Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesdays

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Dr. Jordan Peterson, Gary Keller, Life-long Learning, Maps of Meaning, The One Things, wisdom

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” – Neil Gaiman

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/neil_gaiman_676237?src=t_learning

As many of you know, I love to learn. I ran across this great video series on YouTube, called: Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. In this series, Dr. Peterson teaches us how human beings have used stories to communicate to one another and map out the key features of our belief systems. The lecture series is composed of 12 lectures that last about 2 ½ hours each. This is a fascinating series filled with lots of ideas and things to think about. I’ve provided a link below if you are interested in checking it out.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL22J3VaeABQAT-0aSPq-OKOpQlHyR4k5h

This year, we are all going to experience new things. We are going to learn new things. When we are truly learning something new, we make mistakes. Mistakes are part of the learning process as our brains rewire themselves to a new way of doing things. Make mistakes. Learn from your mistakes. Build on your mistakes. Do not be afraid of making mistakes.

I’m also reading a great book called: The One Thing by Gary Keller. It’s a book that describes a process for focusing on the very best action we can take to improve our lives. He also provides a great way to categorize our lives into areas of focus that I found to be quite fascinating. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in self-help books. It adds to the books I have read in the past and fits in nicely to the way I am rewriting my life daily. I think you’ll find it to be yet another book you can add to your yearly lexicon of reading.

We are what we focus on. If we focus on the right things daily, we will build a life of meaning. We will build a life that is exciting and filled with learning, building new skills, and increasing our marketability so that we can live a life that is fresh, ripe with variety, and productive. Isn’t this what all of us want?

Gary’s way of speaking is down-to-earth and easy to understand. He provides a way of pursuing a balance in life so that we can tackle all facets of our existence each day and build our relationships, maintain ourselves physically and financially, pursue our spiritual interests, and develop an individual curriculum of learning that adds to our skills and continuously pushes us to greater heights.

I hope each of you is having a great week so far! Take a look at The One Thing and Dr. Peterson’s lecture series. I think you’ll enjoy both.

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

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Daily Actions, Executing, Goals, Integrity, persistance, Self-trust, wisdom

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Mastering yourself is about keeping promises you make to yourself. I wanted to address this early in the year because this is the time of year we all begin to pursue all of those things we have established are important to us. You, like anyone else, will suffer if you are lied to—even if you lie to yourself!

When you consistently fail to do what you tell yourself you will do, you begin to lose confidence in yourself. You begin to believe that you cannot achieve anything because you have always failed to achieve what you set out to do. This compounds over time and after while you’ll find that you have lost control of everything. You’ll find that you are always taking the easier route. You cannot and will not do what you need to do.

I know this place because I was there. I love video games. I love them so much that during this dark time I could literally get up in the morning and play those games from morning to midnight and beyond. I was out of control. I couldn’t make myself exercise. I couldn’t make myself eat right. I couldn’t make myself do anything—because I didn’t believe that I could or would. If it was easy, I did it. I pursued anything that followed the path of least resistance.

I knew deep down that this was not the way to live and began to look for some answers to turn this around. I ran across a book called Mini-habits and that was all I needed. I started doing small things each day. Each day I did these small things I began doing more than I was required to do. This is called a bonus activity and this is a natural offshoot of Mini-habits.

I combined my knowledge of Mini-habits with other books and began implementing a ritualistic strategy of tackling the things that are important to a balanced life. I began reading, writing, learning, exercising, socializing, and performing my religious duties each day, even if it was just a little effort, I kept doing a little in each of these areas each day.

After a while, your internal self will begin to believe what you say. You will begin to trust yourself again and realize that what you say is what you will do. When you begin to actually do what you say you will do, the bulk of the battle has been won. Now, you can establish goals, set plans, and execute a little each day. This execution reinforces trust in yourself and edges you ever closer to the goals you set. It is just this simple.

Don’t be the person that goes to the gym in January and stops going in a month.

Don’t be the person who wants to write their book and gives up in a few weeks

Don’t be the person who sets out to lose weight and gives up on their diet within a week.

Be the person who can do anything they set out to do, through deliberate, consistent, and daily action. You can do it, just like I did. Start doing little things that build self-trust and you’ll wake up one day doing more than you thought possible.

I wish all of you well as you pursue this year’s goals. I hope all of you succeed!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Persistence

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involuntary change, Paulo Coelho, Perseverance, Persistence, voluntary change, wisdom

“The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.”―Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

If you’ve never read this book, I highly recommend it. I read through it in a few days and it is a wonderful story. Today’s Wisdom Wednesday is about persistence. As I work through developing the character trait of forgiveness, there is one thing that is important about adding this character trait to my toolbox–persistence.

Each change that is introduced into your life will be accepted or fought against. Those changes that come about voluntarily, like my pursuit of 12 new character traits over the next year, are easier to deal with because you volunteer. You are the one instituting change. If you institute a change in your life it is much easier to deal with because you can always abandon the change, whenever you wish.

The changes that arise in our life like a job loss, the loss of a loved one, or the loss of health, are all much more difficult to deal with because they arrived uninvited. They are also not going to go away because they are changes to the outside of you. You cannot control your employer. If they economy goes into the gutter your employer will be required to tighten their belt. This tightening sometimes requires the elimination of people who are typically the highest cost a business has. This change requires us to find a new employer.

Losing a loved one to disease, old-age, or in the case of romance, are also involuntary changes to your life. They hurt because people who leave us, particularly those that we love, leaves a hole in our lives. Having someone in your life 24-hours a day to not having them in your life causes upheaval. In some case, this upheaval is too great for a person to handle and they do all sorts of harmful things to compensate. Others will take stock of their situations, alter their lives to compensate for this person being out of their life, and get on with it.

Losing your health to an injury, old age, or a disease that is incurable are other types of changes that we must deal with. If we’ve been injured, we heal. We compensate for the injury or ailment and get on with our lives the best way we can. Involuntary changes are hard to work through because we have no choice. We have to adapt to the things that happen to us.

Change is inevitable. Throughout our lives we learn which things we habitually do that are beneficial and which ones are not. When we take charge of our lives and decide to get rid of certain habits or activities that are not in our benefit to continue, we voluntarily opt to make a change.

If you’ve thought about all of the necessary things that warrant a change, stick with them. You put a lot of work learning about the detrimental effects a habit has on you. Persist as you begin the process of learning a new habit, a new way of doing things. If you miss a day or two, don’t beat yourself up. Just pick up where you left off and continue to move forward. At some point you’ll feel a shift and you’ll know you’ve adopted this new thing. You’ll know because it will feel uncomfortable to not do that thing you’ve established as a habit. This is when you know you’ve internalized a new habit in your life. Persistence is the only thing that will get you to this point.

I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

Action, Intention, John Burroughs, mini-habits, Stephen Guise, wisdom

“The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.” – John Burroughs

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_burroughs_120946?src=t_wisdom

First off, I totally screwed up timing this week and posted my Thinking Thursday yesterday (oops 😊). So, here’s Wisdom Wednesday on Thursday to make up for my date mix-up.

We all have intentions. We intend to do good. We intend to do right. We intend to think about others before we think of ourselves. But…

Intentions like dreams mean nothing if they lack action. Actions are much more meaningful, even if they are small. Serving someone, even slightly, will have an impact. Taking one step on that walk will have an impact. Reading one page in your book will get you closer to the end.

This is one of the greatest challenges that face us as individuals. This is why I really enjoyed the book Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. This book truly changed my life. It showed me how to get started—how to execute. The price for the Kindle version is $5.99. I highly recommend this book to you if you are having difficulty sticking to anything.

Stephen emphasizes starting small. He began his exercise program doing 1 push-up a day. He began his writing career writing 1 sentence a day. All of this is backed by some studies on willpower, habit formation, and how the brain works. I hope some of you pick this book up and read it. It is easy to read and not too long. When I read it for the first time, I finished it in a day.

After finishing the book, I started putting his suggestions into action. I started my routine with 1 push-up a day. I started writing 1 sentence a day. I read 1 chapter a day. I meditated 5 minutes a day. One thing I would like to be clear about is that I did not start all of these at the same time. Stephen suggests starting out by creating one habit. You can do more if you wish but if you’ve been living a life of intending to do something and never getting around to it, starting with one habit will be a huge leap for you.

Get this book. I am not affiliated with Stephen Guise or Amazon. The book is just that good and will help you if you give it a chance. I hope this helps some of you get “unstuck” and gets you moving towards your goals. I wish you a great Thursday. The weekend is only two days away!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

Acting, Being, evolving, Knowing, Learning, Living, Science, Seeing, Understanding, wisdom

Immanuel Kant is a hard read. You know this if you’ve ever read Kant or any number of philosophers who are relied upon, even today, to glean the wisdom in their words. Science and wisdom are two distinct areas of human searching.

When I look at science I think about the discovery the process of science provides. Science answers questions. Furthermore, science provides us with new ways to look at the world around us.

Wisdom is about discovery as well but we arrive at our conclusions in a different way. Some of our wisdom is gained from watching others. We also gain wisdom by reading or hearing it.

Science discovers things on the micro level. It edges us along piece by piece as scientists make one small discovery here and another there. Each of these little pieces can lead us to yet greater discovery. Sometimes science discovers that one particular thread of inquiry is an absolute dead end, while other threads lead to great learning and unlock secrets that before were unknown.

Wisdom involves a knowingness. In many cases you cannot prove wisdom–it just is. We know it when we see it. We know it when we hear it. We know it when we experience it.

Science and wisdom are both necessary for humankind. One propels us to better living through the discoveries science brings us, the other propels humans to a higher state of consciousness–a new way of looking at the same thing with different “eyes”.

Science tells us more about life. Wisdom tells us more about living.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday

Tags

Happiness, Knowledge, Rabbit hole, Searching, Truth, wisdom

“The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.” – John F. Kennedy

Boy, is this a good one!

When I was studying for a Doctorate, I truly began to realize how true this and other statements are about our limited knowledge in so many fields. When we discover something new, we begin to discover more avenues to follow and begin to discover there is a lot more to understand. It’s almost like running down a never-ending rabbit hole, much like the one in Alice of Wonderland. The key difference is the rabbit hole only leads to other ones, and other ones, ad infinitum.

I think we just need to understand that this seeking will never end. There will always be something more to know, more to apply, more to do. It is never ending because with each new discovery, more doors open in other fields, more doors open for commercial application, and more doors open to refine the idea just discovered.

Subsequently, science needs to keep seeking to understand that it needs to seek some more only to understand that this answers this question and presents ten more. We need science, but science will never discover the truth about our reality. Truth is only experienced. Truth is known when we see it. Truth is unchanging. When you find the truth, you don’t need to continue looking. Truth just is.

Our search for knowledge also concerns other aspects of our lives. Think about happiness for a moment. Are you happy? If not, why not? Happiness is a state of mind—an attitude. You either are happy, or you are not happy. Happiness, like truth, is within. We must learn how to be and nothing more.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

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Alice Morse Earle, Being Present, Living in the Moment, Quote, wisdom

Today’s Quote:

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it is called the present.” – Alice Morse Earle

What wisdom right?

So many of us get wrapped up into what happened yesterday or worry about some unknown in the future, ignoring the fact that none of that has any impact unless we let it impact us. The only way to benefit from yesterday and have an effect on tomorrow is by being present. Do your best today. Focus on what you want today. Stay on task right now! If you do, you’ll find your tomorrow’s are better, your yesterday’s are great teachers, and the only control you have is your attitude about what is occurring right now.

Here’s a trite quote: “Stop and smell the roses.” Take your time, enjoy every bite of your meal, enjoy every moment with your loved one, enjoy every moment of peace when you just sit and relax.

I hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

See you tomorrow…

Daily Ramblings – Bonus – Ted Talk – 12 Truths by Anne Lamott

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12 Truths, Anne Lamott, Death, Life, wisdom

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quotes

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Ella Baker, Franklin Jones, Hugh Black, Quotes, wisdom

“The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self.” – Hugh Black

“One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody’s listening.” – Franklin P. Jones

“Give light and people will find the way.” – Ella Baker

We are all unique and each of us fulfills a purpose. Perhaps you are a housewife, a writer, a gamer, a poet, a singer, etc. Whatever role you fill, realize it is exactly what you are supposed to be doing. If you aren’t happy with your current circumstances change them, but realize that the change doesn’t require a change in your outer world, but your inner one. Happiness is available to you today, but so is sadness. It is your choice.

My Dad made a statement to me when I was younger and complaining about work. He said, “Son, work is only work if you think of it as work. If you think of it as fun, work becomes fun.” It is our internal attitude. It is our awareness, our consciousness, that makes life a joy or drudgery. Change the way you look at your world and your world will change.

Until tomorrow…

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quotes

Tags

Buddha, John Wooden, Naguib Mahfouz, wisdom

“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.” – Naguib Mahfouz

I’ve had numerous professors bring this up during class. This is a quote that demonstrates that thinking, learning, and discovery are much more important than knowing the answers. Interestingly, this leads to another famous quote: “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know and the more you know that you don’t know.” – David Byrne

“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.” – Buddha

Our mind is an excellent tool, but a horrible master. Keep the mind focused on the good, the beautiful, and on others. Never let the mind focus on the self–this is when the trouble comes.

“Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.” – John Wooden

This is a terrific quote from John Wooden, who had his fair share of talent while coaching over the years. This is all about being thankful for the gifts we are given and avoiding the vices that typically come with success and fame.

Hope you are having a terrific Monday!!

Until tomorrow…