#203 What makes your aspirations valuable

ByLukas
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An aspiring writer who doesn’t believe writing is a valuable skill in our current society and focuses on building a traditional career instead.

An aspiring runner who doesn’t believe running is a good use of their time in our current society and goes out for drinks every night.

An aspiring classical musician who doesn’t believe society will ever appreciate their art – and goes into pop music instead.

If you want to turn aspirations into achievements, you’ll have to decide for yourself what’s valuable, even if it goes against what society and tradition prescribe.

So to make writing a valuable skill, write.

To make running a good use of your time, run.

To make the world appreciate your classical music, practice classical music.

To make anything worthwhile, show that it’s worth your while.

Because going against the mainstream is not just necessary to achieve your aspirations – it’s what makes your aspirations valuable in the first place.

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    #270 How to gain trust, acceptance, and comfort

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    It’s hard not to trust someone who fully trusts themselves.

    But it’s hard not to accept someone who fully accepts themselves.

    It’s hard not to be at ease around someone fully at ease with themselves.

    In other words: if you want others to trust, accept, and be at ease with you, first learn to trust, accept, and be at ease with yourself.

    You don’t need anyone else for that – just some tiny daily actions that prove that trust, acceptance, and comfort to yourself.

    Oh, and you could start with that today.

    You don’t have to.

    But you could. And if you could, why wouldn’t you?

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    #82 Choice Inflection and New Defaults

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    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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    #96 Massive addiction, minimal value

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    Nobody chooses to get addicted to social media.

    We chose to get something of value: stay connected with friends. Stay up-to-date. Discover interesting voices.

    Then we get addicted through features that bring little value: likes, notification signs, flashy videos hijacking our brains. That’s where the addiction creeps up to you.

    If the interests of social media apps (make you spend as much time as possible on the platform) start deviating so much from the original reason we started using them…

    Is massive addiction worth the minimal value?

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    #230 It’s so much, until it isn’t

    ByLukas

    “Write 3 pages of Stream of Consciousness journaling.”

    “Coming up with 100 things to be grateful about.”

    “Publish a daily insight.”

    My initial reaction, and maybe yours, is, “That’s so much.”

    And that’s exactly the point.

    It IS a lot.

    But actually, it isn’t.

    And when you try it out, and see that it isn’t, you’ve shattered the illusion of scarcity and discovered abundance.

    Maybe we humans are wired to believe in scarcity and fighting over sparse food.

    And while that may serve us well, in many endeavors, there’s much more abundance than we think.

    If your gut reaction was, “That’s so much,” I invite you to try it out.

    Write down what the voice in your head talks about for 3 entire pages.

    Write down 100 things you’re grateful for.

    Challenge the scarcity mindset.

    There may well be abundance on the other side.

  • #349 Why you shouldn’t strive for the perfect day

    ByLukas

    Habit-building isn’t about striving for “the perfect day.”

    It’s about making sure that even on the imperfect day when nothing goes your way, you still do enough things that fulfill you.

    It’s about making the hard things easier.

    And it’s about stacking the deck in your favor and making it inevitable to do things that align with who you want to be.

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