Motivation

Stop hacking your life →

Published July 7, 2015  ·  All posts on Jul 7  ·  

Many people have had success using these life optimization tools and tricks, and they’re not necessarily a bad thing. Their effect all depends on which of two relationships someone has with hacking:

…

Hacking approach can be beneficial; every man should have a little MacGyver in him and keep some duct-tape solutions in his back pocket. And if there’s a better way to cut an onion, by all means, go for it.

But hacking approach invariably leads to a life that’s less optimal, not more. The damage results not so much from the actual hacking practices themselves, but from the mindset their pursuit and adoption begets.

~ Brett McKay from, The Pitfalls of Life Hacking Culture | The Art of Manliness

slip:4uaoso1.

ɕ

There are no extra lives →

Published June 24, 2015  ·  All posts on Jun 24  ·  

It’s a shame that it generally takes a tragedy to remind us how short and unexpected life can be, and that we need to enjoy every day. The stark realization is that inorder to live our lives fully and happily, we have to remember we have no extra lives.

This is it.

Did you enjoy your story?

~ Steve Kamb from, There are no extra lives. Make this one count. | Nerd Fitness

slip:4unebo5.

ɕ

Discipline →

Published June 20, 2015  ·  All posts on Jun 20  ·  

There’s no right answer. The present self usually wins, because he controls the action and so his interests are more important. But the future self actually has a stronger case: he’s actually a bunch of future selves (you in 10 minutes from now, an hour from now, a day from now, three days from now, a year later, and so on). So shouldn’t a thousand future selves outweigh the current self’s interest?

~ Leo Babauta from, Savor Discipline: Merge the Interests of Your Future & Present Selves – Zen Habits Website

slip:4uzemo1.

Not claiming I have this one all figured out. Just claiming you should read everything Leo writes…

ɕ

Don’t follow your passion →

Published June 14, 2015  ·  All posts on Jun 14  ·  

I hear it all the time from people. “I’m passionate about it.” “I’m not going to quit, It’s my passion”. Or I hear it as advice to students and others “Follow your passion”.

What a bunch of BS. ”Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get.

~ Mark Cuban from, Mark Cuban – Don’t Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort | Genius

slip:4ugema1.

ɕ

The Churchill School of Adulthood →

Published June 12, 2015  ·  All posts on Jun 12  ·  

The truth is, that wherever we are in life, we all have pockets of time that we own, and that we could be doing more to actively shape and make the most of. It’s just that so often we default to the path of least resistance. Unbelievably, Americans only use 51% of their paid vacation and paid days off. When we’re not working, and do have free time, rather than pursuing a constructive hobby or side business, we’ll often plop in front of the TV or mindlessly surf the internet. Instead of seeking out good books to read to feed our minds, we default to consuming whatever information happens to pop up in our Facebook feeds. The ironclad rules that governed our childhood are long gone, and yet we still don’t feel fully in control of our lives. We feel swept along by the currents of our responsibilities, so that our lives seem to go by in a unthinking haze – a fog that is ever so often perforated by the question: “Why haven’t things turned out the way I had hoped?”

~ Brett McKay from, Become the Author of Your Own Life | The Art of Manliness

slip:4uaote1.

Say yes whenever you can and overcome the inertia of rigmarole. One of the greatest impediments to adventure as an adult is the number of your responsibilities, and how said responsibilities sap your willpower. Psychologists have shown that we have a limited supply of willpower each day, that if we use it for one thing, we have less it for another, and that when our willpower runs low, our default answer to everything becomes “no.”

~ Brett McKay from, How to Be More Adventurous | The Art of Manliness

slip:4uaote2.

Creating an awesome adulthood involves using your imagination to create a story for yourself, and then taking ceaseless action to bring that narrative to life. It’s like riding a stationary bike that powers a film projector: to create a new world — to project your chosen narrative on the screen of your life — you must pedal continuously.

~ Brett McKay from, Churchill’s Advice on How to Be an Adult | The Art of Manliness

slip:4uaocu1.

This is a rather large, long (and I think, well written) series of posts from Brett over at Art of Manliness. Well worth a read in my opinion.

ɕ

Don’t get stuck where the Sorting Hat put you →

Published June 4, 2015  ·  All posts on Jun 4  ·  

In each of the situations above, I had sorted myself into a category, or felt like I had been sorted…and then panicked when I didn’t fit or wanted to get out. It turns out, I was the one doing the sorting, not my family or friends. It was pressure I had been putting on myself: I struggled with losing my identity that I THOUGHT I needed to have, that I thought others had of me.

~ Steve Kamb from, Ditch The Sorting Hat. Choose Your Own Adventure!

slip:4unebo6.

ɕ

Start saying ‘No’ →

Published June 2, 2015  ·  All posts on Jun 2  ·  

To this student, and to everyone else who feels this way, I’d say this: your plate is too full. You have too much going on.

The only answer, unless you want your health to decline (and that’s not good for anyone), is to start saying No.

~ Leo Babuta from, When Your Plate is Too Full

slip:4uzepa1.

I really hope everyone else finds this totally obvious.

…because I didn’t, and I wasted a lot of my life “should’ing” on myself. I should do this. I should do that. I should be working. I should take time off. blah blah blah. I started saying “No” to little things first… really silly dumb stuff that I did all the time. Like check my email FIRST thing after opening my eyes. Saved myself, maybe, 5 seconds every day right there. Maybe instead now I glance out the window first. Then I moved on to bigger and bigger things; Do I really want to try to start this professional meetup group? Do I really want to continue studying tai chi? Do I want to keep writing in my journal? (Yes, but I can change my expectations for what gets into the journal from, “a good long journal entry for each day,” to “just write a couple of thoughts — literally, two. If more flows, great.”

I’m not trying to soap-box preach, I’m trying to say: Hear! Hear! Go read what Leo has to say.

ɕ

Is motivation useless →

Published May 25, 2015  ·  All posts on May 25  ·  , ,

This entry is part 20 of 72 in the series My Journey

Instead of berating yourself when you’re not motivated to exercise, or getting mad at yourself when you struggle with eating unhealthy food, take a step back and look at it from a different angle:

“How can you build the habit of success and put your focus there, instead of chasing the motivation to make it happen?

It’s easy to become ensnared – to chase motivation and fail – or rationalize inaction and never try. Every single one of us has fallen into this trap. I’d love to hear about your experience with this, and how you plan to (or already have) overcome it.

~ Steve Kamb from, Is Motivation Useless?

slip:4unebo8.

In a vague sort of way, I found this idea in my own training. As usual, Steve Kamb brings clarity to the party. This idea of incremental actions, of habits, and little processes that make success a foregone conclusion is at the core of my Parkour training.

ɕ

Creating habits that stick →

Published April 25, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 25  ·  

Rather than try to force myself every day, I simply created a “micro-habit” that I knew would lead to the intended behavior. A micro-habit is a single, tiny action that necessarily leads to a bigger action.

. . .

But here’s the trick: Once you perform the micro-habit enough times, it becomes much harder NOT to complete the entire habit than to simply do the whole thing.

~ Maneesh Sethi from, How to Create Habits That Stick

slip:4uaoho1.

ɕ

The smart way to stick to habits →

Published April 1, 2015  ·  All posts on Apr 1  ·  

Sticking to a new habit isn’t easy — but if you set up your habit change smartly, you can make it stick.

~ Leo Babauta from, The Smart Way to Stick to Habits

slip:4uzesi3.

ɕ