Posted in Master Your Mind on October 16, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I talk a lot about action. My favorite philosophy book: the Bhagavad Gita. For me, no other philosophy is as applicable today as when it was written. Still, non-action is occasionally preferable to action.
For example, shutting up during a negotiation until your counterpart stumbles or buckles under the pressure.
Posted in Master Your Mind, tagged empty out, jealousy, metaphor, philosophy, pressfield, work on April 24, 2016| 1 Comment »
In my experience, I’ve found only 2 ways to effectively deal with jealousy. Fortunately (or unfortunately), some of my friends are better-looking than me, taller than me, make more money than me, and are more popular with the ladies…
…Not that it’s a competition, but let’s face it, sometimes it is. And sometimes, it sure feels like you’re getting creamed.
One way to deal with jealousy is to tear the other person down. Diffuse. Detract. Talk trash. Obviously this is a very low-level way of coping, but sometimes you can’t help it and boy, does it feel good, am I right?
Just kidding. Or, perhaps, half-kidding.
Posted in Master Your Mind, tagged balance, dating, health, vice, virtue, writing on April 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I have a friend who’s a Gamer (video games, not the other kind), and he recently asked, “How do you have time to write, go to the gym, and play video games? Don’t you work?”
“I dunno,” I told him. “If it’s important enough, you just find the time.”
Now that I’ve had more time to mull it over, I think a more accurate answer would be: “You make time according to how important it is to you.”
Posted in Master Your Mind, tagged high impact, hilp, increased access, low probability, risk management on April 21, 2016| Leave a Comment »
There’s a concept I like to call HILP (High Impact Low Probability).
I consider an event or activity to be HILP when it has the potential to drastically alter your life, but whose chances of occurring are exceedingly rare. In other words: High Impact, Low Probability.
An example of a positive hilp is, say, becoming an overnight millionaire from some phone app you created a la “Flappy Bird.” It’s a life-changing event, but not one you can count on.
An example of a negative hilp might be having your business wiped out by the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Again, transformative in scale, while being rare and unpredictable.
I can think of at least 2 applications for this concept:
Posted in Master Your Mind, tagged self help on February 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Some people scoff at self-help, associating it with fake optimism and mental horn-tooting. I get it. I know it’s not possible to always feel happy, present, and fulfilled; to never feel tired, jealous, or afraid.
But for those who would find it altogether risible, I would ask them not to dismiss the forest because of a few rotten trees. Just because Isaac Newton spent much of his life chasing the philosopher’s stone, doesn’t make bunk the rest of his work on calculus, optics, and gravity.
To me, self-help has never been about earth-shattering discoveries and previously unknown magic-bullets, but rather the gradual accumulation of infinitesimal changes that can transform our lives when viewed as a whole.
I think another reason self-help gets a bad rap is that some of its proponents have a nasty tendency to dismiss others’ claims of disadvantage. No, poverty is real. Death is real. Accidents, disease, and family dysfunction are real. Self-help should not be a weapon to bludgeon someone into self-blame and censorship; it is simply a tool to improve one’s lot, even if by a little (but sometimes by a lot) despite your starting position.
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| Sol Ulbricht on How to Not Be Self-Consci… | |
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| A. T. Bui on The Vortex |
Choose to Take the Journey 