The full collection of explorations.
When you lie down for bed and realize you have to go to the bathroom, you have 2 choices:
1. Do what’s immediately uncomfortable and get up to go.
2. Do what’s immediately comfortable and hold it in hope it won’t wake you up later.
Option 2 almost always is a bad idea.
And so it is for most other choices in life that are immediately comfortable.
If this person/ place/ thing doesn’t serve your higher purpose why are you investing time/ energy/ effort into it/ them?
Built into this question is the assumption that you know what your higher purpose is.
If you don’t, all actions become arbitrary; all uses of time become fungible.
If you want to arrive at a certain type of destination, you need to point the GPS of your actions towards it.
And you need to know well enough not to get off every exit of the highway while you’re on your way.
Random wandering—random uses of time—can only get you, by definition, nowhere in particular.
Be generous with your thoughts.
When those who express kind, constructive, supportive thoughts are quiet, then our collective mind is taken over by those who spew overwhelming amounts of the opposite.
We may only be one, but we are connected to ten.
And so are they.
Emotionally charged energy is amongst the most powerful sources of energy for a human there is.
Think about the energy of a mom when she’s protecting her child’s life, or the lover after they’ve experienced heartbreak, or even a friend when they see a ref make a bad call during a sports game.
It’s during some of our most emotional moments when we are filled with some of our most potent, raw sources of energy.
What matters isn’t where it comes from—whether from perceptively positive or negative emotions—but how we choose to channel and express it.
Choose a constructive outlet and it can fuel the erection of an entire city.
Choose a destructive outlet and it can level the likes of an entire city.
The worst thing you can do is give it no outlet.
For energy left to pressurize without any source of release has but one, ultimate fate: explosion.
And what a tragedy for destruction to come from the energy that could have created so much for so many.
This post became the afterword for: A Short Story About Frida Kahlo And The Unexpected Gifts Pain Can Provide [Excerpt]
Netflix, Playstation, Night Clubs = Hiding Places
Journals, Retreats, Deep Conversations = Finding Places
If you really want to find yourself, stop spending all of your time in hiding places.
The work of living your best life is to set higher standards and then not compromise them.
Higher standards than who? Compared to what?
Compared to the standards you might hold yourself to when living your worst or mediocre life.
When you commit to a higher standard, you’re committing to a harder path.
And why would you want to do that?
Not because taking hard paths is fun, but because taking hard paths is meaningful.
And meaning is, ultimately, what most of us are after.
You don’t hear people asking: “What’s the fun of life?”
People ask: “What’s the meaning of life?”
And while I don’t think there’s a universal explicit answer to this question, what I do know is that always doing what’s easy won’t lead you there.
Doing what’s hard (more likely) will.
So long as it’s hard work that’s meaningful to you. Work that’s aligned with your priorities, strengths, aptitudes, and interests. Work that’s reflective of your higher standards.
This isn’t to say you can’t update and revise your standards as you grow, change, and mature.
It’s merely to say if you give yourself an easier option, that’s the one you’ll ultimately take.
Don’t allow yourself to fall into that trap. Set your standards and hold yourself to them.
Compromise at your own risk.
I don’t know who needs to hear this but, this is one of the most powerful questions I’ve ever come across:
What good can come from this?
There’s always something.