#97 Not loneliness. Solitude.

ByLukas
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All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone

Blaise Pascal, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/19682-all-of-humanity-s-problems-stem-from-man-s-inability-to-sit

We often equate sitting quietly in a room alone with loneliness: a word with a negative emotional charge.

But sitting quietly in a room can also bring solitude: the simple state of being by yourself, without any negative connotation.

Solitude can give relief of the pressure to be constantly “socializing” (through social media apps or in real life).

Relief of the pressure to socialize can make space.

Space you can use to hear the thoughts in your head and the feelings in your body.

Thoughts and feelings that can tell you what’s truly important to you.

And then you realize that what’s truly important to you is nothing new.

It’s something you already knew, before you learned not to listen.

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#178 You don’t have to master this today

ByLukas

Performance gap: the frustrating gap between the way you know something should be done in an ideal world and the way you currently do it.

I know I should write daily blog posts in advance so I have a buffer in case something comes up and I don’t get to write. Yet here I am, writing this daily insight hours before the publication date.

I know what the perfect downward-facing dog pose in yoga looks like. Yet when I perform it myself, I am far off from that ideal pose.

I know all the ingredients that make up a solid, convincing speech. Yet when I write one myself, I am only able to incorporate a few of those ingredients.

Learning, then, is closing the gap between your intellectual understanding of an ideal product, action, or skill, and your current rendition of it.

Don’t be so hard on yourself for your current performance.

You can’t expect to turn intellectual understanding into mastery and internalized knowledge right away.

You don’t have to master this today.

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#122 You don’t have to. But you could.

ByLukas

You don’t have to become a writer. But you could. Even if you don’t believe it yet.

And if knowing that you could makes you restless…

If the fact that it’s possible makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up…

If a persistent “What if” keeps echoing through your mind…

Then maybe you should become a writer.

Similarly, you don’t have to be passionate about anything. But you could.

And if you could… what would you be passionate about?

#307 Why wait for the pain when you can write today?

ByLukas

You can wait to start writing until that moment when the frustration builds up so much that not writing becomes unbearable.

But why wait for the pain if you could just write today?

After all, you’re not waiting to become a writer. You’re already a writer. You’re just not writing. Yet.

And all of that can change in one moment of deciding not to wait, but to write.

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#82 Choice Inflection and New Defaults

ByLukas

Once upon a time, I consciously chose to brush my teeth every day, until brushing my teeth became my new default. Now the conscious choice I have to make is NOT brushing my teeth.

Once upon a time, during a pandemic, we consciously chose to wear face masks, until wearing face masks became the new default. Then the conscious choice we had to make was NOT wearing the face mask anymore.

Once upon a time, I consciously chose to write every day, until writing became my new default. Now the conscious choice I have to make is NOT writing.

Where else could I use a new default?

Choice inflection.

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