walking near the shore
under the autumnal dusk
glorious colors
Today’s haiku, December 3 2024
Category: Personal Reflections
Lessons learned about life; pearls of wisdom I’ve gleaned through pain, failure and honest reflection
Today’s Haiku: December 2, 2024
while sipping my tea
I admire the juncos
in the winter’s sun
Tonight’s Haiku: Sunday November 24, 24
within the night air
as dreams begin their calling
raindrops start their song
A Quote For The Day
I came accross today’s quote at Michele Lee’s blog “My Inspired Life”.
Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
First, I loved Tuesdays with Morrie. And I just love the vibe of this quote. It reminds me of what’s important in life, even is these troubling times.
I hope this finds you well. May you find your community, one that you may delight in devoting yourself to.
The Value of Mastery
James Clear, the author of “Atomic Habits” has a newsletter “3-2-1 Thursday”. Each issue contains:
- 3 short ideas from James
- 2 quotes from other people
- 1 question
Today’s newsletter, titled “On growing fast vs growing slow, the value of mastery, and climbing the right mountain“, resonated with me. The goal of my personal development plan is mastery, and I’m working on mastering what, exactly. Project management? IT? Web development? One of these. But this post drove home a weakness holding me back: my impatience. I want to become a master fast. And, well, that’s the opposite path of mastery. James included this quote, which I appreciated. It drives home the point succinctly.
“Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.”
~ Derk Sivers
Choosing what NOT to study is one of my core challenges right now. I’m interested in SO very much. Choosing to NOT pursue something is rather painful. But I know it’s the right decision. But, man, it’s so hard!
Have you developed mastery in something? How did you go about de-selecting what to study? Was it as hard for you as it is for me?
Some Valuable Advice
I love this post I found this morning on Instagram:
I’ve often found myself torn between my mind’s competing interests. Recently I figured out that at those moments, THIS is what I need to do: “pursue myself”. Become better, healthier, happier…all those things make for a better life. Much more so than simply getting some promotion or a new job.
Anyway, I wish a happy Friday to you all! May you move closer to your dreams.
An evening haiku: August 22, 2024
grace consumes the night
within this silent darkness
healing commences
Some thoughts on the article: “How a brush with death shaped my long game”
Like Eric Markowitz, for years I’ve been focused on “the long view” (as I’ve called it), or as he calls it “long-termism” (I do like his term). Basically, it means trying to make decisions that have a long-term, sustainable impact and escaping the tyranny of short-term (or, dare I call it, micro-term thinking). That mindset where the only thing one considers is maximizing profit (or enter your preferred KPI here) NOW, or perhaps out to the next earnings report. This thinking is so destructive when you look at the long game.
Mr. Markowitz wrote a piece last month titled “How a brush with death shaped my long game“. TLDR: he gets seriously sick, looking at a very high likelihood of death in the next few months. As you might expect, this causes one to rethink…a lot. (Fortunately, it has a happy ending…read it for the full details…it’s worth it).
He has lots of great ideas, but I particularly appreciate this one: “Playing the long game isn’t just about structure and process and systems that are designed to withstand the long-term: it’s about the joy and gratitude of getting to play the game in the first place.” I get fixated on the structure and processes and systems, and lose site of the joy.
Like him, I’ve had this long-term view in my mind, but have been really poor at living it. It’s far too easy for me to get wrapped up in short-term stresses, and lose track of the long-term goal. I appreciate the wake-up call (and am glad mine is this article and not the frightening series of events that Mr. Markowitz experienced).
I need to pull back and look bigger picture, focus on my long-term goals, and keep my short-term worries in perspective. Easier said than done, I know. Yet, I also know, it’s an effort that’s worth it. Like Thoreau, I want to ensure that “when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” That’s what’s most important to me.
Elements of style
Perhaps I should call this “elements of MY style”. But, anyway, Pinterest served this photo up to me today:
Oh, how I adore this photo! First, years ago, I had a fixation with scooters and, specifically, Vespas. Then you add in the fact I am fond of weathered, aged things. Oh, and I am fond of his satchel. Lastly, I love tweed! Mix that with a flat-cap and *chef’s kiss*.
I’ve had many flat caps over the years. My current arsenal holds two from Ireland (though I expect the fellow above is Scottish). And I don’t wear tweed that much any more. Perhaps I should fix that. Anyway, my closest alignment with this fellow comes with the only scooter I’ve ever owned. No, not a Vespa, but I had a Honda Elite 150 back in the late 80s (before I went to Oregon and Job Corps).
I enjoyed it greatly, but didn’t take it with me when I went to Oregon. It would’ve been handy after I got out of the Navy and lived in Downtown Seattle. But, well, I would’ve had to port this thing around the country. Which wasn’t in the cards.
Anyway, some fond memories here.
Reflecting on The Half-Life of Magic
I make it a point to read Seth Godin blog posts every day (well, I try my best). Today, he wrote “The half-life of magic“.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Arthur C. Clarke
In this post, Mr. Godin points out how quickly magic wears off. And, by magic, I ascribe the appreciation and wonder. The rate of change has increased so dramatically that one of our challenges is to find wonder in life.
It is hard when we externalize this. When we’re waiting to find wonder, delight, joy, it becomes so much harder to find. Let me propose another alternative: to actively seek it. Take a moment and consider how amazing our lives our. With my cellphone I can look up almost anything humanity has ever learned. Almost all knowledge is, literally, at our fingertips. but these technological marvels are only a small piece. Look out the window, watch the rain, see the hummingbirds drift amongst the blossoms, or the juncos dark amongst the tree branches. Or the eagle drifting overhead, over this suburban human habitat.
Life is full of wonder if you choose to look for it. And that’s the pathway to a joy-filled life: searching for wonder.