Except for a minor two day food issue and one baggage delay at the very end, we had about as smooth of a trip as could be.

Photo:

We finally saw a leopard on the very last game drive to complete the big 5!

Clip:

I did more reading than listening this month, so this month’s clip is from the book, The Power of Moments.

“The ‘occasionally remarkable’ moments shouldn’t be left to chance! They should be planned for, invested in. They are peaks that should be built. And if we fail to do that, look at what we’re left with: mostly forgettable.”

I’m still on this hospitality kick after staying in 8 or so hotels/resorts/lodges over the last month.

Looking back, while the places we stayed were amazing, very few were purposefully creating uniquely defining moments. There is soooo much opportunity here.

Thought:

“Perspective has an expiration date, no matter how hard you try to hold on to it.”

This was a line from “Unreasonable Hospitality”, which I referenced last month.

In the book, the author’s father had encouraged him to journal while he moved up in the restaurant world so he could recall his perspective while he was, for instance, a bus boy.

Our minds are constantly be overwritten, and we’re only really able to access the latest version. You can look at old photos to see how you looked previously, but it’s very hard to go back and see how you thought.

That is, unless we make an account of the current version of ourselves before it is overwritten again.

While the quote from the book triggered this thought, I don’t think ‘expiration date’ is the best phrase. I get it though. The book is mostly about food, which does expire.

I think of perspectives more like one of those old convenience store security cameras that records over itself every 24 hours. The only way to keep a log of the old footage was to take out the old tape and replace it with a new one.

Recording your thoughts, journaling, keeping a diary: these are tape replacement. Otherwise, you’ll just keep writing over the past perspective.

I thought about this on our trip recently. Our first day driving from the little landing strip to the lodge, we saw impalas. I got the guide to pull over so I could snap some photos. I was so amazed.

Not even 24 hours later, we’d seen so many impalas that we’d just drive by, not even slowing down. What changed? My perspective.

Some might argue that the current version is the best version, so why take time to record what will soon be the old version. Valid. How do you know that the current version is the best version though? Are there not instances where it’s valuable to be able to look through the eyes of an older version? If anything, to be able to see the changes we’re making might help us to improve the edits we make in the future.

As always, hit reply to this email if you have any thoughts!

See ya next month!

-Troy