issue 2

from Latin,?‘to rise’

Morg, why are we here?

The WHY of tal—I want to bring together a community of people who are trying to reach higher, people striving to realize their potential.

I'm going to write about professional topics (skill building, technology, startup news) as well as personal areas (relationships, planning, self-help / development). I'm going to work like the dickens to make sure that everything you read here will:

1. Lift your spirits and show you the options at your disposal to achieve success.
2. Highlight people and projects that you may want to join.
3. Get you to think deeply about how you do what you do.
4. Provide a forum where readers can share their stories and ideas.

I feel good about it, don't you? Question: Should we create a tal slack? Should we have a monthly call inviting awesome speakers? Morgan Motivation Mondays? (a 5 minute clip of me going Tony Robbins) Swag? I love a good t-shirt. ?? Please let me know how we can make this newsletter better.

s i d e : Like I mentioned in the first issue, please hit the bell on my page so you hear from me. (I know it's your top priority to see every single LI post from me. Duh.) If you have ideas or projects you think we could potentially work on together, let me know. Send me a DM. Also, it would mean the world to me if you could share this with 1 friend. T'would be amazin'.

BTW—Thank you for subscribing. You're awesome. I appreciate your support here from the very beginning. In short,

I've noticed a lot of content lately touching on self-awareness. Combine that with posts around self-care, mental health, posts about the 4 day work week, and 'being you', and you basically sum up my entire LinkedIn feed. Or 97.43% of it.

As one example, you see someone's self-awareness story. You sympathize with a gut-punch of a crisis post. It's painful. You temporarily reflect on your state of being. Maybe you comment and leave a heart reaction. But then you're onto the next. You take a call with a potential client, you run some numbers, you talk to a team member, etc. The day goes on.

It joins the thousands of things that blur your mind. You wake up the next day and its gone.

Point being, this type of surface-level reflection isn't enough. I wanted to tackle this in issue 2—How understanding your origins story (thinking deeper about who you are) should be a regular practice. I'm advocating for you to address the (your name here) state of affairs this week in your own self-awareness.

Signaling back to the name of this newsletter, if you're going to live an authentic life, you have to know how you think, feel, and act on a profound level.

As I've seen it, this lack of reflection is a pervasive problem. It manifests as burnout, family issues, career instability, and general unhappiness. We don't know who we are because we're so stinkin' busy listening to everyone else tell us who we should be.

We're too concerned with quick & easy clicks that harm our self-image instead of creating time for longer and deeper thinking.

Let me explain:

Quick and easy clicks get you tests that will tell you about your personality types (I'm ENFJ ??) and workplace styles. Here you'll find gurus that will tell you all sorts of advice on how to live your life. This is the scroll hole comparison game, the swiping and liking on a random quote, the TED talk that is going to 'change your life'.

Admit it: We're all guilty of spending too much time here at this level. It's ridiculously easy to passively consume. And then we chalk it up to self-discovery. From these quick & easy clicks we convince ourselves, "I really learned about who I am today."

Obviously, this is no bueno. Because you're not doing what you think you're doing. As the constant feed gets into your brain, you're just making comparisons. You're not contemplating your trajectory, the life you want to lead. It's a flood of statistics on everyone else and you sit there saying, "Wish that was me."

There's an absence of substance with the quick and easy clicks. It doesn't stir the soul. If anything, you're taking on water unknowingly, taking mental damage. We weren't meant to know what everyone in the world was doing. We weren't built for this.

It's addictive. Detrimental to our well-being. It's a vicious, jealousy inducing cycle.

But what if we went deeper?

Longer & deeper thinking takes us past the shallow consumption. We look at ourselves like a concerned researcher: What is motivating me? What situations am I at my best? What makes me feel terrible? What do I do to stay grounded? How do I truly cope with problems? How would I rate this week? What is / isn't working?

At this level, we have a compass to sail the rough waters. We build a lighthouse to see the rocks ahead. Because we have a firm grasp of our identity, we don't get bogged down with the media barrage.

Second to this line of personal questioning, you should also wonder: Am I giving myself space to think? Am I turning off phone? Do I have moments of silence? Can I walk away from the Playstation?It's no secret that every company in the world wants our attention. The more we can block it out, the better.

Meditation (Not going to list all the health benefits here. You can do that.) is key. And if you're not doing it, start in whatever form you can. There's boatloads of information on how to do it. I recently put out a basic meditation post you can find that lays out the simple steps. De nada.

You have to have moments of silence. You must let yourself clear out the clutter in your head. This is one practice that can actually change your life. Even the gurus of technology and business are promoting it. Set aside time and make it happen.

So, just to review—We need to be leery of quick and easy clicks. When we engross ourselves in the social media storm, we potentially damage our psyche and prevent personal growth. But, by thinking deeper about who we are and how we operate, we can perform the necessary damage control. This can be your light in the darkness to get through difficult challenges.

So...what's up with origins again? I see that in the headline and the other graphic...

I'm getting there.

You're about to momentarily enter the mind of the Morg. It's like the Twilight Zone, without the floating eyeballs and shattering windows. In all seriousness, this is the last level. Really it's the foundation.

.

Knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom.

Aristotle said that. Not me. I'm just an armchair philosopher.

I'm captivated with the idea of origins because I've done genealogy with my grandma. She hooked me on it a few years ago. I've done history dives on the cities where my family lived hundreds of years ago. I collect bygone journals and uncover old documents. I'm a nerd about this stuff.

And the reason being is I think there's something really tangible and powerful when you think about your past in terms of where your family came from. It gives you a clearer picture of your essence and soul—what's going on in that DNA of yours. Most importantly, it can act as a guide for the why / what / how of your life. It's hard for me to explain it, really.

Hm.

Because I know how much my family struggled on the frozen farmlands of Yliharma, Finland, I feel pride when I take on new challenges. When I picture my great-grandfather (waaay back) fighting in the revolutionary war as a colonel, I don't want to quit when I'm tired. I've read stories from journals that account otherworldly faith and patience that make my problems seem small. Teeny tiny.

Does that make any sense?

In some strange spiritual way, they're close to me. They buoy me up with more confidence. Their past informs my future.

I've been doing family history 10 years. There have been some incredible experiences. I wouldn't trade the time spent. Here's my concluding challenge—try it out. Maybe you don't spend 500 hours on ancestry.com. But start by asking a family member if they've heard a story. Ask your aunt is she has any of grandma's belongings. Find a way to make it happen.

Digging into your origins story is going to bring you serious energy. It's going to boost your happiness like you wouldn't believe. You're going to break free of the social media noise, the influencers, and have something tangible to hold onto to guide your life.

That's a #MorgGuarantee.

However you get there is up to you. Stay authentic, my friends. ??