thoughts; both mine and other's

I heard the following recently, “When you write, write only for yourself. Write only what you yourself need to hear. You will naturally attract those that like your work and shun those that are disinterested in it.”

What is it that I need to hear?

What are some of my greatest fears?

One of them would be to live a “wasted” life. To endlessly waste time. To squander my resources and relationships, only to one day wake up and regret every decision I’ve ever made.

What is the path towards not-regretting one’s decisions/life? Perhaps the following:

We need to believe in our ideas before anyone else does. We need to think about our ideas and believe in them while everyone else thinks you’re crazy.

You need to believe with so much conviction that things can be other than they are, that the negative comments of the nay-sayers will just roll off your back.

Honestly, you have to be a little crazy to think that you can take an idea, apply some effort and move that concept from your brain into the real world.

So what? Go ahead. Be crazy.

Should you ignore all of the nay-sayers? No – because some of them likely have some good points.

The balance between finding who to listen to and finding who to ignore is tricky. It’s a constant work-in-progress.

How do we balance extreme, delusional self-belief with trying to not being ridiculous?

Well,  as an example, if you have 2k in assets and for your first venture you take out 250k in debt, that’s more than 100 times your assets. A bit ridiculous.

If you’ve never made a dollar on your own before, perhaps you should start smaller.

Don’t stop trying until there’s no more breath left in your body. One day, you will get there. One day, your dreams will become a reality.

Keep pushing.

What is your personal brand in 2 to 5 words?

What keeps you busy outside of work? Great question at networking events.

200mg seems to be the efficacious dose of L-theanine.

When is the last time you cried tears of joy?

The best way to hit a bullseye is to use a machine gun.

“What you are looking for is the one that is looking”

Good things come to those who wait, but only things left by those who hustle.

Life, liberty and the expansion of happiness.

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

Seems that those with nothing to lose and nothing to prove perform very well.

Focus on the problem. Focus on asking the right questions about the problem, before coming up with a solution.

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

“Just” and “only” are dangerous words.

Do we do things because we feel like we should or because we actually want to do them?

Do we do things because we like the way people might be expected to perceive us if we do them?

Do we do things because “they could be valuable” in a hypothetical future?

Are we all motivated by status and sex?

With a myriad of demands on our time and attention, should we only do things that we are 90% certain we want to do? Where should the cut off be?

Will we disappoint others by not doing certain things? If so, should we care?

How would we behave if we really had a few months to live? Sell all of our possessions? Give away our money? Spend time with our parents – helping them do mundane things like clean the dishes?

 

The 10th post!

Some ruminations:

To what extent does caffeine either improve or hinder performance?

To what extent/how often should we sacrifice sleep for a social life?

How do we gain consistent access to filtered water around the city?

Are bluetooth-connected devices actually “bad” for us?

Physical Proximity/Frequency/Duration/Intensity – > this equation dictates the extent to which physical connection/intimacy proliferates (apparently). I find it to be true. This should apply in all types of human relationships.

Wish there was a test strip that could quickly measure the amount of caffeine contained in a beverage, regardless of volume of liquid.

What is the minimum amount of time required in the morning to maximally prepare for the day? This would be in order to maximize time spent sleeping-in before having to leave the house.

Mortality as a motivator

While some find the topic morbid, I find the fact that everything has a distinct end point to be fascinating and inspiring.

Where would we be if life didn’t have any deadlines?

Want to write that book? Don’t worry, you’ll live forever.

Want to start working out? Not a problem, you’ve only got eternity left.

Maybe stop your addiction to hard drugs? Meh, I’m immortal so whatevs.

Nothing matters, we don’t belong anywhere, we’re all going to die.

From here, we have 2 options.

Live as if nothing matters, or live as if everything matters.

An end point creates beauty, spontaneity, serendipity.

Hopefully, thinking about an end point, or a deadline, will help us to realize how special our experience in this life can be.