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

    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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    #265 Dance the barbell balance of life

    Living a balanced life doesn’t mean living average experiences.

    It’s more like a barbell, or a seesaw, where you go all in on complementary actions.

    Work hard, rest hard.

    Write with total focus, then fully let go when you’ve hit your word target.

    Work out with full intensity, then let your body fully recover.

    So when you’re out of balance, the solution is not to come closer to the middle.

    Instead, you start doing less of what you’re already doing or add more of the polar opposite of what you’re already doing.

    Figure out your polar opposite pairs, and give them both the attention they deserve. That’s how you dance the barbell balance of life.

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    #86 Practice daily, measure progress on average

    The article I publish today may be worse than one I wrote 2 months ago.

    I may struggle today with a guitar piece I played effortlessly last week.

    And when I meditate today, my mind may be all over the place, even though last week it was calm as water.

    On any given day, I may feel that I’m making progress, that I’ve reached a plateau, or even that I’m going backwards.

    But it doesn’t matter.

    Progress isn’t always visible in daily practice. But without daily practice, there is no progress.

    If I stick to daily practice, on average, I’ll get better. I’ll start having more good days than bad. And slowly but surely, my ‘bad days’ will start being better than what I consider a ‘good day’ right now.

    Progress, averaged out is what it’s all about.

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    #267 Why intensity fades and consistency leads to change

    When you write 50 pages a day, only to be forced to recover for a month.

    When you start running 5 miles a day without any preparation, only to end up injured.

    When you start studying a language for 5 hours a day, only to give up after a week.

    When you fly so close to the sun, your wings melt.

    When intensity and excitement radiate too brightly, and the reality of life suddenly slaps you in the face.

    That’s when you start appreciating the slow, steady flame of consistency that burns long and becomes brighter over time.

    And that’s when you’ll see lasting change.

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    #249 You already know what I’m going to say

    “You already know what I’m going to say,” the mentor I don’t have tells me.

    It’s true.

    I don’t need anyone to tell me what to do.

    Neither do you.

    All you need is someone to remind you to do what you already know.

    If you had constant presence of mind, you could remind yourself.

    But if you’re anything like me, your clarity gets lost in day-to-day desires, worries, and chores.

    And that’s fine.

    Because that’s what you’re here for, no?

    Not to learn what your life should look like but to receive a reminder to live it daily?

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    #285 It can be this easy

    When you’re having a busy day and life gets in the way, writing one word can make all the difference.

    One minute of running makes all the difference.

    Thirty seconds of meditating.

    Ten seconds of stretching.

    One second of envisioning who you want to be.

    That’s all it takes to change how you feel about yourself and who you are.

    Because now, instead of giving up, you’re still on track.

    It’s that easy.

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