Coach Dre argues that applying Agile principles to your personal life helps you pause work, let go of tasks, and find your purpose. He critiques productivity culture that measures worth by external metrics, pushing instead for inner validation and deeper inquiry into what actually matters.
Chapters
How's everybody doing today? This is your coach, Dre. Came today to Brander Mill, which is in Midlothian, about 30 minutes away in Short Pump, Virginia, where I live. It's a really beautiful place. They have their reservoir here, and, um, it's just a pretty sight, very relaxing. Just want to show you a little bit of that before I say a few things that come to mind. So, very calm and tranquil place. And, uh, you've been following my stories and also posts, more in the past posts, but lately more stories. I try to show to you guys how beautiful the world around us is and how sometimes we need to pause from all of the craziness of life and just enjoy the beauty of nature. Everything around us that is so natural that we overlook and save for later times of our life. Like, don't get me wrong, I have my backpack, work backpack full of computers and other electronics with me to do my work pretty much anywhere I am. And luckily I live, I guess, in a time where I can do that just like you can. And at the same time, it is unfortunate because it's very difficult to distract yourself from work that's continuously pouring in you in the form of messages, notifications, phone calls, and other mediums. But what I've learned lately, and what I encourage all of you to do, is to just let go. Let go sometimes of everything that you were planning to do for a certain period of your day, week, for even months. Not procrastinate, but intentionally let go of it or postpone it, depending on the priority and necessity and even complexity of the task or project. That is important because that is living life according to true Agile values that I've been trying to teach you or facilitate to you that mindset so you would look at life in a different way. It's not necessarily a better way, it's a way of life that focuses on you at the core. A lot of people ask me, "What does Agile have to do with personal life?" It has to do everything. We go to work, we interact with people, clients, stakeholders, our leaders, bosses, whatever you want to call them. And it all has to do about the synergy of leadership, team energy and dynamics, and also communications. Agile is all about communications. It's a framework for managing projects in different frameworks in it, or methodology, better to say. But I look at it as a state of mind. And for me, Agile foremost is finding peace within amidst of all of the informational chaos that we are engulfed in from the moment that we are basically mature adults, more or less. And at this point in the evolution of humanity, probably from the very beginning. Our parents are neurotic, our friends are neurotic, our teachers are neurotic, and then our bosses are neurotic, and you're engulfed in the state of neuroticism and somewhat toxicity where the only form of validation or gratification is, you know, digital medium, and also at the same time electronic funding. So for big bucks or for whatever money you're paid, your mouth is supposed to be kept shut and you're supposed to be happy and you're supposed to take more load and more load and more load. You're not supposed to bitch about it. But the truth is, life is much more than that. Life is very finite and it's very fast. When you turn a certain age like I have, being 40 recently, you start to realize that. And what matters is really not all the crap you have to deal with on a regular basis. It's what is it that you remember from yesterday? What is it that you've accomplished today for yourself that you will, going to bed, remember and truly appreciate? What are those moments in time? I don't think about all of the emails I have answered, all of the projects I've led, and all of the customers and networking events I've attended. I think about life as a big journey. And for me, enjoying moments like this on a Monday afternoon when I'm still supposed to be grinding as an entrepreneur, which I grind every day, without exception, day and night, whenever is necessary. But I know, at least I've learned overall, to stop time, to let go of all the communications, and just relax and peacefully just embrace all the beauty around me. It is important to learn this concept of controlling time, your time, in your peace, in your own way, if you want to be truly happy in life. And happiness isn't really the money you get or the things you buy or other material possessions for that matter, or even academic or professional achievements. That's not what happiness is about. Happiness is deeper understanding of life and the big why behind life. That's at least how I, again, position it through True Agile Mindset and True Agile School of Thought, and most lately movement. For me, this is something as revolutionary as everything that was discovered before us by great philosophers and psychologists of the time, like Carl Jung, Freud, Nietzsche, and much, much earlier ones like Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. I'm not claiming that I'm an expert on any of these in terms of understanding and assessing their work, in full depth. At least I'm still in my transformation journey of appreciating all of these wonderful, great agilists, as I call them, true agilists. But a lot of information that I've absorbed over time and continue to absorb on a regular basis makes me think deeper and deeper about life, and that's why I'm sharing it with you. I have no doubts that to some people things that I publish and write about or talk about in the community are true baloney because their mindset is not in that place where mine is, I guess. But interesting fact is that I don't judge them. I don't claim to be better or worse than them. I just happen to to be, as I see it, more enlightened in terms of the things that matter to me, deeper things of life, deeper things of meaning that I share with you. You don't have to take everything I say or write for granted, and you're welcome to check your sources and do your own research. But the bottom line is pretty much everything I share doesn't come from my encyclopedical texts or scientific publications. It comes from inner validation, which is my subconscious that I've evolved, I've developed over time, finding much deeper meaningful and spiritual connection with it to validate the conscious. So my validation that I'm seeking, for information that I'm getting, and for everything I'm observing on a day-to-day basis is my own subconscious, which interestingly enough is connected to conscious because there's a logical component. You know that if you've been following me. So what I'm trying to say is that I highly encourage you to pause some sometimes and truly, truly enjoy the life around you. Ask yourself important empirical questions that will make you think and possibly reconsider the direction that you're moving in. Don't be afraid of that. And the more fearful you are of losing something that you have, which has to do with the conscious world and material possessions, and even people that you have that you think you love, or maybe you really do love them and they love you back, the more chances are that you will lose all that. No, this is not me being pessimistic. This is just me being realistic from the standpoint of the way the laws of the universe work. So with that in mind, as you dive deeper and deeper into your subconscious realm, and find that parity and equilibrium with your ikigai, which is another old Japanese technology that I teach in my Tri-Agil school of thought, through my seminars and lectures and workshops, you will understand everything I'm talking about. And most importantly, I want to leave you with this thought: I'm not anyone other than a messenger for you. I am your miro. I would love to claim to be the modern Carl Jung of these times, but I'm still far away from that. I don't know, maybe one day I will be validated by the society in such a way. Looking at life through my modern contemporary agile lens. But for the time being, I like to be just an evangelist of my own philosophy and psychology, paired with other things. And being a messenger for those that are trying to seek understanding of life and trying to find a deeper meaning of life. If you're one of these people, I highly, highly would love to meet and talk to you because I think together we can make the world a better place and truly evolve this movement that is honestly pro bono by most part. I do paid coaching and consulting sessions, don't get me wrong, but the whole idea, the whole concept concept and the framework itself, by itself, is accessible and available. It's all mainly available on my LinkedIn. A lot of the work is out there. I'm not concealing anything from you. And if you have additional questions and you'd like to understand, I always provide first initial complimentary session, 45 to 60 minutes long, So, I'm happy to devote this time to serve you, serve others, for better good of the society and the world at large. Thank you so much for listening. It was a true pleasure. And may Torajil Force be with you as always, now and on.
