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Category: Thinking Clearly

Follow The Pain

Published on June 14, 2022

Confidence comes from the pain.

  • The pain of trial
  • The pain of error
  • The pain of persistence

Until eventually, the pain results in a success.

This success shouldn’t mark an end (to pain), but rather a new beginning.

For hiding from pain is the path towards atrophy—the antithesis of success.

Confronting the pain is the path towards hypertrophy—the best friend of success.

And as it is with exercise, working your muscles to hypertrophy once (one success) will have little long-term benefit.

It’s the repeated exposure to the pain (of exercise) that leads to the noteworthy gains in muscular size and ability.

And if you want to increase the “size” and “ability” of your life, you have to treat your confidence “muscles” the same.

…And follow the pain.

No Weakness

Published on June 11, 2022

We don’t succeed because we have no weaknesses.

We succeed because we fully utilize our few strengths.

Trying to eliminate all weakness is a waste of time when you could be using all of that time to massively improve upon your strengths.

Hold Less; Have More

Published on June 10, 2022

The brain is for having ideas—not holding ideas.

Find an app or a paper to do the holding.

And allow your brain to keep firing.

Getting Ahead

Published on June 8, 2022

One of the greatest time and energy killers is in-the-moment self-negotiation.

  • I shouldn’t eat the donut. Buttt, I have been pretty good lately…
  • I should workout. Buttt, I do have a ton to do today…
  • I should read. Buttt, that new TV series though…

Those who plan their day ahead—get ahead.

Not necessarily because of what they plan (we all have a pretty good grasp on what we should be doing daily) but because of the fact that they planned and there will be less time/ energy wasted on figuring things out as they go.

As trivial as this might sound—even one good decision and a couple of minutes saved every day adds up! …I’ll take 365 minutes of my time back per year thank you very much.

Never leave your important decision making to the moment—it’s an awful time and energy sucking guide.

Do your figuring out ahead of time and focus all of your time/ energy on executing what’s ahead.

…And get ahead.

Paid In Full [Poem]

Published on June 5, 2022 
What we pay for in attention
We purchase in identity

What we consume by choice
We create from inevitably

The person we see today
Is a byproduct of yesterday

And who we'll be tomorrow
Is paid in full each day—invariably

Ugh vs. Ahh

Published on June 3, 2022

There’s plenty to complain about.

There’s also plenty to *not* complain about.

Which list is bigger?

…Whichever list we make bigger.

The Ultimate Life Compass

Published on May 31, 2022

Wisdom is knowledge and experience internalized.

…It is the ultimate life compass.

When you think about each of the regretful decisions and cringe-worthy mistakes you’ve made in your life, at their root, they were made because of a lack of wisdom.

With that in mind, it’s important to point out that the less you seek to develop wisdom in your life, the less calibrated your compass will be.

And if there’s one area you should always make time for in your life, it’s the calibrating of your life’s compass.

How to do that? Through careful and deliberate reflection, exploratory writing, and open conversation.

And saying you don’t have time is the same as the lumberjack saying he doesn’t have time to sharpen his ax. When you make time for wisdom, wisdom will make time for you.

The rewards are exponential. Both in time saved and better decisions enjoyed.