Category: post

Stop raising bars. Stop pushing envelopes. Stop stretching limits.

Because, you see, here’s the problem…

Whenever you raise a bar, you create one to be raised.

Whenever you push an envelope, you believe one exists to be pushed.

Whenever you stretch a limit, you acknowledge that one is there.

What if there are no limits to stretch?

What if there are no envelopes to push?

What if there is no bar to raise?

If the bar was real how could you raise it?

If the envelope was there how could you stretch it?

If there was a limit, how did you push pass it?

Perhaps, the fact that you were able to raise, push, or stretch is proof that these things were not there in the first place?

What if you lived a life where these things did not exist? What you that look like? What would that feel like?

Wanna find out? It’s easy.

Live your life like there are no limits and no one will be able to stop you. There will be nothing to hold you back and nothing to push against. There will be no way for anyone to stand in.

The only limits are the ones we create. So, stop creating them.

I’m a writer. Writing is how I make this world better, friendlier, stronger place. If these words improved your day, please let me know by contributing here.

Think about a lightbulb. Soft, white, diffused light. It speeds in all directions, illuminating the room. Unfocused.

Now, place a mirrored cup around that same light, point the cup’s opening at a specific point, and now you have a spotlight. Focused in one direction.

Now, start to constrain that opening. Shape it as a cone. You have a beam. A laser. A beam powerful enough to burn a hole in any object it is directed at. Extreme focus.

Same energy. Just shaped in different ways. And, once shaped, its strength, intention, and purpose is changed.

This is you. This is your time. This is your attention. This is your energy.

The same energy that you currently spread amongst the many tasks you are now doing, can be focused to put a real, deep, burning, hole right in the center of the one thing you should be doing.

I’m a full-time independent writer who is intensely focused on bringing you quality reading and ideas here daily. If you enjoy what you read here, please consider a free will donation of any amount.

Stop. Just for a second. Don’t think about anything you have to do next. Take a moment to realize and be present, fully, in this moment. Look around you and admire it. Check in with each of your senses and note what they are feeling. Realize that it is the only time that really exists. Every moment that passes is gone. Every one to come has yet to occur. That coming moment (and the one after it and the one after that) are not guaranteed. That is what makes this one so special. This is why we should recognize and appreciate it’s uniqueness.

But here’s the paradox. Each one of the moments before was equally unique. And we were led to it by the moment before that one. This moment is a consequence of the choices we made in all of the last. And no matter how sure you were those choices would lead you here, they just as easily could have led you to a sudden, unexpected, death.

The fact is that from the moment your warm feet hit the cold floor this morning you have ventured into a vast unknown. Anything could have happened. Yet you ventured forth anyway. You took that next step. And every step was a new opportunity to set your path. Every breath a subconscious decision to keep breathing. Every action a choice to do what you have always done or make a change. And, in reality, you had no real knowledge or control of any of it.

So, let’s take some time to celebrate that. Living life takes strength and courage and fearlessness and boldness to face such choices. Perhaps dozens big and small, each moment. Some smart, some crazy, some daring, some predictable. Yet none, do we know for certain, will lead to another. We have only hope that it will, so we choose to keep on despite that fact.

This moment is the only one we have to make the choices that guide the next, when and if it comes. In this moment we can decide to change our life. Or, we can decide to keep it just as it is. But we get to choose. In this moment, and only this moment, we get to choose our own adventure.

Writing is how I choose to contribute to life’s great adventure. If these words help you make the next best choice, please let me know by contributing here.

This old notebook contains…

Design ideas and draft copy for a previous version of this site. (07.18.2005)

Notes from a David Allen online seminar titled Knowledge Work Athletics (08.18.2005)and the GTD Roadmap seminar I attended. (09.22.2005)

Notes from Ruth Haden’s Money for Couples class Bethany and I took prior to getting married. (02.06.2006)

A list of movies I wanted to see. Most marked as completed.

The first ever outline of my Dash/Plus notation system. (05.23.2006)

Journal entries from around the time of our wedding. (06.2006)

Then from the days we spent in the hospital by Bethany’s mother’s side as she lost her battle with colon cancer. (12.25.2006)

Then from our honeymoon to Spain. (02.23.2007)

Fortunes from fortune cookies that I found interesting. I would tape them in and date them. (06.01.2007 is the first of several)

The following haiku (10.12.2007):

Dark in the morning.
Dark at night when going home.
Work in winter sucks.

Beatrix’s arrival. Five pounds, seven ounces, eighteen inches. (02.09.2008)

Lots of fountain pen tests. (03.12.2008)

The desire to cultivate more simplicity in my life and belongings. (08.21.2008)

As well as countless dreams and schemes and lists and plans and diagrams and ideas and…

This is a snapshot of my life. The moments I felt important to capture at the time. So that every now and again I could look back and marvel at it all. That it has brought me to this empty page. To reflect before the next moment begins to write a new entry in another book.

I’m a full-time independent writer who works hard to bring you quality reading and ideas here daily. If you enjoy what you read here, please consider a free will donation of any amount.

Beatrix owns at least a hundred books. Possibly more. Real books. Picture books. The kind five-year old kids have. Despite this age of tablets and e-ink, nothing has really matched the real thing for her. Most of the reading she personally does, or the things we read to her, are physical books.

Yet, while we have plenty of real books around the house ourselves — shelves upon shelves of them in our front entryway and the small library/den we have — these are all books we have already read. Most purchased before the age of iPads and Kindles. The books we actually read, the majority of any reading we do, are mostly on screens now. And though my wife and I read a lot, and read a large iety of books, periodicals, and other material at that, how is Beatrix to know?

I mean, we could be doing anything on the screen. And she knows it. She knows the Internet is sometimes on that screen. She knows that movies are sometimes on that screen. She knows that games and music are on that screen.

And, while she does know we can read books on that screen, even books for her, how is she to know the difference? How is she to pick up the physical cues that Mommy and Daddy read a lot of books? That this is what people should do. That it is something we believe passionately in. That it matters. That we believe she should read a lot of books too. Even when she is as old as we are.

I’ve decided that I want to start being very conscious of making sure to read real books as much as possible around her. That she not only see them closed and on shelves but also open and on tables and desks and their places being kept over the arm of a chair. I want to ensure that we have family reading time as much as possible and while one of us is reading a book to her the other is enjoying a physical book of their own.

This way, I hope she can see how important they are and make no mistake that reading books is something we believe in.

Bonus — Here are some of the favorite books (and mine too) in Beatrix’s extensive collection:

• Not Yet, Rose by Susanna Leonard Hill and Nicole Rutten

• Ten Moonstruck Piglets by Lindsay Lee Johnson and Carll Cneut

• Cinderella’s Dress by Nancy Willard and Jane Dyer

• The Man in the Moon (Guardians of Childhood) by William Joyce

• A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead and Erin Stead

• Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French and Bruce Whatley

• Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer (Actually, all of the Olivia books are great. We have a few.)

Update Bethany actually came up with the nightly family reading time idea, based on my concerns, and we proposed it to Beatrix yesterday morning. Tonight, Beatrix specifically asked for it and I was so excited and proud. Achievement unlocked.

Your free will donation of any amount helps to support this full-time independent writer of books. Real books. Thanks for reading!

Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different? | Video on TED.com.

I’ve been long fascinated by the thought that ideas only have value if there is agreement on them. In other words, that it is such agreement that really gives ideas true meaning.

The video is an excellent example of this. How something that has meaning in this country (a street name) does not have meaning in another simply because there is not agreement on the basic idea itself. In this case, that streets should have names.

Another example is the idea, the concept, of money. If you have a dollar and try to exchange it with me for something that is worth a dollar, the only way it can work is if we both agree on the value, the very idea, of what a dollar is worth. Furthermore, that dollars value to me is largely predicated on my faith that I can get someone else to agree to it’s value too. Entire economies have collapsed due to the failure of such agreements.

In order for us to have a discussion on the color of the sky, we first must agree on the name of that color (blue). If I decide that color should be called red, well, we have a fundamental flaw at the premise of our discussion. And if I call it red and everyone else calls it blue then, well, my ideas about the color of the sky will be written off as that of a crazy person. But, if I can convince everyone else to call it red, well, while the color of the sky has not changed the person still calling it blue will be in the wrong and not to be trusted.

The point here is that we must have some patience when discussing ideas. That in order to tackle a big problem or dispute it is important to get to the root of an idea and come to some fundamental agreements and understandings. It could be that the real problem is that we are talking about two different ideas entirely. That, by finding agreement on the idea itself, we may find that figuring out the rest is easy.

I’m a full-time independent writer who works hard to bring you quality ideas here daily. If you enjoy what you read and find agreement here, please consider a free will donation of any amount.

A thought occurred to me today as I was cleaning off my desk. As I removed everything from its surface, leaving only my MacBook, a notebook, pad of paper, and pen, an urge suddenly gripped me. The urge to remove the MacBook in order to have a space that is dedicated to writing with pen and paper.

Then, this has me thinking even further, what if one were to create an electronics free zone in their home or office? A desk, a small space, a room, or even a whole floor of the home where electronic technology was not allowed? No smartphones, tablets, tv’s, computers, or radios. Books, pen and paper, board games, and other such items were not only welcome in that space but championed. How would that feel? How would that change the nature of how we use that space or our home. How would it affect our perspective, habits, or dependence on these technologies that permeate so much of our lives? An Amish space, one where only the simplest of tools are allowed and every item has purpose and is considered carefully for the work or play to be conducted there.

You see, most Amish do not shun technology out of hand. They are just really careful about how it is adopted, when it is, to what extent, and where. It is not unusual for some Amish communities to have a shared car for those longer trips that a horse and buggy can’t make. Or a shared telephone in a central place where business can be conducted with those outside of the community.

Perhaps such an approach would be useful to adopt in our lives as well. Even on a small scale it could have tremendous impact. To know there is one space we can be to escape the distraction and expectations of a world insisting we react to every bell and beep.

I don’t know the answer to these questions. I have yet to implement this myself. It is just a thought for now. In fact, I’m not sure that this particular desk is right for it. It is made for use with a computer and an imperfect height for writing. That said, I now have the inclination to find a good old writing desk, one made in a time when pen and paper were the popular technology of their day. My Amish space.

Tools For Daily Learning

In my post yesterday about making note of at least one new thing you have learned each day, I did point to one or two suggestions for ensuring you have at least one thing to write down. That said, I wanted to give folks a nice list of my own that one could copy for such reference:

• Random page on Wikipedia — Just what it says on the tin. Click on this link and it will take you to a random page on Wikipedia. Chances are, you’ll land on something you did not know before 99% of the time. I just learned about mathematician Artemas Martin (best known for his puzzle columns in ious periodicals) while testing this link for you.

• Merriam-Webster Online Word Of The Day — Today’s word (as I write this) is inchmeal. An adverb that means gradually.

• Wonders & Marvels — A Community for Curious Minds who love History, its Odd Stories, and Good Reads — A wonderful history blog with a bent towards historical literature. I learn something new with every post.

• Random Facts | Fun Trivia | Interesting Insight — I sometimes have to check Snopes for verification because some of these facts seem unbelievable. No gotcha moments yet.

• Caesura Letters — I know I have said this before but I will say it again, every morning, this arrives in my email inbox and I always, always, learn something new. These are daily reflections wrapped in huge, delicious, doses of knowledge.

• Now I Know — A free daily newsletter;
  you’ll learn something new every day. Suggested by K.H. Schumann

Now, my bet is that there are many more I don’t know about. I’ve only mentioned a few that I use personally. That said, I always welcome even more sources of knowledge and learning. Feel free to suggest them to me on App.net or Twitter. Perhaps I’ll even update this post with some of them to share them with others.

I’m a writer. Writing is how I make this world better, friendlier, stronger place. If these words improved your day, please let me know by contributing here.

A practice I have been doing often for the past couple of years is to write down at least one new thing I learned every day. I sometimes fail or forget but mostly hit the mark. That said, when I get to the end of the year and review all of the things I learned, it makes me pretty darn proud. It is a great reminder that, no matter how old I get, there is always the capacity to learn and grow.

Sometimes, the one thing I learn comes from reading. Sometimes, it comes from observation. Sometimes, it comes from conversation. Sometimes, when I get to the end of the day and can’t think of anything new that I learned, I go to a random page on Wikipedia and learn something for the sake of learning.

There is no wrong way to capture this stuff. A paper notebook works well. The Levenger Five Year Journal is almost tailor made for it. Day One, with its quick entry menu item is fast and near frictionless.

The point is to note something in a way that is so simple and painless you won’t forget and it will become habit. Because, if you can make the capturing of your brain’s travels habit then, by association, learning something new every day will become habit too.

I’m a writer. Writing is how I make this world better, friendlier, stronger place. If these words improved your day, please let me know by contributing here.