Reality Laughs

“Be quiet, work hard, and stay healthy. It’s not ambition or skill that is going to set you apart but sanity.” @RyanHoliday

The time element is unspoken, but essential. Time is a filter, as explained by Taleb. It tests all around you—and tests you, too. What survives, wins. Lindy.

The more you remain sane over time, the more likely your ideas and actions will survive. It’s a last man standing game, really.

And surround yourself with people who are also sane. See, we are all insane from time to time—but we are not all insane at the same time. Have friends who will pull you back when you go off the rails.

Almost uniformly in academia – and I would bet this is also true in other professions too – people want the benefits of deep work but cannot stomach the costs of deep work. But you can’t really claim to value good research if you’re not willing to give up anything else to get it.

https://twitter.com/economeager/status/1560219043587555332?s=21&t=qVkNXVI4BaH7A0I1RHp9bw

Yes.

Pay the price first. Overpay willingly, before the universe repays you.

The value is in the payment, not in the reward.

Negative thought in?

Positive action out.

Now.

Example from my life: I was broke. Paycheck to paycheck life. Economic fear: how would I provide for my family? The kind of thoughts that don’t let you sleep. Despair.

I don’t know how I got the idea (probably someone told me or I read about it somewhere) but this is what I started doing.

I opened up an online savings account, not at my normal bank. Every time I started thinking a negative financial thought I would grab my phone and move $5 from the household checking account to the savings account.

Fear? Take $5 away from the bank account that was the source of fear and put it away, far away. Power. Think of it. This action told my fearful brain that if we could survive today, we could survive with $5 less.

The amount was not the point. The action was the point.

The day came when I moved $50,000 to the savings account. I wasn’t afraid. I wanted to show my brain how much progress I had made.

I live a different life now.

Just noting the pause in the action. I am still reading. Still putting in the work. Don’t have much to say. maybe that is because work work is consuming me and I am trying to dig myself out of a hole (too much work) and at the same time I’m afraid that if I dig myself out of a hole I will be completely out of work. Weird. My actions signal a desire to stay in a place of discomfort.

Your best thinking and your hardest efforts and your greatest focus . . . got you HERE.

If you maxxed out at 100% of your entire being to get THIS, how will you possibly achieve anything beyond where you are right now. More of the same will make more of the same.

Trust God, of course.

But you need new input. New ideas. New energy.

Different inputs will create different outputs.

And books are one of the inputs that can make different outputs. They give new ideas. They can (if you let them) provide new morale.

This happened to me today. Up at 6 am for my #75Hard walk, I was doomlooping about business and I should just give up all my ideas and hunker down and give up until I get old and die. Yeah. Serious doomlooping.

Returning home, I grabbed a coffee and the book I’m reading (10 pages a day, every day). Traction, by Gino Wickman.

I’m back in the mindset saddle again. It’s like he sat beside me and said “Yeah, it’s daunting. You can do it. Here is what to do next, just this little thing.”

For $20 I can can turn my day around and have an optimistic, energetic day? And probably get the same jolt tomorrow?

As Bob used to say, “Yes, trust in God. But you must have human help.” I got human help today.

The power of routine. The power of talking to people. (Even if they are talking to you from a page).

Also: I’m lighting up www.freedom.to daily on my devices — to keep Twitter noise and related bullshit artists the fuck outta my consciousness. 🏴‍☠️

There’s an impending apocalypse due to the sinful actions of The Others.

But if you embrace our ideology, you can be saved.

A tale as old as time.

https://twitter.com/nateliason/status/1554086920162091010?s=21&t=1LVixo8WbOaDVP9dmYrF8w

Closely followed by:

Death is scary. Embrace our faith and you can maybe live forever.

The myths don’t change, just the tools we use to spread and defend them.

https://twitter.com/nateliason/status/1554088250213539840?s=21&t=1LVixo8WbOaDVP9dmYrF8w

There are other stories, I am sure. Stories we tell each other to keep the tribe together, or expel the unwanted.

Yes. You must work. But . . .

[Which] then makes me realize that half of my effort wasn’t effort at all, but just unnecessary stress that made me feel like I was doing my best.

https://twitter.com/malcolm_ocean/status/1554072471577542656?s=21&t=1LVixo8WbOaDVP9dmYrF8w

Debts of the soul are never cancelled. Payment may be deferred, but payment will be made.

Strive, daily, to pay those debts.

A thread from Visa gives a useful, actionable way to unfuck your life. And it is useful for any level of fucked-ness that your life happens to have. It is useful for any level of effort that you put into it.

Maybe things are so bad that you are metaphorically tumbling through space and can only manage to wiggle your toes. Start this method. It will compound. You will reverse your life’s entropy.

Remember—in good cheer—that entropy is ultimately inevitable and you will die. That’s the ayyyy/lmfao dichotomy that Visa looks at frequently. Life and contentment exists between Scylla and Charybdis.

Start with this question (it was in a graphic, so I’m typing it here):

My life is a wreck. How do start rebuilding it basically from scratch?

Here is the plan, in helpful steps. Followed, as always, with reassurance and exhortation.

Step 1 is you do an inventory. List out everything about your life. What are your possessions, relationships, behavior patterns, what is everything of consequence that comes to mind? What do you love? What do you hate? What torments you? List it all out. In writing. Look it over

https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1551102360587407360?s=21&t=O61cBTzT1lR6MFDYFXW4oQ

2, you eliminate everything bad that you can eliminate from a first pass – throw out any junk/garbage from your home, workspace, unfollow news and celeb accounts from social media

3. double down on whatever good you can. Text friends you love, practice your fav thing for 5 mins

4. do another inventory. evaluate what’s changed, pay attention to how you feel. set out to do some self-reporting over ~30 days. What do you need to build up the courage to do? Quit current job? Find new job? Make a plan, break it down into baby steps, celebrate lil progress

5. read/follow @introspectvv I get into all of it in much more detail there 😎. but really it’s just all of the above. cultivate a sense of humor. celebrate lil frivolities and silliness. find lil ways to enjoy yourself today and also celebrate doing nice things for future you

you fail to stick to your plan that’s fine, shit happens, dust yourself off and try again. every failure is a teacher. It took me like 10+ attempts over 15 years to quit smoking. Every previous attempt was a failure but they all taught me things that helped me

also try to be at peace with “being a wreck”. everything is a wreck. existence is a great cosmic car crash. you don’t have to live your life anxiously fleeing the crime scene. you can learn to be ok with who you are, and amazingly that’ll help expand you into who you wanna become

recommendation I have that I seldom see other people make is to surround yourself with media that you love, that stirs your heart, that moves you to tears and makes you want to roar with life. to remind you what the point is

Beliefs might be correct (or not). They might be useful (or not).

Optimize for useful beliefs.

Useful beliefs help you win.

Useful IS correct.

Correct may or may not be useful.

Useful reveals correct.

What do you want? Go. Get it. Your beliefs will quickly reveal themselves to be useful (therefore correct) or not.

And when you have what you wanted, the correctness of the beliefs that got you there will be immaterial.

Except.

They will be the building blocks for your next adventure.

But not the beliefs—tested and proven by reality. Those are not the building blocks.

The ability to aim, to head straight for the prize, and to adjust your beliefs to whatever is needed to accomplish your goal.

That skill—learning while running the mountain path—is the true building block for your next adventure.