Resist the temptation to believe you’ll be around for a while.
For buried beneath that idea are the invaluable treasures of your life that you’ll always have thought you’d have more time to excavate.
…You’ll never have enough time to excavate them all. Better not waste any time and unearth all that you can.
…While you’re still here and know that you still can.
P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.
Modern day culture is pushing all of us—especially those swallowed deep within its massive current—towards dopamine, dopamine, dopamine with increasing intensity with each passing day.
Soak up the diagram below which illustrates these modern day currents:
The danger with surrendering to this current is that it pushes us further and further into a never ending cycle of short-term pleasure seeking where we do a dopamine releasing task, which causes the neurochemical dopamine to be released, which makes us feel good, which makes us want to repeat the stimulus, which makes us do the domaine releasing task again, and so forth until it’s repeated so much it turns into a habit and eventually—an addiction.
This addiction, like all addictions, becomes increasingly hard to satisfy which leads us further and further downstream towards increasingly intense dopamine releasing sources (e.g. doom-scrolling, gambling, nsfw content, etc). And this, of course, leads to derailed lives.
Rheotaxis is the general tendency of an organism—like a fish—to orient themselves and swim against the flow, rather than with it. And the more I look at the above diagram, the more I think they’re onto something. There are many theories on why fish do this, but the one I like to believe is that they know—be it instinctually or experientially—that upstream is where better living is found.
Maybe because it leads to the development of strength; maybe because it increases their mental acuity/awareness; maybe because it’s where the more fulfilling rewards are found…
…And maybe it’s the same for us humans and we should consider reorienting, too.
If your weeks and months don’t contain pockets of time dedicated to your year and decade goals… you’re not serious about reaching them.
Think about what you want your health and fitness to be like in a year or a decade… and ask yourself, do the pockets of time inside your weeks and months match that kind of outcome?
Do the same for what you want your relationships, side hustles or finances, intellect or skill sets to be like in a year or a decade… and then take some time to reorganize this week’s or this month’s time.
…Nothing contains regret more than goals minus any kind of regular time commitment.
P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.
Whether you want to confront the reality or not: you won’t be here much longer to give your gifts yourself.
And while many people focus heavily on taking for themselves: taking educational classes, taking opportunities, taking trips/vacations, etc… it’s the ones who give back what they’ve gained from the things they’ve taken who get to participate in the pay-it-forward ripple effect.
…The one that begins with a selfless act tossed gracefully into the pond of a local community and causes an invisible series of waves that flow outward for as long as the impacted components are inspired in depth.
And if you ever want to have others give gifts to the world on your behalf, your best strategy is to give abundantly to them now.
Now, obviously, it’s hard to give without first having taken what others and the world have offered to give.
…But, it’s simply naive to think others would continue giving on your behalf if you haven’t offered anything back to others and the world from what you’ve taken.
Today felt like a hectic, busy day.
Like whenever I finished one thing, five other things immediately came to mind that I had to do. And the more time I spent thinking about those five other things, the more stressed I felt.
One thing that helped, however, was deliberately reconnecting to the present moment.
There were a few instances throughout my day, for example, when I caught myself stressing myself out and I interrupted the pattern by deliberately focusing on a present moment task.
In one instance, I caught myself thinking about all of the things I had to catch up with at work during my morning workout and I reframed my focus towards getting the best pump I could with each strengthening rep instead.
In another instance, I caught myself thinking about all of the home chores I had to catch up on during my afternoon break and I reframed my focus towards the beautiful day we were having and stepped outside, took a seat on my porch, and meditated quietly for five minutes instead.
And in another instance, I caught myself thinking about all of my upcoming travel plans that needed to be confirmed as I was unwinding from work and I reframed my focus towards each step of my evening dog walk… and then each dish as the soap and hot water ran through my fingers… and then each word as I sat at my desk and typed this short message for you.
And it was in thinking about these moments today that I realized… the antidote to busy (that doesn’t want to change)… is presence.
“Please love your community enough to repair what we broke.”
Kiese Laymon
It can be tempting to say, “Not my fault; not my problem.”
And it can be even more tempting to point fingers at who’s fault it is and talk endlessly about who caused what problems in our community.
Enter mainstream media.
But, it takes real maturity… real character… real strength… to rise above finger pointing, gossip, and blame—and actually do something about the problems at hand.
…Which isn’t to say those at fault shouldn’t be held responsible.
It’s simply to say, don’t waste your time merely talking and pointing.
If it isn’t your job to investigate fault or decide convictions… then don’t. Or at least don’t spend all of your time on it (for those who decide the ones whose job it is to do those things aren’t doing them).
As Kiese says above, choose love instead.
Love your community and the people in it so much that your convictions to change what’s broken rises above the fingers, gossip, and blame.
Love your community and the people in it so much that you volunteer some of your free time from your crazy schedule to help with its improvement.
Love your community and the people in it so much that your focus on it and them drowns out what the finger points, gossipers, and blame-gamers have to say…
…And things actually get better as a result.
P.s. 23 Quotes on Changing the World and How To Start Making a Difference
