Similar Posts

  • |

    #74 How to Go From Quitter to Go-Getter

    Becoming disciplined is simple: persevere more often than you quit.

    You don’t always have to persevere. That’s an impossibly high standard.

    Just stick to your habits and projects more often than you quit.

    Then let cognitive dissonance do its work: your beliefs will start shifting to align with your actions.

    You’re a go-getter now.

  • |

    #49 Moderate to get more

    A neurotransmitter that once helped us evolve and motivated us to go out and explore the world now has us glued to screens and plates filled with sugary food.

    Dopamine tells us not just to eat, but to eat more.

    Not just to read a useful article, but click more headlines.

    Swipe through more videos and photos.

    Watch more episodes on Netflix.

    Yet, when I interrupt the dopamine reward loop and resist the need for more, I’m pulled back into the now, and strangely enough, I actually see more. Hear more. Feel more.

    Sometimes, to get more, you need to moderate.

  • #201 Nothing will be perfect

    What would you finally dare to do today
    if you knew whatever you try will never be perfect anyway?

    Publish a story with typos and awkward sentences?
    Run a marathon without finishing it?
    Play a guitar piece and trip up five times?
    Sing in front of other people and miss a note?
    Try a new yoga pose in class and fall over?

    Nothing will be perfect today.
    Nothing will be perfect tomorrow.

    But if you take imperfect action
    and dare to publish imperfect work
    everything you do will have the perfect taste of progress and consistency.

    And that’s all that counts anyway.

  • #2 Why I write

    If writing and creating every day were as vital to my survival as drinking water, ingesting food, and bonding… What would life look like?

    Biologically, all behavior is driven by pain, pleasure, and the triggers and habits that come from repeated reaction to those stimuli.

    So I eat because I want to escape the pain of hunger – or heartbreak, sadness, and frustration.

    I connect with others because I’m neurologically hardwired to feel pleasure when bonding… and pain and deprivation when I’m abandoned.

    Similarly, I write because I want to escape the frustration of not being able to put into words an insight.

    I also write because I enjoy the rush resulting from finding the words that convey what I want to say.

    I write because I love the tingling in my back and neck when I combine those words into sentences with just the right rhythm, just the right cadence capturing the meaning, context, emotion of what I want to say…

    I write because writing wrests the essence from the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions racing through my mind and body.

    I write because when when I write, I feel that at last, I can make sense of life.

    And the more meaning I find, the more likely I am to write.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *