#153 When most of the learning is lost on us.

ByLukas

Playing the guitar hasn’t taught me to move my hands and fingers across strings. It has taught me to persevere whenever I’m failing over and over again until suddenly, it all clicks and the words, music, or movements flow.

Yoga hasn’t taught me to put my body in awkward poses. It has taught me to be aware of – and release – the tension in my body whenever I sit, walk, stand, and run.

Taking cold showers hasn’t taught me to withstand cold water. It has taught me to know to relax whenever my body tenses up in stress and my heart starts racing.

Learning a foreign language hasn’t taught me to say the same things with different words. It has taught me that there are different ways of perceiving the wordless world around me, and expressing what I feel inside.

When we isolate insights, most of the learning is lost on us.

Learn thematically. Ask yourself, “Where else does this apply?”

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  • #400 3 lessons from 400 consecutive days of writing (and a request)

    ByLukas

    Today marks day 400 of the Daily Insight newsletter – which calls for a longer post and a question for you.

    Let’s start with three lessons I learned from publishing daily.

    Lesson 1: Writing when not you’re not inspired IS the point

    I wasn’t inspired every day in the past 400 days – but many days I was.

    And I wouldn’t have had the inspiring days without the uninspired days.

    Maybe writing when you’re not inspired is the whole point.

    Because showing up for the bad moments makes it possible to be there for the good moments, too.

    Lesson 2: You don’t have to be ready to get started – you get started to become ready

    In the past, I just couldn’t get myself to write, not even if I really wanted to.

    Now, I just write.

    Doing something new always goes against your current beliefs and always comes with resistance – otherwise, you would already be doing it.

    But seeing how tiny daily actions can normalize a behavior that in the past seemed unattainable was incredibly empowering.

    You don’t have to be ready to get started. You get started to become ready.

    Lesson 3: It doesn’t matter what you do as long as it’s meaningful to you

    For the longest time, I felt like I always gave up on things that were important to me. I just couldn’t persevere.

    So, I chose to start writing daily. But I could’ve also decided to run every day. Or knit.

    In the end, the activity itself doesn’t matter. You can choose any desire you feel resistance towards…

    And start using it as a symbol of your defiance against your limiting beliefs.

    In its essence, such “Tiny Trust Builder” actions, as I came to call them, are symbolic.

    Pick one. Attach meaning to it. Use it to prove to yourself that your aspirations are not just pipe dreams. And see how your life changes.

    What’s next?

    Maybe it didn’t have to take 400 days to prove to myself that I could write every day – or maybe it did.

    Either way, I did it. And now the question arises: what’s next?

    To answer that question, I need your help.

    Why are you subscribed to this newsletter? What do you get out of it?

    Could I do anything to make the newsletter more interesting to you?

    Let me know by replying to this email so we can shape the next 400 newsletters together.

    Thanks for being along for the journey!

    • Lukas

  • #154 When results have become irrelevant

    ByLukas

    When technology and AI outpace us and we can’t be the best, smartest, fastest, strongest on the planet anymore – will we still care about our economic output?

    When results have become irrelevant, what are the things I will still want to do?

    Maybe we’ll rediscover value in our actions themselves and the pleasure and pain they make us feel – happy, sad, useful, worthless, brimming with purpose, overflowing with self-hatred…?

    Will I still write just because I enjoy writing, even if AI could write a better-researched, more insightful book than I ever could?

    Will I still learn a language just because learning a language makes me feel good, even if I could use an instant translation device to talk to anyone in the world?

    Will I still spend my days in an office cubicle if that’s a painful prospect?

    An era of soul-searching is coming.

  • |

    #217 Inaction is not the lack of action

    ByLukas

    If I don’t write the post I intended to write, I actively avoid the desired result of my writing.

    If I don’t do the workout I intended to do, I actively avoid the desired result of my workout (being in better shape, running a new PR,…)

    If I don’t have the difficult conversation I intended to have, I actively avoid the desired result of that conversation.

    Inaction is not the lack of action.

    Inaction is taking active action to avoid working towards the result you desire.

    The real question, then, is:

    Why do I actively avoid working toward a desired result?

    Am I worried that even if I write daily, I’ll never become a skilled writer?

    Am I worried I won’t enjoy writing anymore if I ever get recognition?

    Am I worried that writing every day will turn me into a skilled writer, but being a professional writer won’t be fulfilling?

    P.S. I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that I only have a limited repertoire of examples in this newsletter, my friend

    I trust you to apply the insight to your situation.

    And maybe, when you’re pondering the question above, you’ll come to the same conclusion as me:

    That more often than not, I’m more interested in the comfort of “wanting” something I don’t have than in “taking action to get something.”

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