Good, fast, cheap: pick 2

Good, Cheap, Fast -- Pick 2.

Do you guys remember that scene in the L Word where the hot carpenter and Bette are about to cheat, but first the hot carpenter lays down some budgetary guidelines for her contractual work?   I think about this scene everyday, and it's not because the hot carpenter was daringly styled in overalls 12 years before they staged a comeback.   It's because of that little triangle she draws:

Good, Cheap, Fast: pick 2.

She tells Bette that when it comes to construction of Art Gallery Things (I can't remember what she supposed to be building, by the way. A really big frame? The Seeds of their Torrid Affair?) she can only have 2 of the 3 points on the triangle.  What a declaration!  I am pretty sure the rest of the scene is about how this triangle might apply to lesbian sex.  But the reason I think about this scene every single day is because it applies just as much to organizing strategy as it does to building art things, or whatever the hot carpenter was supposed to be doing.  In my experience, when you're doing meaningful organizing you've automatically selected "Cheap" as your 1st option.  I am very passionate about people doing fewer things in organizing and communications so that they can be more thoughtful in their practice -- which means I hope "Good" is your 2nd option.  Therefore, per the Hot Carpenter Theory of Change:

a quality project done

with limited resources will take a long ass time.

This hypothesis generally vibes with my experiences. Whether you're planning an organizing campaign, trying to build a powerful base in a new neighborhood, or overhauling the american political landscape, this shit takes a while.  To become a quality speaker & storyteller, you need to build a consistent, long term habit of practicing those skills.  That doesn't have to mean spending hours and hours on tongue twisters everyday, or dropping everything, including sleep, to prep the night before a big interview.  In fact, you'll probably be more consistent if building this skill never takes you more than a few minutes a week.   Building this habit is part of a process called The GAPE Method.  And like Hot L Word Carpenter says, the first step is to make time to improve.   With that in mind, I wanted to share something I put together as I was writing the first episode of 5 Minute Speech Coach.  It's designed to help you carve out time every day to reflect, even for just a few minutes.  Having this time already picked out will make everything else in 5 Minute Speech Coach a lot easier.

Then, we'll be ready for the first step in the GAPE method: Goals.   Talk to you soon, - H   PS -- I read every response, so let me know where you stand on overalls in 2019.