Month: November 2020

If I’m stuck and I’m putting a huge amount of effort into once place, the answer is not to put more effort there.

Take away effort there. Put attention somewhere else.

You have goals, ambitions, desires. The future you is x, y, and z. These are so far from who you are today.

You can think like the future you today.

You can act like the future you today.

Even if you aren’t the pinnacle of fitness (yet) you can think and behave today like the future you will behave when you are the pinnacle of fitness.

This just worked for me a few minutes ago. Instead of swinging through the drive-thorough at Del Taco, here I am at home with some better food from the refrigerator.

Even if you don’t have the million-dollar bank account (yet) you can think and behave like the future you who has $1,000,000 in the bank.

And the $1,000,000 will follow.

Even if you lack peace of mind, or focus, or discipline (now) you can think and behave the way your future disciplined self will think and behave.

Avatar me.

You want more of something, focus you attention on it. Remove your attention to decrease it.

I see it clearly now with the internet blocking. There is a particular new hobby I am pursuing now. (Vague because visible and They really are Out To Get You; with a sufficiently high number for They the probability is 1). I spend lots of time reading articles, watching videos, etc.

The time spent is not particularly energizing. It’s distracting and entertaining. There are other activities that matter more to me. I know what the end state of that hobby is for me, and it will be accomplished in six months. (The end state is one more acquisition then then a steady flow of consumables to supply the regular doing of the hobby.)

So I am changing my focus to another area: fitness. I do this my just watching videos from one person on YouTube. Let’s see what happens. I’m not watching videos or reading about the other topic which has consumed me lately.

Or at least let’s your dreams drift past you, tantalizingly close. The tantalizingly close just happened to me in a phone conversation.

Tantalizingly close or on another planet? It’s the same thing. Zero expectations is the only way to life peacefully with dreams and possibilities.

It’s what they keep telling me: it’s the journey, not the destination. Maybe I will really internalize it someday. Until then, faith.

But done.

Practice makes perfect.

No, perfect practice makes perfect.

Perfect practice, until it becomes a part of your personality.

You want a better (for any definition you choose) outcome? You need different thoughts, actions, outcomes.

It’s foolhardy to assume you can take the old you with you into a better outcome. Better (hah) to insist on “different” from yourself in all ways as a first step.

Noise of a movie on TV, sitting in the kitchen watching a frozen pizza cook. Let’s do nothing for the next 10 minutes or so while the pizza is in the oven.

Edit: I made it to 7 minutes then reflexively grabbed the phone.

When I am ignorant and I ask a question, usually there is a deeper question there. Don’t be satisfied at the surface.

And when people ask me a question, be sensitive that there is a deeper question there.

It might be technical. Or it might be emotional. There is always something beneath the surface. Look for that something, in myself when I search for an answer. And try to answer that something beneath the surface for the other person, if I am asked for an answer.