How to Choose a Great Precedent
Today's the perfect reminder that YOU are the best choice to lead your life!
Remember 2020?
The year when everything went really, really weird? A global pandemic. An economy shut down. No masks — or toilet paper — or jobs for millions. And on top of it all, a Presidential Election that didn’t end on voting day.
But do you remember what happened next?
You made it.
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Here’s what I wrote the day after the 2020 election:
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the 2020 election would remain undecided this morning. Par for the course for a year that has turned every expectation on its head. Still, there’s a gentle reminder to be found in these moments of uncertainty:
It's not about who gets elected; it's about what YOU elect to do!
I still believe that’s true — more than ever. I got in an Uber last night and the driver said, “I just hope it’s over by Wednesday this time. I don’t care who wins; I just want it to stop.” This is from a man who emigrated to the U.S. thirty years ago, became a citizen, raised a family, started a business — and sounded more patriotic than any John Wayne movie.
So I stick by what I said four years ago. Whatever happens, you’ll make it, too.
What happens in our lives is 99% what we elect to do. All the worries about who runs the halls of government are less important than we realize. Let’s be honest: You’ve spent most of your life figuring out ways to reach goals despite government decisions, no matter who was in charge. (If you don’t believe that, go watch a four-way stop-sign intersection anywhere in America.)
So you’ll do it again, tomorrow and next week.
That’s why I pay less attention to the Presidents of my day and focus more on the precedents in my life that can take me as far as I want to go.
And nobody will ever get a vote on that!
Electing Your Precedent Matters Most
Think of all the times you’ve faced challenges — or if you prefer, set goals and accomplished them. I’ve faced frightening medical diagnoses multiple times. I’ve started, run, and closed multiple businesses. I’ve lived in many places, done many kinds of jobs, overcame economic cycles — and even that crazy pandemic. What mattered most wasn’t what someone else elected to do — but the precedents I’d set in my life before then.
For example, when I got kidney cancer (five years after beating lung cancer), the doctors were pretty confused: other signs indicated bigger, systemic problems. For eight weeks, I lived in incredibly stressful uncertainty about my future. Every test, every scan, every specialist had a different opinion: Not unlike the period leading up to this election (every poll, pundit, and person online is contributing to your stress).
Like all moments of change in our lives, they’re uncharted waters. The only choice is to make a choice and see what happens.
Which is why past Precedents matter.
What we’ve learned from our past can help. So can our habits and disciplines and little investments along the way. Ironically, I’d been through it all before with lung cancer; yet it seemed different enough. That’s how change works.
I remember waiting weeks at one point for a critical test. My anxiety and fears were out of control. I could barely keep myself from crying all day.
So I called my mentor.
I told him what everyone was saying.
He listened carefully. Then he asked one question:
“What did you do the last time?”
It was one of the most important reminders of my life.
Not just because I believe in the power of self-talk. And not that I believe we should keep doing what we’ve only done.
But because we often forget we’ve been successful dealing with uncertainty in the past.
That’s the most important Precedent to keep in mind.
My mentor reminded me that I had elected precedents many times which helped me determine my own future. “You were someone who got ill before, and beat it, and bounced back even better. Don’t forget that. Don’t let today’s uncertainty shake your belief in your successful future.”
In other words, your precedents will always nominate you to be your best choice!
Life presents us with big moments. The most likely thing that will happen because of them won’t depend upon anyone else - not a neighbor or competitor or person in Washington. The most probable things that will happen to us will come from how we cast our own vote every day.
You must elect to see the moment as sunrise or sunset.
This is one of my favorite photos. It’s beautiful, but also uncertain. Did I take it in the morning or evening? Are you certain?
The future is called the “unknown country” for a reason. None of us have been there yet: But that’s never stopped us. We face the days just like we face the nights. If the road looks ruinous, we shift our path:
We stop to watch the sunrise — and the sunset — with just as much enthusiasm.
My mentor listened to me carefully. Then he asked one question:
“What did you do last time?”
You can always elect your best precedent.
Each day is a personal fresh election.
A chance to nominate yourself for another day of success.
To cast a vote of confidence in the only leader who makes it happen, anyway.
That’s what it means to have a Great Precedent:
To know that what happened before isn’t gone — it’s always there, to help you again today — make the most of what happens next.
Good things have happened before; they’ll happen again. Just the old campaign ad said before the biggest landslide victory ever:
It’s always morning in America!
The same holds true for you, too.
—M
I’m Matthew Ferrara, and I approve this message. 😉