I can’t make you listen to me. I can’t make you care about what I am saying. And I can’t force you to engage in an honest conversation. But I do have more influence over all three than I’ve been willing to admit.

I have come to terms with something that would have bothered me considerably when I was younger: I am going to die with things left on my to-do list.

There is nothing wrong with good gear. I like good gear – probably more than I should. But good gear has a strange ability to make us feel a little better than we actually are.

It’s a whole lot more fun to go to the mailbox.

“Sorry. I was hangry.” We laugh because we understand it. Most of us have experienced the remarkable deterioration of our personality when lunch is three hours late.

But…while hunger may explain why I became irritable, it doesn’t give me permission to make everyone around me pay for it.

I tried to write something insightful for you this week. I brainstormed, reflected, even rested with it. I thought some more…

I got nothin’.

In 1985 I bought a used 1982 Yamaha XJ750 Maxim. That same motorcycle is sitting in my garage today. Reflecting on the 40 years between those two moments brought me to today’s Stretch.

Highly effective people know how to absorb responsibility, organize complexity, and produce results quickly. But their ability to carry more can create a dangerous assumption:

That they should.

I knew how to use a microphone. At least, I thought I did. But it took less than five seconds for me to destroy thousands of dollars’ worth of professional audio equipment.

We have a serious problem in our household. We have a “flat surface” problem.

Virtually every inactive flat surface in our home seems to be laden with something that belongs somewhere else.

Stacks of paper over here. Books over there. Laundry to be folded. A bag by the door. A box on a chair.

We are not hoarders. Our home is not unclean. It’s just not always tidy or ordered because every available flat surface eventually becomes a temporary landing zone. At least, we call it “temporary.”