Wait but why

 … or Wait but why? Two questions that when looked at closely have different feeling tones. The first, why wait?, has a tone I’d associate with being told what to do. Being instructed or mentored in the nuances

of hesitation. Of course we all could benefit from this. 

    The second, wait but why?, feels more inward reflecting. It acknowledges our natural tendency and the comfort in waiting, in hesitating, and our reluctant to commit. Then it springs the ‘but why’ on us. This sets up the demand to look a our own reasons for indecision, dithering and doubt. The ‘but why’ asks in a powerful way for us to account for the our shilly-shallying, hemming and hawing, and our dilly-dallying.

    Tim Urban’s website Wait But Why is the inspiration for this post. I got referred to it via a Lesson in Sam Harris’s Waking Up Course App. In it there is a ‘Lesson’ titled “The Last Time”. While we are hugging we don’t know if this will be the last time we’ll hug. If we knew that this was the last time, we’d be more present, more animated, look at connecting more fully. Frankly, I’d never let you go if I knew this was the last time we’d hug. 

    But we don’t and won’t when the last time comes. 

Credits - Tim Urban Wait But Why, Sam Harris Waking Up Course

Hope you have an awesome day!

This journal is meant as a reminder to encourage my future self. Where I work on my mental fitness and ‘adulting’. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Engagement

Be an adult. Do adult things. Be responsible. Be courageous. 

Image by Will Simpson

There is a dichotomy, a tug-of-war, between our endless streams of input, input from news, internet, self declared responsibilities and the amount of free space in which to gain insight, deeply think, learn, relate with those around us. If could measuring how much time we spend engaged with these activities on a simple balance scale, our endless streams on one side and the amount of free space we allow ourselves on the other, we’d see that the balance was almost completely on the endless streams side. Yet if we could weight the balance comparing the value to our life. we see the opposite. Most value comes from free space.

Two questions to ask:

1. How much free space do I have scheduled?

2. Am I being picky about the streams of input I choose to engage with?

Hope you have an awesome day!

Credits — Rohan

This journal is meant as a reminder to encourage my future self. Where I work on my mental fitness and ‘adulting’. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Metapor

Don’t be a rabbit with horns.

Image by Will Simpson

Some people seem to understand and are moved by metaphors, me not so much. This is just me. I know this is a personal quirk of my nature. There I go using the metaphor of ’nature’ to describe my mental traits. I use metaphors when I’m too lazy to fully explain myself. A text or author that uses metaphors a lot seems to me to be lazy or unskilled in their explanation. They leave the heavy lifting for the reader. 

The spectrum of metaphor runs from fanciful dream like to subtle colloquialisms. The problem I have with old historical texts is telling what part of the spectrum i’m reading. 

Who knew that Zen would have a virgin birth myth in it. Surely this is a metaphor but how misleading. How sad.  

Hope you have an awesome day!

This journal is meant as a reminder to encourage my future self. Where I work on my mental fitness and ‘adulting’. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Cal Newport - Digital Minimalism

Focus and attention are key to a successful life.

Image by Will Simpson

I’ve started reading (actually I’m listening to the audiobook) Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. I’m prepared for some disruption in my online activities. So far just the introduction. In it Cal makes a argument for taking time to create a personal ‘digital manifesto’. This is the ‘adult’ thing to do which I haven’t done. Without making something formal, I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants. I’m deluding myself that I’m in control when I am willy nilly about my online habits. I’m not willy nilly about my workout habits, or at least I consciously try. Not that I think I have a problem, but I could always do better. Maybe I’m even more deluded than I suspect (likely) and the games played by online activity.

An integration of my Dzogchen — Zen — Lojong Practice and the INTERNET.

We’ll see.

Hope you have an awesome day!

This journal is meant as a reminder to encourage my future self. Where I work on my mental fitness and ‘adulting’. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Albert Einstein

Image by Will Simpson

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  - Albert Einstein

Hope you have an awesome day!

This journal is meant as a reminder to encourage my future self. Where I work on my mental fitness and ‘adulting’. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Drive all blames into one

“The point is that challenges don’t cease, and if you wish to keep your heart open, the challenges will quickly increase rather than decrease”

— START WHERE YOU ARE by Pema Chödrön, © 1994.

Image by Will Simpson

Slogan Number 12 in the Lojong Practice 

Drive all blames into one. 

This relates to how we are caught in situations and act out of fear, anger, confusion, ego, or then simple routine habits developed from our past.  An antidote for this is to breath in and have an open awareness. Two modes of operation - aspiration and action. Sometimes we are positioned to be an actor and sometimes we are an aspirant. Recognizing this powerful and hopeful. At different times and in different situations, when we have a presents that is centered on being present, giving, connecting, we empower the actor in us in a healthy way. Sometimes situations are too strongly charged for us to have this power of presence, giving, connecting. Rather than getting caught in the tsunami we can breath in and choose to be an aspirant, to aspire to connecting with the moment. We don’t have to have answers, we don’t have to make some dramatic action. We can just hold an aspiration until we can develop the ingredients for action. 

Hope you have an awesome day!

Credits — Pema Chödrön - Be Grateful to Everyone: An In-depth Guide to the Practice of Lojong

This journal is meant as a reminder to encourage my future self. Where I work on my mental fitness and ‘adulting’. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Diversify

With everything you make, and give, you become a fuller expression of who you are. With every piece you deny and hold back, you retreat, or stagnate.

Image by Will Simpson

Diversification is a Superpower

1. Diversify ideas - first step is to be open to hearing different

2. Diversify the people I meet - first step is to be more conversational

3. Diversify home - first step is define home

4. Diversify my performance platform - online, in text, in audio, in real life

5. Diversify my thoughts - first step is to discover what I think

6. Diversify my reading - first step is to find different recommendation sources

7. Diversify my fitness - first step is to sign up with a fitness trainer

8. Diversify the way I meet people - first step is to place myself in more social settings

9. Diversifying my happiness portfolio - share and love freely

Diversify rather than stagnant. Especially important at my age. Continuing to move is a key to a sense of purpose. Meaning is found in the journey, the attempt. Never settle. 

Hope you have an awesome day!

Credits — James Altucher

This journal is meant as a reminder to encourage my future self. Where I work on my mental fitness and ‘adulting’. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.