Cracks in the sidewalk

If excellence is my stated priority (the important, the vision) but my behavior is focusing on the cracks in the sidewalk (my superstition, the urgent need to avoid triggering my fear), what's the harm of just changing my vision to "avoid fear, every time, every day" so that they are aligned?  

Couldn’t people then help me with the thing that is most important?

61 years ago

61 years ago, President Kennedy imposed an embargo on trade with Cuba.  

It's still in place and has been a compelling story for me since I can remember.  

Do the reasons for the embargo still exist?  

What are they?

Is it a gift from the past that we keep accepting every day?

(In my mind they are related to sunk costs, behavior, and choice).

Sunk Cost

Sunk cost.  Already spent it (time, money, emotional energy, schooling)

Choosing the behavior for the present.  

It might look like continuing to do the thing I committed to yesterday, last year, 20 years ago.  

I think it's a choice.  

Same with the choice to accept the gift of yesterday from myself or to politely decline that gift.

Consistency. Foolish?

This one will take some time to chew upon! Not my words, they are Emerson’s:

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

RIGHTeousness

What if my worthy rival (or my enemy) is right?

RIGHTness

Rightness has associated philosophical and moral hazards.

Are those hazards ones that I am uniquely powerful enough to bear?

Agreement

What do we agree upon? 

What do we not agree on? 

What do we spend our time on? 

What are my reasons for that choice?

Regret

Have I ever regretted helping someone?

Choice

Related to the previous post

Write every day, read every day, exercise every day. 

Priorities.

So important. 

I know this. 

Why the heck am I waiting for the motivation to arrive? 

What does motivation possibly have to do with choice?

Priorities

First, I have to pay the bills, then I’ll start the long-term initiatives. 

Do I really believe this? 

Or do I just prefer hard work and consistency and convince myself it’s actually the priority? 

Why do I have to convince myself? 

I know tomorrow never comes, but……..

In common

What do I have to have in common with someone to share a joke with them? 

What makes it funny?

Complete sentences

Have you ever tried to think in complete sentences?

Close your eyes, and your mouth😊. 

Describe how to do a squat. 

Remember the punctuation and put your description in a logical order. 

Why is that tough?

Choosing

Driving in today; thinking of all that I put on my plate today. 

Approaching a turn, I noticed the driver on the other side of the intersection waiting to make a left with a beaming smile on their face. 

"Thanks for the reminder.  I get to choose how my day goes!"  

"What influence can I have on someone I may not even talk to today?"

Happy Thursday

Future me

How will the future judge me?

The future, and the future me, will have a different set of experiences from which to form context. 

Will I learn from the past? 

And learn from the context of the past?

Perception

Accurate perception or useful perception?

Is my perception working for me?  In what way?

Is it shared by anyone?

Measurable

Not everything that’s important is measurable. 

Not everything that is measurable is important. 

Implications to running?

Implications to life!

Flow State

Occasionally I have gotten there running.  I still remember those runs.

I regularly got there before and during wrestling and during skydiving. Probably would have been helpful to be in flow state prior to exiting the aircraft!

I also get into flow state regularly when I write/blog.  Sometimes a few words take 20 minutes.

For me, a commitment to sharing my writing/thinking makes getting into flow state quicker.

I recommend doing it every day, even if you don’t share it. 

Priorities

I want to help humans,

while I make a good living, and

I am respected in the community.

Three things that don't have to be mutually exclusive.

If I force myself to prioritize these three things, which one is first for me?

Advice

What advice would I give to myself if I wasn't me?

Would I take it?

Blessings

Obvious blessings in my life.  

Am I deliberately and consciously aware and thankful of them?  

Of what merely having life means?  

The fish parable told in a Kenyon College graduation speech in 2005 richly captures how easy it is for me to overlook the obvious blessings in my life.              

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”        

RIP Mr. Wallace. And thank you for painting that picture for me.