“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”
HP Lovecraft
Personal Elegance
Start stressing personal elegance at your next misfortune. Exhibit sapere vivere (“know how to live”) in all circumstances. Dress at your best on your execution day (shave carefully); try to leave a good impression on the death squad by standing erect and proud. Try not to play victim when diagnosed with cancer (hide it from others and only share the information with the doctor—it will avert the platitudes and nobody will treat you like a victim worthy of their pity; in addition, the dignified attitude will make both defeat and victory feel equally heroic). Be extremely courteous to your assistant when you lose money (instead of taking it out on him as many of the traders whom I scorn routinely do). Try not to blame others for your fate, even if they deserve blame. Never exhibit any self-pity, even if your significant other bolts with the handsome ski instructor or the younger aspiring model. Do not complain. If you suffer from a benign version of the “attitude problem,” like one of my childhood friends, do not start playing nice guy if your business dries up (he sent a heroic e-mail to his colleagues informing them “less business, but same attitude”). The only article Lady Fortuna has no control over is your behavior. Good luck.
Nassim Taleb – Fooled by randomness https://amzn.to/2SB2F5y
This is a good, very stoic way to behave. Especially in these turbulent times. Often a lack of elegance is not so much expressed in words. It is more nonverbal. I can see it I the eyes of my colleagues (for I am still a slave). Their model of the world is on inch away from shattering. Where do I make the same mistake?
Some of my favorite Quotes from “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”
Here are a few quotes from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. Enjoy.
“Peace of mind isn’t at all superficial, really,” I expound. “It’s the whole thing. That which produces it is good maintenance; that which disturbs it is poor maintenance. What we call workability of the machine is just an objectification of this peace of mind. The ultimate test’s always your own serenity. If you don’t have this when you start and maintain it while you’re working you’re likely to build your personal problems right into the machine itself.”
Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion. Then, when you’re no longer thinking ahead, each footstep isn’t just a means to an end but a unique event in itself.
You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It’s easy. Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally.
The machine that appears to be “out there” and the person that appears to be “in here” are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from Quality together.
You can buy the book here https://amzn.to/3c4Lu42 (amazon link)
A few ideas from Gary Keller
Yesterday I finished reading the transcript of the interview Tim Ferris did with Gary Keller, the founder of Keller & Williams (One of the biggest Real Estate Companies of the World). Here are a few ideas I found interesting and some quotes that are worth pondering. You can find the whole interview here -> https://tim.blog/2019/12/12/gary-keller/
Money doesn’t change you, it reveals you.
“One of the lessons that I’ve learned, Tim, is that money won’t change you, but it will reveal you. And when people have an opportunity to have a financial windfall, their character is getting ready to be revealed.”
Use a month at a glance calendar:
Why? So you can see how and where you are invested in your life. A weekly calendar is often too granular (ar least for me)
I carry it with me at all time, everywhere. It never leaves my sight, actually. It’s in my backpack. But I create a day—I create kind of a daily worksheet, so as the day is going on I don’t actually need my calendar per se, ’cause I’m working off of that. But the second that I need to do planning, I got to get back to—I have to see the month.
“For me personally, it gives me great vision if you will, and so I can manage my energy. I can always make sure that I have enough time set aside for the things that really matter, and I can see that better at a glance when I’m looking at a bigger picture. That’s the value, that’s the only value.”
Use the “Focusing Question” to get more clarity
The focusing Question: What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything is either easier or unnecessary?
The idea of the focusing question is, are you present in the moment? You don’t do this every day, minute by minute, where you say, “What’s the most important thing I can do right now? What’s the one thing I can do right now? What’s the one thing I can do right now?” But it is kind of a way of life, meaning that if you make your moments matter, matter as in you’re appropriate in the right moment, everything falls into place for you.”
“A clear path to a lesser goal is the problem”
Try to have a great day by noon
When you wake up, these are your power hours, and I used to tell people, “Look, the goal is to have a great day by noon.” In other words, get everything that matters, that is important to you, get it done.
I put forth this idea that the morning is the best time for you to deal with your energy, so I just recommend that people get up and have pretty much a set routine when they get up in the morning, to ensure that they get the key things in their personal life nailed. You then go to work and you just do that work. What is the thing that’s most important today, and do that. In the afternoon, if you still want to pursue lesser goals or other things, who cares? It’s not going to impact your success, so you don’t have to be this 100 percent, always on focus.
Have a prophet in life
The movie analogy was this idea that you don’t really need to time block more than two or three hours a day around your core activity for your business, whatever that is. You’re not equally effective all day long, so what you want to do is you want to make sure that the world doesn’t infringe on the time that you know you need to give, for whatever it is is the key that makes your professional life run. I just time block, and I encourage—go ahead.”
“Most people tend to think of that as religion only, but you could have a prophet, or you can call that a mentor or role model. I just call it a prophet. Right? But everyone should have the individual that is kind of their guru for those things. Right? Who’s your health guru? Who do you listen to? Who’s lived before you? Right? Just as an example, Jack LaLanne and Clarence Bass are two perfect examples, gentlemen that started bodybuilding or just taking care of their body at a very young age when the thinking was one way, and as the thinking has changed over time, both of those men changed the way they thought. Right?”“So then let’s ask that question. So who’s the one person that you could follow for your health such that by doing that, following anyone else would be easier or unnecessary?”“So if you don’t ask the focusing question around the people in your life, you’ll end up following too many people. So, again, how many prophets do you need around health? Right?
“and if you have seven people as your true north, you don’t have a true north. Right?”
if you want to live the biggest life possible, then ask big questions of yourself, and go find individuals who in fact have—they’re doing that thing that matters to you.
Think big. Aim high. And form the right habits
Tim Ferriss: “So if you could put a quote, a message, a question, anything on a billboard, metaphorically speaking, to get a message of some type out to billions of people, let’s say, something non-commercial, what might you put on the billboard? Gary Keller: Think big. Aim high.”
“Warren Buffett said it really well when he said that the habits of our life are like chains that are too loose to be noticed until they’re too tight to break. When you think about our life being built upon habits, you realize that most people accrue habits instead of form good ones. So when you think big and you aim high and you start running towards that, you have to develop big habits, scalable habits, in order to implement that plan. So if you didn’t say think big and aim high, what would you say? Think small? Would you think low? Would you say think average? Well, if you didn’t say think big, what are the other choices? Most people, by default, because they don’t think big, they don’t aim high, they end up developing very average or below average habits. They underdevelop, right?Your thinking leads to action. Action over time becomes a habit. So if I’m thinking small, then I’m forming small habits. Here’s the problem, like Warren Buffett said. Now I’m a person of small habits, and all of a sudden I look up, and I go, “Wow, I really do want more out of out of my life.” Then you have to go break these habits. That’s really hard to do, whether they’re eating habits or exercising habits, or you name, work habits or relationship habits. It doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, if you have a choice, think big. If you have a choice, aim high, and then ask yourself, “What do I need to do to do that, and what are the habits, or what’s the one habit I need to develop such that by doing it, everything else is easy or unnecessary,” and go get that habit. But if you don’t think big, what’s your choice? Right?”“But what you and I both know is that if you don’t choose your life, if you don’t choose the direction of your life, you’ll go in any direction. You’ll end up in places that you didn’t want to be at because you didn’t choose where you wanted to be. So think big, aim high. I’d put that on the billboard.”“You know, one of the things that I ultimately developed was the habit of being able to develop a habit, because in the end, that singular skill becomes your superpower, the ability to—just call it the habit hack, if you will, but it’s the ability to form a habit, and it’s hard. It’s not easy. It’s really hard.
“Tim Ferriss: Aside from deciding on the habit, as you just mentioned, have you found anything in particular to help you to develop or stick with new habits? Gary Keller: Mm-hmm (affirmative), other people, your support system. It’s the phrase that I used earlier, and that is your environment has to support your goal. So your environment has to support your habit, too. So you literally—if you want to form a new habit, you’re going to have to have your environment support that. You’re going to have to have the people around you cheering for you and supporting you to do that. Right?”“Your environment has to support your goal. So to me, the habit hack is go find somebody or a group of people that will support you, and then build that support mechanism. Right? Make sure that your spouse or significant other or best friend or whoever, make sure that they’re in alignment. Right? Tell them what your goal is. Don’t hide it. “I want to do this, and I need your help. Give me permission. I give you permission to help support me to do that” is the secret. Right?”
Hello world!
Welcome to my site. This is my first post! It’s the wordpress standard post, as you may noticed. But I have to start somewhere ….