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Category: Thinking Clearly

What Causes Your Effects?

You cannot have an effect without a cause.

Your actions are an effect.

If you don’t like your actions: look closer at what’s causing them.

The real cause(s) might not be as obvious as you initially think.

You might be short towards a coffee shop employee because you didn’t get a good night sleep.

Or you might be short towards a coffee shop employee because of a grudge you’ve been building towards a loved one—which inadvertently has been causing you to lose sleep and your temper.

Being proactive in understanding your causes is the secret to having more clearly understood effects.

Like You Mean It

Back up. Chin up. Eyes straight ahead.

When you speak? Speak loud and clear.

Presentation is important. Delivery is important.

When you do these things, the exact same words said in the exact same context hit completely differently.

And your words, the ones you so carefully chose, will stand to reach their full potential.

What a shame to see them end up otherwise.

Care-More-Ness

Freedom doesn’t come from care-less-ness (doing what you want, when you want to).

Freedom comes from care-more-ness (doing what you should, when you know it’s time to).

Because while it’s true that you are free to do whatever you want, you are NOT free from the consequences of those decisions.

Go ahead and rob a bank—you’re free to try. But, that’ll be the end of your freedom for a while.

Only those who care-more earn the type of freedom that allows them to do what they want, when they want to.

  • The more you care for your body, the more free your movement becomes.
  • The more you care for you mind, the more free your thinking becomes.
  • The more you care for your relationships, the more liberating those relationships become.

And so it is for the opposite of the above mentioned examples.

But, what about vices?

Caring more for drama, drugs, and distractions definitely doesn’t lead to freedom. Which is why caring more is about prioritizing the things you know you should be caring more about. Things like having vulnerable conversation, experientially living, and thinking deeply.

A destination that ends with more freedom, never starts with less caring.

Update And Expand

Applications will only do what they’re programmed to do.

A dictionary application that’s programmed to pull up a certain word when it’s searched for—will only do that.

And so it is with your mind.

A mindset that’s programmed to pull up a certain response when it’s presented with a certain problem—will only do that.

This is why language is essential—it is literally the means through which programs are updated. Both in applications and the mind.

HTML, for example, is a language used by developers to design how web page elements (hyperlinks, text, media, etc) are displayed on a computer browser.

Imagine if the first iteration of the language—that was developed and released in 1991—was still the language we used today?

Can you remember what web pages looked like from the 1990’s?

Well guess what? That’s what your mindset looks like when you never update your thinking language either.

Sick of thinking about a problem the same way over and over? Stop using the same language to try and solve it.

Update and expand.

Unplugged or Plugged In?

When your device is unplugged, the battery will drain. Plug it in and it’ll charge.

The opposite seems to be true for the mind.

When your mind is unplugged—from devices, work, drama—the battery recharges.

Plug it in to one of those things, however, and the battery will drain.

If you find your mind in a nonfunctional state, maybe it’s not because you’ve been plugged in too long—but, because you haven’t been unplugged enough.

Turning 32

This year was all about refinement.

  • Less stuff; more space.
  • Less clutter; more clarity.
  • Less noise; more harmony.

Even in (especially in) my writing.

The 31 year old me would have probably tried to compile 32 life lessons learned in 32 years.

But, that didn’t feel appropriate for this year.

This year has been all about saying less, while simultaneously, learning how to say more.

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes.

Sending love and light to you all.

Roots

Don’t let the wind uproot you.
Let its best attempts
To topple, twist, bend, and break
Be the exact force you need
To shimmy your roots deeper
Into the very ground
It was plotting to yank you from.