Not everybody is going home with a trophy.

I am a Millenial. There, I said it. And as a fellow Millenial, I feel comfortable saying that one of our greatest weaknesses as a generation is the expectation of success. I could blame mom and dad for this, but that would be very Millenial of me.

I'm one of the early Millenials. I can remember life before cell phones. I played tee-ball in those pre-internet days, just like any other red-blooded American. But even then, I can recall an unusually long streak of games that ended in ties. 

I think this mentality created a generation of adults of which many are incapable of handling criticism, setbacks and outright failure. I say this because I see it in myself, too. Just today, I caught myself stalling, afraid to start writing something for Page 1 because I was afraid of being exposed, afraid of putting myself out there only to be rejected by thousands of readers. This might still happen tomorrow morning, and I'm OK with that.

I remind myself that I can't live each day as if it's the final draft of my life. There has to be room for error. There has to be the possibility -- and often the reality -- of failure. The game won't always end in a tie. Everybody won't always go home with a trophy. But everybody walks off the field better than when they walked on, just for having played.

Mental strength training.

Stress is a force to which we can inoculate ourselves. As Dr. Rhonda Patrick points out in her most recent newsletter, stress, in small doses, can be beneficial to the body. Take green tea for example. We all accept at face value that it has health benefits. Ever wonder why?

You've probably never felt stressed by drinking a glass of green tea, but compounds in the tea trigger a mild chemical stress response. Your body reacts to compounds in the tea by bolstering its antioxidation response, resulting in a net benefit from the mild stressor.

This is where the science ends and the philosophy begins. On a genetic level, we are built to handle stress. I'm not saying that living in a constant state of life-or-death fear is beneficial. However, we are capable of accomplishing great things under pressure. And moreover, we're made stronger by the stress. Something to keep in mind as we head into another work week.

Building the perfect rocking chair.

I have the highest respect for craftsmen. Today, a friend sent me this photo of a beautiful set of rocking chairs and a table in various stages of production. I try and use the mindset of a craftsman for the things that truly matter.

A craftsman doesn't think of his work as art -- though it is. A craftsman doesn't think of her occupation as a higher calling. They simply employ their God-given, or practice-honed skills. Their tools become an extension of their hands and their minds -- an extension of themselves. To call it an avocation puts an obstruction between the work and the worker.

I just want to build a really great rocking chair. And then do it again.

What I learned this week: 04.18.16-04.22.16

• I suspected this for a long time, but solitude is an essential element for creativity. And also, creative people are crazy, but have sufficient coping mechanisms to compensate. 
• Intermittent fasting is not as terrible as it sounds. I've been eating dinner around 8 p.m., then eating a combined breakfast and lunch at 2 p.m. daily, with one bulletproof coffee somewhere in the mix prior to 2 p.m., if needed. Why? Find out here. Also, cancer.
• Humility. Again, and again, and again, humility. Trying to have all of the answers as a leader is an exercise in futility. What's more important is arriving at the right answers with your team.
• There are three effective methods of journalistic storytelling (a neat way of compartmentalizing the different approaches):

1. What: The mayor got arrested yesterday for using public workers to build his garage.
2. So what?: The mayor, who was arrested yesterday for using public workers to build his garage, represents the third in a string of Gotham public officials who have charged with misuse of the DPW.
3. Now what?: How a culture of cronyism in the DPW coupled with machine politics has lead to rampant misuse of taxpayer money. 

I didn't feel like working out. So I worked out.

The temptation to not work out was strong this morning. I knew I'd be going to late-night jiu jitsu. I'd get my exercise. I'd be sore later in the day. I'd be tired on the mat. Easy to rationalize exercise away.

I was giving myself a pass. I was cutting myself slack. I can't allow slack.

As Jocko Willink has pointed out several times on his podcast, if you have the ability and the time, there's no good reason not to train. Life builds in breaks. There will always be the day when your car is in the shop, or the kids are late for school, or the hot water heater breaks. Those are the kinds of days when I take breaks. Today was not one of them.

The workout above is a good no-excuse routine if you already have a baseline level of fitness. I came up with it this morning. All you need is a kettlebell and some room to jump and move. Perform each of the moves in order, taking breaks as needed. The goal is to get through five sets as quickly as you can while maintaining good form. I made it through in just under 19 minutes. Think you can beat my time?