Insights
#229 What are you striving for?
Am I running to get in better shape or to get distracting thoughts out of my head? Am I going out to enjoy being with friends or to forget my worries? Am I writing to grow an audience or to process my own emotions? What am I striving for? Your answers may vary from day
#228 Battling questions with questions
One question to make distractions fall away and make the mind turn quiet: What’s most important right this very second? Not today. Not this week. Right this very second.
#227 Could a changed past set me free?
Which conclusions did I draw from past experiences? Have I overreacted to petty events, and ignored beautiful moments? Have I deleted memories? Maybe invented some? Have I built stories based on generalizations? Most importantly: how does the past I still feel affect my actions today? And if I know a lot of it was my
#226 Making all the selves get along
“Is this really important right now?” I ask myself, as another distraction passes through my head. I imagine an old wise man, disturbed from his task at hand, looking up. “No? Can you come back later then, at a more appropriate time? Thank you very much.” Back to work he goes. “Is this really a
#225 Commitment comes first
When you decide if you should be chasing this goal, job, relationship, or place to live – in other words, commitment – you choose between action or inaction based on if it’s a viable, worthwhile, realistic goal. When you decide on the course of action – in other words, how to do something – you’re
#224 What a burden
The other day, I talked about changing your focus to change how you feel about the events in your day. But something strange happened when I first had that realization. It didn’t feel like a relief. Do I even want that responsibility? To choose how events affect me? After all, that would take away my
#223 Maybe this finally makes it click
“Don’t you ever run out of ways to write a letter every day on the same topic?” I imagine you ask me. In fact, I don’t have to imagine it. I have been asked this question many a time. Not in the least by myself. Yet here we are, over 200 days in, and I’ve
#222 Today is your lucky day
Today is your lucky day, my friend.Or at least, it could be, depending on how you interpret what will happen. Today is your worst day ever, my friend.Or at least, it could be, depending on how you interpret what will happen. The choice is yours. It has always been. P.S. I don’t know about you,
#221 How to appease the worrier mind
How likely is the scenario you’re worrying about?And how impactful or life-threatening is that scenario?Now, how much mental bandwidth is worrying about it taking up?Are your worries proportionate to the actual danger?Should you be worrying at all?If not, could you stop right away? Of course, you and I both know that’s not always how it
#220 A reminder to decide
I could decide that writing less than 1000 words a day would be a failure – and I would be correct. I could decide that writing more than 50 words a day would be a failure – and I would be correct. I could decide that not writing today would be failure – and I
#219 Can you see it?
I guess all I really want to say today is: There’s something you’re doing great at. There always is. Can you see it?
#218 The United States of “If I wanted, I could”
The path toward self-awareness isn’t always pleasant. Take yesterday, when I realized that in many cases, I’m more interested in the comfort of “wanting” something I don’t have than in “taking action to get something.” That unappealing realization triggered a cascade of even more unappealing questions. Would I rather mess around with small blog posts instead of