Yesterday was a driving day. Today is stationery. Things to do for work: BAU as well as turning the ship to a new destination.
Maybe a bit of shopping, too. There is that shop 7 miles away that I went to yesterday. They had my stuff in inventory. Go back again today and stock up?
And conversation.
Slow down.
Keep saying that.
No.
Keep saying that, too.
Offhand comment on the Foresty Forest YouTube channel when he is in the Yukon. Talking about the prospectors, that’s what he said.
That hit me on multiple levels.
The first is the obvious. What restrictions were imposed on them by governed the? Far, far fewer than now. You were in Australia and you wanted to make your fortune in the Yukon? You went.
The second is its inverse. What freedom do I have now because of current levels of government? I am free in ways they are not because some base-level survival problems are taken off the table.
The third meaning is the important one. Words are slippery. “Free” has an individual meaning to me that it does not have to, for instance, my children.
Freedom from. Freedom to. Freedom in my head.
Agitated already. Work to do. Let’s do what needs to be done while withholding judgment about life and the morning and state of mind and everything else that makes the day seem overwhelming.
I’m going to try an experiment. Until the end of January, I’m going to listen to classical music. I don’t care what (except violin solo works which for some reason annoy me).
I’m listening to downtempo instrumental lounge electronica whatever right now. It’s mostly minor key. I don’t like classical music as a rule, but let’s cleanse the mental palate.
I’m doing this as a test to see if different music means a different dominant mentality.
I do know that ditching the other music I like has been helpful. That’s the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Stevenson Branch Davidians, etc. etc. genre. That takes me somewhere is rather not go.
Return to the sound and feel of your breath every time you remember to. Physical actions are for the benefit of the beehive. Express specific gratitude.
That sounds overwhelming. Impossible.
How about just breathe?
Epictetus, from The Handbook, starts off strong:
Within our power are opinion, motivation, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever is of our own doing;
Epictetus, Handbook, 1.1
Within my power is this feeling of sadness. It can remain or be replaced by another feeling.
Everything is ok right now. Just breathe.
Single focus.
Since you’re aiming, then, at such great things, remember that you’ll have to exert no small effort to attain them, and that you’ll have to renounce some things altogether, while postponing others for the present. But if you want to have both these things and public office and riches too, you’ll quite possibly not even gain the latter because you’re aiming at the former too, and you’ll certainly fail to get the former, through which alone happiness and freedom can be secured.
Handbook 1.1(4).
Things within your control: that’s your only focus. The other stuff comes and goes with indifference, as a byproduct.
These little entries are self-exhortations. I am my own cheering section, watching myself run the marathon of life. Keep going! You’re doing it! Yay!
It works.
Self-talk. Cheering squad. Exhortation. It’s all the same.
Up before dawn. All is quiet in the house.
Feed the dog. Water in the kettle, kettle on the stove, gas on. Coffee will be ready soon enough.
I don’t want to engage in magic thinking, but this is a good ritual.
Mustn’t get in a rut, though. This morning I will read Seneca instead of Marcus Aurelius.
“You know what a closed mind is, right? It’s a mind so full of its own thoughts that there is no room for a different idea to come in.”
That was Bob’s way of putting it. but there is William James and “contempt prior to investigation” and a whole bunch of other ways of looking at it, too.
Here is Epictetus.
[1] If someone, says Epictetus, refuses to accept what is patently obvious, it is not easy to find arguments to use against him that could cause him to change his mind. [2] And the reason for this lies neither in his own strength, nor in the weakness of the one who is trying to instruct him; but the fact is that when someone who has been driven into a corner turns to stone, how can one hope to deal with him any further through argument?
Discourses, 1.5.
It’s always easy to see in others and especially in current politics. They, whoever they are, have closed minds. Look!
And then we sneer at them, smug in our open-mindedness.
For me, I will try to take that smug feeling as a signal. I, too, have a closed mind. I cannot be persuaded that I’m wrong. That’s my default state.
Accept that, and use the small awakening triggered by an offhand comment. Ah. You heard that comment. Remember that you, too, are just as prone to such an error and in fact you are probably suffering from a closed mind at this moment, on that topic for which the comment poked you awake momentarily.
What are my core principles, the no matter what’s? How do I put them into practice? Are they a little worse for the wear when they meet a real-world test?
Ignore politics. That’s only useful to me as a buzzer to awaken consciousness.
But look for a closed mind in other arenas. Example. I am about to hire JP to do a project for me. My self-reliance (an admirable trait) caused me damage by cutting me off from help easily accessible, just for asking. My life is immediately better because I asked for help and stopped being Mr. Intelligent and Mr. Industrious.
You know those core principles you treasure? Open up to other ideas. Don’t discard intelligence or industry. But add open-mindedness.
In this case, hiring JP was caused by desperation (I am overwhelmed) and a sense of adventure (let’s see what I can accomplish if I don’t do anything, but ask other people to do things for me—for money or course). And the comment by IH that told me what an entrepreneur is. Which is a concept I had wrong forever.
When you see something out there in the world that demonstrates a closed mind, use that as a wake-up alarm to remind yourself that you, too, are a closed-minded person in subtle and obvious ways.
Another thing. Be attuned to extremely cautious suggestions by others. Or seemingly offhand suggestions. “Why don’t you think of X?” Or maybe “Maybe you could do Y.”
Instead of dismissing that out of hand, roll the possibility around in your head. And maybe do it, as an experiment. There is no harm in an experiment.
Meta. If it isn’t obvious, these little things I write are a way I talk to myself. Sometimes I discover what I think. Other times I remind myself of something that is too easily forgotten.