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Tag: Analogies

Thinking Better Thoughts Doesn’t Just Happen

Published on October 6, 2021

Thoughts are as much outside of your control as they are inside of your control.

It works very much the same as breathing.

When you’re conscious of your mind or breath, you can actively control them.

But, when you’re no longer conscious of them, they carry on without you.

This is why you can’t just demand your mind to start producing better thoughts.

That would be like demanding your lungs to start delivering oxygen better.

You have to improve the thought-producing machine as you would the oxygen-delivering machine(s).

Which doesn’t happen after one exercise session (for either).

It happens after many.

Pace Your Brain

Published on October 3, 2021

Most people never talk about pace when it comes to learning.

Most of what I hear is about consuming as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible (e.g. 2x speed while watching YouTube videos or listening to podcasts).

Pace matters just as much in learning as it does in running a marathon.

Move too quickly through the information and you’ll burnout and resent the process.

Move too slowly and you’ll bore yourself to death (and resent the process).

Find your sweet spot and you’ll become a learner for life.

Keep This At The Top Of Your Priority List

Published on October 2, 2021

You know what one of your top priorities should be?

Figuring out what your top priorities are.

Imagine if you spent your money without any notion of what needed to be budgeted for bills.

Maybe you even remember living like this at one point in your life.

…Probably not for long though.

Because what usually ends up happening is you spend more than you should’ve and then are left short when it comes time to pay bills.

And not because you didn’t have enough money, but because you didn’t properly prioritize your money.

This is how it works for spending time, too.

Spend/budget time on your top priorities first and then spend what remains how you’d like.

The other way around almost always ends with regret.

P.s. 23 Greg McKeown Quotes from Essentialism and How To Live Better Via Less

Love Renewed

Published on September 30, 2021

You can’t just give love once and expect it to last.

…Or twice, or three times, or ten.

Love needs to be regularly renewed.

…Twice, three times, ten times per day!

…Or week or whatever works for you and yours.

But it will only last so long as it is renewed.

As soon as you stop renewing your love, like Netflix, it’ll only be a matter of time before it expires.

How To Clear A Pond

Published on September 27, 2021

Step 1) Stop agitating it. Every disturbance clouds the water and sends ripples of distress throughout. This causes the pond to become cloudy and mudded.

Step 2) Filter the water. When a pond is still, most of the wandering particles will settle and the water will clear. But, running the water through a filtration process will expedite and enhance the process of clearing the water. Filtering also removes particles from the pond altogether rather than simply allowing them to settle to the pond’s floor.

Why should you care?

Because a pond is often used as a metaphor for the mind.

And understanding what disrupts and clears a pond can help us understand what disrupts and clears our mind.

So, how can we follow this same two step process for our mind?

Step 1) Stop agitating it. Every disturbance that you allow in through your senses will cause your mind to cloud and become mudded. Every hateful, demeaning, negative, hurtful, upsetting, gossipy, self-limiting, comparison-oriented thought does this. Exposing yourself to more of the opposite helps; meditating helps; blocking sources that agitate you helps.

Step 2) Filter your thoughts. Writing is thought filtered. When you start writing regularly, you’ll think more clearly, act more deliberately, and understand your emotions more than ever before. You could do gratitude themed writing in the morning, reflective/day-planning/goal oriented writing in the evening, thought-releasing journaling during the day, or just write to a blog like I do about whatever is on your mind.

You’d be surprised at how effective this process is at clearing your mind.

And just think about how much easier it will be to see the content of your mind’s pond once it’s finally cleared…

If Momentum Is Not Your Friend, You’re Foolish

Published on September 22, 2021

Momentum is either your greatest ally or your greatest foe.

Learn how to use momentum in your favor and the tasks of your day will topple over seamlessly, one to the next, like a perfectly aligned series of dominoes.

One push and momentum will take care of the rest.

Ignore momentum and the tasks of your day will topple and stop erratically, requiring you to keep re-pushing the next series of dominoes again and again and again.

For me, getting out of bed in the morning is the initial push of my dominoes which hits:

  • Shower—which hits,
  • Workout—which hits,
  • Breakfast—which hits,
  • Reading—which hits,
  • Driving to work.

The dominoes are beautifully ordered and adequately spaced. All I have to do is get out of bed at the right time and the rest feels automatic.

There’s no guessing. No setting up dominoes as I go. No reshuffling the dominoes after I’ve already tipped the first one… It’s all premeditated, sequential, and intentional.

And once I arrive to work, of course, the next chain of dominoes gets pushed—and so forth, as the day goes on.

Where most people run into momentum issues, is when they don’t take the time to properly set up their dominoes (tasks) ahead of time and/or don’t have them properly spaced out (time management).

If you look at your day in this way, I suspect you’ll find where the missing “dominoes” and irregular spacings lie. Adjust accordingly.

Having momentum as a foe, to be frank, is a stupid waste of time, energy, and effort.

Starting from stopped is always harder than keeping the momentum going.

Momentum, meet reader. Reader, meet momentum.

Now, be friends.

Feelings > Possessions (Part 2)

Published on September 21, 2021

The feelings we crave the most are connected to the feelings that hurt us the most.

The desire to feel:

  • Cool is connected to feeling uncool
  • Admired is connected to feeling un-admirable
  • Impressive is connected to feeling unimpressive

The feelings that pain us are like emotional wounds and the opposite feelings act like the remedy.

Possessions are like band-aids—they only temporarily cover up wounds. And they do nothing to address the pain itself.

If we want to truly heal, then we need to do the same kind of work that our body would when wounded. We need to:

  1. Clot the area and stop picking scabs: The first step is always: don’t make it worse. We need to stop feeding our minds toxic, belittling, hateful information.
  2. Send white blood cells to fight infection: Just like the body can become infected, so, too, can the mind. Every positive, healthy, healing thought and action we can facilitate is like a white blood cell being sent out to fight infection. The more the better.
  3. Create collagen to form new tissue: As the worsening stops, infection is steadily fought, and healing actions continue—pain will subside and new thought processes will form.
  4. Let scars heal: The scar might itch and demand more picking at first, but stay disciplined—eventually it will fade. After a few years, the scar may even disappear completely.

The bottom line: the intensity of our desire for pleasurable feelings is proportional to the intensity of our painful feelings. The more we heal our pains, the less we will need those remedies disguised as opposing feelings.

And we’ll finally be able to rip all the band-aids off.