Jef Reisig

June 4th:

Today is the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment the result of a long, hard fought movement ensuring women the right to vote in the US. It is important to remember Women did not have a vote for more than half of US history. And this was not the only group that had to fight for voting rights. Nor the problem that the passage of voting laws led to different ways of suppressing votes. Making votes count for less. Making it harder for only some people to vote. You see, people in power like to stay in power. It isn’t easy to tip that scale.

Today is also the 30th Anniversary of the tragic protests at Tiananmen Square, an event that we meant to draw attention to large scale government corruption. The government responded with not just soldiers, but tanks. The military fired on the crowd. Student protester casualties numbered in the thousands. It is still not safe for a civilian to talk about the “June 4th Incident” in China to this day.

Remember today that Establishments Fight to Maintain Power.

And what is right does not always win.

For progress we must fight to keep the gears turning.

Fight for yourself.

Fight for others.

Fight.

Thoughts are rarely original.

Neither are names. Ask anyone named Maria Garcia, Muhammed Ahmed, or Tuan Nguyen. All of them outnumber the 50,000 James Smith’s in the US. Each Zhang Wei in the world is sharing the name with over 300,000 others.

Feel for the less famous individuals that accidentally get named the same as a celebrity. To these less famous souls; they are not the “alternative” Don Trump, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Brad Pitt, Hillary Clinton, or John Kennedy. To them, they are the REAL Don Trump, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Brad Pitt, Hillary Clinton, or John Kennedy and that other person is the alternate. Fame be damned.

There are more than7.5 billion humans on the planet. Parents name kids out of “traditional” naming pools so kids can fit in. Even those who try and use untraditional names seem to pick from similar pools. It isn’t the child’s fault their fault they will be the 400th person to be named Khaleesi.

Ideas share a duplication problem. Rarely are our great ideas original. Those 7.5 billion people generate a lot of thoughts. Those 7.5 billion people share very human problems. Your “original idea” probably has, even as a conservative estimate, more than several hundred doppelgängers out there.

Never underestimate the power of shear numbers.

Is it impossible to have a unique idea? No. You also quite probably have many brand new, first time in the universe, one-off ideas every day. And after all, there has to be a first time any idea is thought.

The issue is you don’t have a very good tool set to figure out which of your ideas are new to the human race, or if 75 million people (about 1% of the world) have had the same idea at some time. It might be the 800 millionth time the idea was thought today.

Chances are the “great” idea you had today is not unique. But it is new, and brilliant to YOU.

For those of you starting something “New,” it is important to remember that the idea may not be unique, but the inclination to act on the idea IS rare. And a good idea, is still a good idea, no matter how many million times it was thought today.

I usually use quiet moments in life for planning. I have always enjoyed the activity. To me laying out a plan is like playing a game of solitaire, or solving a Sudoku puzzle. It distracts me.  It makes me feel smart for a few minutes. It leaves me with the feeling of drinking warm milk next to a fireplace.

Unfortunately, it solves nothing.

All the planning in the world breaks down the second you start applying your machinations to real life.

Every plan gets damaged. Interrupted. Ruined as it fights for life. Once execution begins, arrows pierce its side. Its wheels will fall off unexpectedly as you get up to full speed. Avalanches bar its path. Other peoples’ plans will interfere. No plan ever holds together one hundred percent.

But a plan is still worth making.

It keeps you focused. It forces you to achieve.

You know what is just on the other side of every setback. You revise the plan with every obstacle. Not every change is written down. Not every obstacle can be overcome. But you can edit. You can revise.

Critics will call you out. Many will have faces you know and love. But you are the one with the plan. It is your responsibility to carry it out. They only know small pieces of the whole. They do not stand in your place. They do not know the exhaustion. The trial. The injury. They only casually watch from the corners. They do not bleed with you.

You will grow weary with your plan. You will also grow strong. Months of work, toil and setback build your endurance. And sometimes it will crush your soul.

Sometimes I lose track of the plan. Months, sometimes years, later I will find old iterations in scraps of paper or loose data files. And while timelines may not hold, I usually find most of the milestones accomplished. Never in the way I thought they would be. But accomplished.  And in the reflection, I feel like I am drinking warm milk by the fire once again.

It is so important to not be scared of who you are.

Every day we wake up with a blank canvas of how we present ourselves to the world.

Every day we slip into an old routine or two. We become our “job self” or “family self” always leading our mannerisms, speech and actions to  a caricature or what others believe about us.

This is convenient. We get up, put on our costume, leave for the day play our part in the play of everyday life. But it is not the only option.

It is very important to remember this is a choice. There is no real boundary to  who you want to be today.

We can all change if we want to.