If they’re not the epitome of feckless governance, unfunded mandates are very high on the list.

Legislating the way things should be without resourcing the “commitment” is no commitment at all, nor is it a bold claim to a better future.

Priorities that aren’t grounded in budgets are just wishes, and they’re more painful for the implementers than simply telling them to do less with less.

Of course, government isn’t the only culprit: as anyone knows who’s ever received a friendly “suggestion” or a zillion high-priority requests with no regard for context, unfunded mandates are everywhere in daily life.

Professionals don’t provide advice or requests in the form of an unfunded mandate.

If you’re presenting an idea to the boss, acknowledge her context: if you feel you need free lunch to work effectively, present it alongside a proposal for where the money’s going to come from, not just a list of your reasons.

Most of all, when authority is devolved and responsibility is there for the taking (which is more often than you think!), don’t just suggest a helpful improvement. If you’re generous of spirit, bold of intellect, and humble of ego, go ahead and show us a better way. Even if your way isn’t perfect, the mere act of making things better will set a powerful ratchet in motion.

Professional services are essentially about selling outcomes.

Work with us, and you’ll break through your blocks.

Hire us to do your logo, and business will boom.

If you want to get your message to the right people, give us a call.

And, if we’re selling outcomes, we’re really dancing with attachments. People don’t hire personal trainers or consultants in order to feel comfortable doing the work; they hire them to feel better afterward.

So we have a responsibility to think clearly about the attachments and outcomes we’re playing with, and to ask ourselves and our clients if they’re in line with reality. Are we selling fad diets, or are we selling new habits that can make for healthier lives?

Being attached to an outcome — quarterly growth, body image, productivity — is one thing. Aligning with reality — creating value, living healthily, building habits that allow us to create work that matters — is something else.

If you’re going to play with attachments, it’s best to keep them aligned with reality.

The death of magic is not failure but cutting it down to size.

When magic works, we’re amazed — it’s magic!

When it doesn’t, we’re not too surprised — it’s magic, after all.

But when we think we understand the mechanism, magic dies. What once was dazzling now appears as fakery: it’s not flight, it’s a person on a bunch of wires against a painted backdrop.

Doctors, teachers, coaches, leaders, and artists of all kinds practice magic every day. It doesn’t always work: patients don’t heal, lessons don’t go according to plan, a call to unity falls flat on deaf ears.

But the good ones always approach magic with a sense of reverence, whether or not it works. Cynical magic — channeling power as though we’re safely in charge, isn’t magic at all, but con artistry.

There’s a lot of talk about vulnerability and service in leadership. By and large, that’s a good thing: leaders who are serious about vulnerability and service are often better than the other kind.

But, at some point, the essential characteristic of a leader is that she’s willing and able to lead. Sometimes, that means leading a group to go deeper by being the first to show uncertainty or fear. Other times, though, a leader needs to embody the certainty that people are looking for, even if she’s not feeling perfectly certain of herself.

Uncertain leaders can really benefit by stretching themselves in the company of surefooted followers. And uncertain followers can grow by emulating a leader’s example.

Yet uncertain leadership of uncertain followers can be a risky combination. Dropping the reins can get you bucked off just as quickly as holding too tightly.

During my high school trumpet-playing days, I learned a technique called circular breathing. I never mastered it, but the idea is that a brass player who needs to hold a note longer than any possible breath can puff out his cheeks and use that air to sustain a note for a moment while he sneaks a quick breath through his nose.

From time to time, we’re all asked to sustain an activity beyond our natural endurance. And, at those times, we have to find techniques to keep up our output and get our necessary inputs even by unusual methods.

How do you sleep when rowing across the ocean? How do you rest during a 100-mile bike ride? How do you keep your commitments when life feels exceptionally busy?

Sometimes, you need to know how to do the thing that will leave everyone asking, “How does he do that?”

The answer is never magic, or superhuman. Fundamentally, it’s all about finding a more effective technique.

Today begins a new adventure.

I’m starting the monthlong sprint of Seth Godin’s altMBA, fulfilling a dream I’ve had since I first heard Seth ask, “What is school for?“

I’ve got the first-day-of-school shivers, which are a powerful reminder of the value of going on an adventure like this on a regular basis.

Some of my biggest growth spurts have come from experiences like this, when I’ve signed up to be stretched and stepped into it for all I’m worth. (Tip o’ the cowboy hat and the bicycle helmet to NOLS, Alanya, Galway, Omak, Skagway, and On Being.)

Like many people, I have a pattern of associating adventure with faraway places.

But I’ve come to see that adventure is often available much closer to home. It’s mostly a matter of attitude.

This should be an amazing month. And, as summer winds its way toward September, I hope you’re able to find an opportunity for adventure, too.

Cheers to leveling up.

I won’t be the first to predict at least a realignment or more likely a disintegration of the U.S. political parties.

But I want to take another look at why that might be coming, and how it might happen.

In the first place, our culture — and especially our media — is amplifying the longstanding instinct to pick the opposite of who’s in charge now. From Bush to Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump, each successive president has not only been of the other party, but a bigger departure from the mean. And the 2020 Democratic field is full of people set to continue the pattern.

Second, we still don’t seem to fully understand confirmation bias. People hate to be wrong, and the more they ride the swings in our culture, the harder it is for them to safely parachute back to center. One of the biggest political riddles we face right now is the need to find a way to provide a clear and safe path back from the brink for people who’ve camped out on the edges.

Third, the long tail is finally coming to politics. The two-party system is one of the last great duopolies in American life — and it will only be controlled by people who grew up with only three TV networks for so much longer. It shouldn’t be too surprising that Millennials and Gen-Xers, who’ve grown up with the infinite choices of YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, and all the rest, are totally fed up with the political duopoly.

So, a few predictions:

• Just as 2016’s huge field produced a radical result on the Republican side, 2020 is the Democrats’ turn.
• As Jon Haidt has demonstrated, liberals don’t have the same tribal loyalty impulse that conservatives do. As a result, the Democratic party will splinter first.
• Young people will keep leaning out (or picking radicals) until and unless they see the kind of choice they’re accustomed to in every other area of life. And then they’re going to have to learn how to compromise their way into coalition.

Hold on to your hats.

In a project-based economy, self-management is one of the most important skills to develop.

Which begs the question, how well are our educational and cultural systems currently preparing people to manage themselves?

If I were hiring people today, I’d put self-management ability at or very near the top of the list of qualities I’d be hiring for.

And if I were a student or job-seeker, I’d be looking for any and all opportunities to develop my capacity to manage myself. Especially if an excursion from the usual path feels scary, it might be just the experience to seek out — at least for a little while — in order to make the most of the opportunities that follow.

Giving good feedback is an art.

Responding to it is another.

When someone is generous enough to give good, clear, direct, and helpful feedback, consider the emotional labor involved: there’s a lot of tension and uncertainty in crafting and delivering the message, and especially in waiting for the response.

Responding quickly with care and compassion, in a way that makes clear you respect the other person’s courage, is a sign of real courage and strength.

Several days ago, I had to do something I wasn’t sure I had the energy to do.

Speaking with a friend beforehand, I gave vent to some of the fear and frustration: Could I do it? How would it go? If it mattered to me to give people what they came for, how could I possibly go on stage when I felt I had so little to give?

My friend generously predicted that I would not only be fine, but that I’d find my groove through the simple act of showing up. “I bet you’ll have a harder time coming back down than going up,” she observed with a smile.

Sure enough, she was right. The show went on, not because I felt ready, but because it was showtime. And, afterward, I found I was able to turn back to my work for several hours with the energy I’d been seeking all day.

It’s really scary to put on the show when you’re not feeling an ounce of show biz in you. But if you don’t give yourself the option to back down and merely inhabit the role instead, you may find a depth of commitment and contribution you didn’t expect.