Today I was enjoying the warmth of the sun in Central Park. Then I thought, hey, I’m going to go get a book to read and then I’ll come back to the sun. I took the subway, and when I get out from underground it was pouring rain outside.

In that moment, I was reminded of a simple fact. Nothing is guaranteed. I was acting as if it were going to be sunny all day. But no, it started to rain.

Then I remembered this advice I picked up somewhere: Enjoy everything as if it were the last time you were ever going to do that thing, see that person, experience that moment. Don’t expect things to last. They never do. Everything is always changing. Change is one of those things you can always count on.

When you start living more consciously this way you see the world in a whole new way. You will be more grateful, and, overall have a greater sense of joy and wellbeing. Take the time to appreciate the present moment. That’s the only thing you will ever truly have, even though the present moment is fleeting and slipping away from your grasp at this very moment. The past is forever lost. The future is never guaranteed.

Try spending a couple moments a day, thinking, this could be the last time I ever do this. See how much more you appreciate those moments; when you know they are temporary. You must pay attention if it is temporary. Otherwise you let it slip consciously.

The goal is not to be aware of every single thing that happens, but to increase the number of moments a day that you truly experience.

Remember, tomorrow is not guaranteed.

It’s so easy to complain.

What if you did something about it?

Complaining isn’t necessary. If you start complaining, listen to what you really what, what’s the real problem? You have no right to complain if you don’t do everything you can to fix the problem.

Complaining to get attention from others is useless. I don’t like hearing others complain, so why would I impose myself on others? Odds are, you don’t either.

Sometimes you need to complain, you need to let it out, to gather your thoughts and clarify the problem. But chronic complaining is not necessary.

Do something about your complaining.

Don’t complain if you don’t do anything about it. How could you ever expect it to get better, if you do nothing about it?

Instead of complaining, do.

Distractions.

We seek them out all the time. Or they come to us.

We can’t stand boredom.

We indulge cheap entertainment.

An easy movie. A glance at a social media feed. Just checking the time on your phone. A youtube video.

It’s easy to waste time without having to think about it. An easy way to numb the feeling of boredom, to numb life.

Everything is grabbing for your attention. A blinking light here, a colourful poster there. Buy now ! FREE! Two for one!

I can spend a day glued to a screen without feeling a day has gone by, and having done nothing productive. There is so much information you need to filter it out. Eliminate.

Your attention is precious.

If you want to do creative work, boredom is important.

It’s often in the boring moments that ideas have the time and space to surface in the fog of your busy mind.

The next time you get bored, sit in it. Think twice before reaching for your phone. Just stay with it. Experience what it’s like. Listen to your mind. Develop self-awareness. Observe how you embrace the discomfort. Let your busy brain cool down. The world isn’t going to melt if you don’t check your phone. Take a look around. Think. Listen. Feel.

See what happens.

Car.
Train.

Angoulême

Start.
Stop.

Start.
Stop.

Start.
Almost Final stop.
On my feet.
Off balance.
Stop.
Wait.
Dock.

Charles De Gaulle Airport.

Escalator. Up.

Shuttle.
Where to?
Terminal one.

Hunger.
Sandwich.
Finally.

What section?
Section 4.
Bye bye bag.

To section 4.
Escalator. Forwards.

Customs.
Done.

Now, wait.
Wait . . .

A book.
A computer.
People.

Wait . . .

Bathroom break.

Wait . . .

Bad news.
Flight delayed.

Now, wait . . .

Hunger anew.
Sandwich.
Done.

Wait . . .

Tired.

Flight landed.
Finally.
A little more wait . . .

Gate open.
Papers please.
Thank you.

To the plane.

Where to?
Oslo.

Then?
New York City.

A camel and a dromedary are alone in a desert talking to each other.

The camel starts laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” asks the dromedary.

“Because you have a hump on your back!” replies the camel. “It looks so funny on you.”

The dromedary confused and a bit embarrassed looks at the camel. He does not know what to say. Then, after a moment of thought remarks “And you, have two.”

The camel taken aback stops laughing. He had never seen that he had two humps.

Have you ever looked ahead while reading to see how far the end of the chapter was? Right now I’m working on doing less of this, especially when reading fiction. Here’s what I’ve observed about this phenomena.

It’s natural to want to know where you are. How far am I from the finish line? This is particularly useful when racing. Usually though, when racing, you always know just about how much distance is left until you cross the finish line. Generally, reading is not a race. So knowing how far the finish line isn’t terribly important.

When reading, especially if you are reading a book for the first time, you don’t know when it ends. Well, you know the end of the book is the last page, but you rarely read the whole book in one sitting. Usually a book is divided into chapters and those feel like good places to stop. I for one, like to finish at the end of a chapter if I can. I don’t like leaving a book in the middle of a chapter.

So, when first reading a book, I don’t know when the chapter I’m currently reading will stop. And, me not knowing makes me want to know. Sometimes, I want to finish quickly, take a break and not leave in the middle of a chapter, or I simply wonder how many pages are left, so I skip ahead to know. I just want to know. It makes me feel good.

Rationally, if I want to get it over with, the quickest solution is to continue reading. But no, I look ahead. To reassure myself. And in so doing I take more time to complete the task. It doesn’t give me important information to look ahead and see how many pages are left in the chapter. But I do it anyway. It takes away the uncertainty of the end of the chapter and gives me a sense of certainty.

Then in life I want to look ahead. But I’m always disappointed. The future is always unknown. It can  be frustrating, especially since there is no rational reason to be. Patience is hard.

This natural urge has been tended to with mobile devices as they often indicate at the bottom of the screen how many pages are left to the chapter. So you just have to glance at the bottom of the screen to scratch that itch. But if you decide to read the physical book, you will experience this desire to know, this desire to look ahead.

Now, I do my best to not look ahead and see if the chapter is almost finished. I continue reading. I finish in the middle of a page if necessary. Keeping myself in the dark, gives a new thrill to the story. I no longer know when it finishes. I savour the unveiling of the story.  I suppress my expectation of the chapter ending in precisely 3 pages. I tell myself: Don’t worry, you will get to the end of the chapter soon enough. So to in life, continue doing, the end will come soon enough.

I have always had the ability to understand things quickly and learn rapidly. School was easy and still is as of now. Growing up I was a good student. I was top of the class for 8 years straight, scoring high test results and having academic success. I even skipped a class since it was so easy (the 7th grade). I had to work maybe 30 min a day on homework, rarely more. While some of my classmates studied way more than me but performed worse. I didn’t understand.

I say this not to brag, but to set the context.

By all academic standards I was a top performing student. Exemplary. A teachers dream, I often heard. Everybody found it was amazing. Many people wish they had my abilities.

The only problem: I don’t give a shit about academic achievements and am not satisfied. I found and still find it meaningless. I passed by baccalaureate with 18,71/20 (4.7 GPA). To me that was a number that didn’t mean anything. Heck, I was a bit disappointed because I didn’t get 19/20. Then on top of that, when you see that everyone around you is struggling while you have it relatively easy, you think something is wrong with you. It starts toying with you head.

I went through school without any real challenges. Everything I attempted schoolwise was always easy and the good grades came in without much effort.

I passed the medical school entry exam in France, quite easily too. I had to work a lot more, but I still performed well, working at most five hours a day in addition to the four hours of courses per day during the week.

I learned to make of game of figuring out how to get the highest grades with the least amount of work. That was my way of not getting bored. Once you’ve done that for a while, though,  it gets boring. You don’t see the point any longer.

So now this year, my second year, I pull off the same thing. Minimal work, just enough to pass. But it gets annoying to not exploit your capabilities. It feels like I’m at the verge of sabotaging my work to make it more interesting. That, I know isn’t a good idea. I literally spent a couple weeks not working more than an hour a day or not working at all, just to see what would happen, watching movies all day. It turns out staying cooped up all day has some negative social consequences.

The psychological state you get in when you aren’t challenged can get pretty bad.

It feels as if every door is opened to you, you never have to do anything, and you secretly wish someone would slam the door in your face for once, just so you could experience what it’s like.

You wish it were harder so you would have to work some more, and not be so bored all the time. Up ’til med school I compensated this with sport: I rowed. This was a great way to fill up my time in a meaningful way. Then I stoped. That was bad. Psychologically, it was bad, it still is right now.

I understand that people who aren’t “gifted”, in the sense where you learn stuff easily and understand things quickly, wish they could have it easier. Wouldn’t it be great if I had to work less to get this. But the irony is that those who have it easy think the opposite. Wouldn’t it be great if I had to work more, if I actually had to struggle to achieve something.

I find myself it the “gifted” category. I want it to be more difficult. I can actually sabotage myself to put myself into difficult situations, just to work more to get out of that situation. I understand how crazy this sounds, but it’s what happens. It is destructive to not exploit your potential. Right now I’m struggling with this. How do I get to exploit what I’m good at? Then, when you want to talk about it with friends, how do you talk to the person who wishes he had your abilities and explain you find everything dull and boring and easy?

A realisation I had today after much psychological struggle:

I need Resistance. Resistance is crucial. I need someone/something to push towards me, so that I can push back. If I have it easy and everything seems easy, then, problems arise.

To develop you need resistance.

The most visual illustration I can think of is weight lifting.If you lift air, your muscle doesn’t grow. To grow muscle you have to lift weights, you need resistance. When you become accustomed to the weights you need to up increase them, if you want to grow even more muscle.

It is the resistance that forces your effort. You need to develop energy to resist the resistance. And in doing so, you grow.

The little steps count.

Something is greater than nothing. However small that something may be, it will always be bigger than nothing. 1>0.

Suppose you have two jars. You decide to put a couple grains of sand into one, and nothing into the other. You do this every day.

At first, the two jars appear the same. They are both empty.

Then there is just a few grains of sand at the bottom of one. You say, that’s nothing really. But it isn’t nothing. It’s a few grains of sand. Big difference, you think. That difference is BIG, it makes all the difference.

You continue every day for a while. You add some sand in one jar, and nothing in the other.

Over time the jar with sand forms a little mound, and the one with nothing stays empty. You begin to see progress. You see that your efforts and consistency are starting to pay off. This motivates you. You continue.

Then, as the pile of sand gets bigger, every grain of sand you add becomes ever more insignificant in relation to the whole. You can’t see your progress. It gets tiresome and you think it’s pointless. But you continue.

You know that if you continue long enough, the jar of sand will fill up and overflow. But the catch is that you have to continue and persevere. Time is your ally.

Whenever you have something and think, this is nothing what am I going to do with this, or, what I’m doing is insignificant I can’t see results, remember that it is with time that the insignificant becomes significant.

The little steps count. Compounded over time, they give great results. Be happy to put in a little work. Do one simple step. Repeat that regularly. With time it will accumulate. Looking forward it is hard to see results when you have nothing. Looking backwards, when you have something, it is as clear as day.

Trust in your ability to show up. Trust in Time. For in time, it will pay off.

There is this experience I have had only two times in my life so far, while reading a book. It is a remarkable experience. The first description that comes to mind is that you can literally feel your mind stretching. It is where you can feel that what you are reading was written by someone who understands way more than you. You aren’t even on the same plane of consciousness.

You have to stretch to grasp notions you never even envisioned. You have to think. Your perception is altered and you know you can never go back to that previous state. You now see more of the world. You were looking at it through a key hole and the author has just opened the door for you. You are sucked into the book. It’s a different world. Utterly engrossing, fascinating and at the same time terrifying. You are in a heightened state of awareness. You feel your understanding growing. A sort of cognitive ecstasy, what Jason Silva defines as “an exhilarating neurostorm of intense intellectual pleasure.”

This is when you can’t put down the book and just have to finish it. The ideas that swirl around in your head are amazing. For a while after leaving the book, you can sense your mind buzzing and thinking but you can’t see those thoughts. You have an unfocused gaze. A sense of wonder. You have this feeling that you could come back to this book any time and you would still find something new every time.

The first time I experienced this was while reading Alamut, by Vladimir Bartol. A novel where a religious leader takes the manipulation of faith and belief to extreme levels, with a rationalisation that is terrifyingly fascinating and makes you think about the world in a completely new way.

The second time was while reading The Power of Myth, by Joseph Campbell. A discussion on the impact of mythology and legends in your life, that guide you in understanding their meaning, while challenging your perception of the world and opening up new avenues for spiritual growth.

I cannot say you will experience this feeling if you read these books. Though, you might. I think it depends a lot on your own previous experiences and interests. It is not something you feel everyday and thus is quite precious.

I would love to know whether you have had similar experiences.

I spend a lot of time reading. My goal was to read 25 books in 12 months, it been less that 7 months and I’m up to 20 and counting.  Currently I’m reading 3 books at the same time. I find it amazing. Not because that seems to be a lot of books, but because I used to hate reading.

As a kid I almost never read. I too, had to suffer those reading assignments and endure those boring stories. Those, so called classics, books from dead philosophers from a thousand years ago. Who reads those anyway? Plays and tragedies. Do people actually like that? Seriously? We don’t even speak like that anymore. That is my younger self criticizing books. I have learned better with time.

But here’s a thing you are rarely told in school. Not all books are like those you were force-fed. Most of them are totally different. You have to experiment to find what you like. Pick out a few books that could be interesting and start reading. There is never an obligation to read the book from cover to cover. If it’s crap, you simply don’t read it. So, you pick a book and start reading…

Then, one day, you find a book that hooks you. It engages your curiosity, captivates your attention and you can’t put it down. You check out more books of the same genre. And all of a sudden you’re reading like crazy.

J.K. Rowling once said:

If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.

I totally agree with this. It wasn’t until I found books I enjoyed that reading took off for me. Diving into the world of fiction, fantasy and magic was eye-opening. Arkandias, Eragon, and Harry Potter, now there was stuff I enjoyed reading!

After discovering the world of fiction, I added practical books and non fiction as I discovered personal development. As you evolve so does your reading. I got into philosophy and found it had nothing to do with what you thought it was about in school.

Being able to peer into the minds of men and women from different spaces and times is an incredible thing. You can learn from their experiences, avoid similar mistakes. You can live a hundred stories. You can get new perspectives. Feel what it’s like to be alive. It’s a rich and vastly underestimated resource. Understanding things you could not even grasp and elevating your own understanding of the world, with the help of the author is an amazing feeling. A book that challenges you, elevates you, and evolves over time is something only a couple books can do. Finding such books is like finding treasure. Then, of course, a good book can help you relax; it is a source of entertainment. Nobody reads the same way. But the fun part is finding what you like.

Lately, the best fiction I’ve read has been:

Alamut by Vladimir Bartol and A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin.

And the best non fiction has been:

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna.

Right now I’m reading The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, and I find it utterly fascinating, and highly recommend it.

To end this post, as a Star Wars fan, there is only one more thing to add for today’s post:

May the fourth be with you

Sometimes, a few words is all it takes to express a thought.

No more. No less.

When you don’t know what to do, or write, a few words is always better than none.

When you feel bad or start going down a negative thought spiral, shift your focus.

This is something I do regularly. I did it today because I was in a bad mood. When I catch myself being negative, and  I don’t want to stay in that state,  I shift my focus.

To do that ask different questions.

I like to focus on the beauty of mundane things. Of the simple things we take for granted. The smile of a stranger, the feeling of warm sunlight, silence. Shifting focus towards appreciating these simple everyday things is much more fun. The speed at which you state changes is impressive.

What are those little things you take for granted?

What is something you could appreciate right now, if you wanted to?

Remember, your focus is controlled by questions. If you don’t like your focus, change your questions. It’s in your control.

Here are a couple changes of perspective I found interesting:

Half your stuff is below average

If you write one hundred books half of your books will be below average. Always. Mathematically, you can’t make everything perfect every time you do it. You can only strive to improve.

How long is a billion?

How much is a million? How about a billion? If one second is one number, how long is a million? Take a guess. It’s over eleven days long, counting non stop. Now, how about a billion? How long is that? Three-hundred days? A year? Two years? Ten?
No. In fact, a billion seconds is over thirty-two years. Thirty-two ! Do you know how long that is? I know I can’t. I haven’t even lived twenty. I can only imagine. And that is only assuming you count one number a second. If you were actually to count to a billion it would take you longer. Try saying this in a second: four hundred seventy-five million, two hundred thirty-one thousand, nine hundred and sixty-six. Now try saying the number sequential to that.

We often underestimate how big numbers really are. After all they’re just numbers on paper or a screen. But when you try putting them to a scale you can feel, then you appreciate it for what it is.

They won’t remember YOU

When you die the world will continue one as if nothing happened. A couple people will morn, maybe more. In time they will forget and die too. The people they told stories of you to will soon forget and die. With time you will disappear. And it will be as if you never existed. Maybe your name will linger, at best a couple pieces of work. But, they too, in time, will disappear.  Think about it. What do you know of those that lived two thousand years ago? What happened in year 521? Who do you know from then? Do you even care? Probably not. What about 1900. It’s a lot closer. What about the year before you were born? Do you really care? It’s the same with those around you. How many have lived before you? How many do you know? Some you hear of through their works, mostly incomplete, some only by their names. Your person will be forgotten. Only what you do might linger a little bit. Seeking to be remembered is a futile goal. Living while you can is much better one.

Have you ever done anything where you kept talking yourself out of it or had a negative self-talk tape that was running, keeping you from staying focused on where you wanted to go?

Today I’ll show you how I keep these thoughts out of my head and focus on what I want.

When I run, I occasionally do intensive sessions and try to beat previous times. During these sessions you want to go faster and keep going, but at some point your body starts saying it’s hard and wants to stop. You push through it, because you know your body starts whining long before it’s actually attained its limits. But when it’s the mind that starts complaining, what do you do? I know my mind is starting to complain when my focus and attention start wandering and make me think about the meal I had a couple hours ago, or start worrying about some future improbable event, or it starts questioning the utility of what I’m doing.

How do I deal with this and get back on track?

I focus on my desired outcome. Say I’m 2 kilometers in and I’ve got 3 more to go. I’m not going to focus on the finish line. I focus on a point just beyond where I am. A concrete step I can clearly see, not some abstract notion of a finish line I cannot see. Even though I know there is a finish line, it doesn’t help to focus on that. You can’t see the progress if you move one meter compared to five thousand. But a meter in relation to ten is something you can see and feel.

So to keep your focus on your main desired outcome, decompose that outcome into smaller steps. And each time you achieve one step, reward yourself  for having achieved yet another one. Then focus on the next step immediately. If you repeat this long enough, before long you’ll be at the finish line.

When you focus on a concrete thing you can do, your brain doesn’t have space to distract you. I just can’t. When it starts drifting, it will always drift at some point, you simply bring your focus back to your mini goal.

Essentially you are creating mini challenges to achieve a bigger one. Don’t focus too much on the end goal. Focus rather on the steps that will get you there.

The brain is amazing. Perception is everything. What I see over there is actually in here, in my head. Everything I perceive is in my head. Every experience I ever have, is in my head. However exterior an event may seem, it’s all happening inside of me.

Every emotion, every reality. Everyone is the same. A creator of worlds. We imagine scenarios in our head. Fear is imagined. As Sadhguru said, we make horror movies. And they’re not making money. Nobody is willing to watch them. That’s not good for the producer. Make love movies. Enjoy it. Choose to make a love movie instead of a horror movie. Make one you enjoy at the very least. Why spend time watching something you don’t like?

I know nothing. I don’t know what I want to do. How’s my life gonna turn out? There are so many expectations. You finish high school and you’re supposed to know what you want to do for the rest of your life. You’re supposed to have it all figured out. You go to college and you keep asking yourself what am I supposed to do? Is this a good choice? When you look at people around you, they seem to have it all figured out. But not you, you’re lost, you don’t have a clue. You don’t have it all figured out. You start thinking something’s wrong with you.

You see everybody’s PRed version of themselves, the face they want you to see. The happy stuff, the fun stuff. You see it everywhere and start thinking it’s supposed to be all rosy all the time. But that is not the case for you. You live with yourself 24/7/365. You see your struggles that no one else sees, you feel how overwhelming it can be. You know it’s not rosy all the time. You’re comparing yourself to everybody else’s highlights, and then you expect to feel good? How can you even think to compete? You can’t. Stop comparing.

Your perception of the world around you is that everything is supposed to be fine. Society sets expectations, you’re supposed to follow. But you disagree. Some rules are plain stupid. You’re constantly told what to do, how to behave, what to think, and how to look. But what if that’s not you? What if you disagree?

What if you want to try something, unusual? Something a bit risky? Uncertain? Do you do it? Or do you stay where you are knowing it’s safe, contenting yourself with mediocre or average the rest of your life?

Cut the expectations and make your own, test them and adjust. Don’t gobble up expectations made up by other people, often people who lived centuries ago.

No one knows everything. Everybody is trying to figure it out as best they can. The world around you was made by people no smarter that you. You can affect it. You can change it.

Stop feeling bad because you compare yourself to others. Don’t. Most people probably experience a version of what you are experiencing. Be careful what you focus on.

I believe life is meant to be experienced and that you are here to make memories. Because at the end of the day, memories last and they make great stories.

Short-term pleasure is not often what is most profitable in the long-term. Usually it is easier to give in to the easy thing and have the instant gratification and chemical discharges that makes it feel good. This is what I call the Ultimate Challenge of Human Nature.

We often choose the path of least resistance, meaning we choose and do the things that are the easiest and avoid what is difficult or requires effort.  This has some evolutionary advantages, because it keeps us safe. We keep going back to the same seat in class, because we’ve been there before, we know what it’s like. We take the same path to go from A to B, because that path is sure and tested.

But often, short-term rewards keeps us from achieving our goals, and sabotages our work. Like checking social media or email, instead of working. While delayed gratification is beneficial in the long-term. Passing over distractions to get our important stuff done.

Here’s a good question to answer when faced with a choice between instant gratification and delayed gratification:

Would you rather be satisfied right now, and not remember this in a week, or, would you rather have to work for it, wait for it, anticipate it, experience it, have a vivid memory of the best parts and remember it for the rest of your life?

Which one is easiest? The first.

Which one feels good in the short term? The first.

Which one is more demanding and potentially painful in the short-term? The second.

Which one do you remember? The second.

Were you put on this Earth to have it easy all the time? Is life supposed to be a smooth ride?

So what will it be? Working on your goals and making memories or instant gratification and no memories?

• What is a thought?
• What is a dream?
• Can you record dreams?
• Can you perceive things beyond your senses?
• What is consciousness?
• What is a memory?
• Can you read a persons brain after he dies?
• What does belief do to the brain?
• How do you feel?
• Can you create new senses?
• Why does color have a feeling?
• How can you reflect upon a thought?
• What is spirituality?
• Can you perceive someone else’s world?
• How far can virtual reality go?
• How much of our brain can we actually leverage?
• How does thought affect our surroundings?
• Can you cure a disease by making someone believe he’s cured?
• How do you tap into your unconscious?
• What does boredom do to the brain?
• How do you tap into creativity?

Habits and routines, the automatic thought patterns you have are important. You can choose to consciously create them and have them serve you. These are precious tools and must not be left to chance. I have been particularly interested in morning routines and figuring out my own. I believe everyone has a unique one and that copying the routine of someone else without adapting it is foolish.

Here I’ll be giving some examples from my own morning routine and showing how it has evolved and how I have changed it. It will continue to evolve. I am in no way recommending you do what I do. I do however recommend a morning routine.

Morning routines I find give you some predictability in your everyday life and allow you to prime yourself. To get yourself started and plant ideas in your mind and build small disciplines, and thought patterns that you can build off of. Since you wake up everyday, waking up is a powerful cue you can use to implement the habit loop: cue-action-reward.

My routine is mostly centered on the mind. I am shaping how my mind works so that it can in turn shape me. It is a process.

Here is what my routine looks like as of the writing of this article.

• Alarm goes off.
• I stop it.
• Lay on my back a few moments and assess how I’m feeling. Feel the inevitable Resistance and push through it.
• Make my bed.
• Take a cold shower.
• 5 J-curls.
• 10 minutes of meditation.
• Write 3 things I’m grateful for.
• Note my bed and wake times.
• Write two morning pages.
• Write a blog post.
• Have breakfast.

This has gone through a lot of change and I’m constantly experimenting with it. I have found some consistent elements that I will always do my best to integrate. Those are: Getting out of bed quickly. Making my bed. The cold shower. Meditation. Gratitude.

Everything I do I do it for a particular reason. Usually it is for mental discipline and mental strength.

Getting out of bed quickly, has the use of stopping procrastination and making me get things done.

Making my bed. This I’ve been doing for a while, but then I saw this video where Admiral McRaven explains the psychology of doing it and I integrated it as an integral part of my routine.

The cold shower, though it has great physical benefits, it wakes you up in a way that’s unimaginable if you’ve never done it, is mostly something I do for what it represents to me: If you can’t do something uncomfortable for two or three minutes in your day, how can you ever expect to do anything uncomfortable for any longer.

Every time I go to take it, every single time, I have that little voice that says, “come on, is this necessary?”And every time I reduce the amount of time between that question and me getting under the water. Sometimes I let that feeling linger, knowing very well that I’m going to take the shower anyway. It’s fun to observe how you feel.

Meditation serves to calm my mind and help me focus. Learning to keep away distractions. Observing thoughts and dismissing them, or looking into ones that are of interest. This has been one of the most interesting elements of my routine. I highly recommend it.

Gratitude is to get me to focus on what I am grateful for. I do my best not to say the same thing over and over again. It’s like a muscle; the more you train it the stronger it gets. It also primes me into having positive thoughts and focus on the good instead of only perceiving the bad.

I’ve also experimented with over a year of doing 100 push ups right before my cold shower. That was something special. First getting to do the 100 then doing them repeatedly, every day, whatever I was feeling. I could do them in however many steps as I wanted, but I had to do them. This element I regarded of great value in terms of mental discipline and pushing through Resistance; that force that wants to stop you from doing what you want to do. The satisfaction of pushing through and beating Resistance every time you finish the 100 is very valuable. It has the added benefit of building up your strength and muscles. As of the writing of this article I have stopped doing this. I had experimented with it sufficiently and wanted to try out other elements in my routine, to figure out what works best for me.

Writing morning pages, is something I’m doing that is quite fun. It consists of writing two pages of whatever comes to mind. And I call it continuous writing because I force myself to write continuously even If I think I have nothing to say. You’d be surprised what you can write when you force yourself to write. Even when you have nothing to write, just write “I don’t know what to write”, or “this is getting weird”.

I believe my mind is my greatest asset and that I must train it to do what I want. This mental discipline is precious. When you tell people that you do 100 pushups every morning they look at you like your amazing and have superpowers. This is nice for your ego, but they only see the number. You see the work that you put into getting there, what it represents and the discipline you had build to get there.

Everything in this routine was built incrementally. I didn’t wake up one day and say, as of now on I’m gonna, get up on time, do 100 push ups, take a cold shower, meditate and be grateful. I woke up one day and said, I want to get up when the alarm goes of. Then another day, I said I want to be able to do 100 push ups every day, because it sounds cool. So I started by doing 20 every morning and increased that by 5 every week, until I reached 60 and though I wasn’t getting there quick enough so incremented by 10. I didn’t start with 10 minutes of meditation. I started with 5. I experimented with 7, 10, 15, 20. I found that 10 works well for me. And don’t even think for a second that I got to doing cold showers just like that. It was painful getting to do it. But the reward is worth so much more than the effort needed to get there.

What I’m getting at here is that there is no fixed routine that works for everybody. You make your own. I have no Idea what my routine is gonna look like in a year. But, I can guess some elements will still be there. I pick things up from other people and try it out. It’s a good idea to keep experimenting with it. Routines set you up for the day and get you rolling. And as it’s been said:

The way we spend our day, is how we spend our lives. —Annie Dillard

Now I’m trying to get into setting up an evening routine, and I’m going through the struggles of being consistent. If you want to start something, you need easy steps and time. What does your routine look like? What has worked for you? Go ahead and start something and do it every morning. Try it for 30 days and if it doesn’t work for you, you can always go back to what you were doing before.

I like experimenting with new things. On walks I take in the evening I started trying this thing when I come to a straight line. I know it is a straight path. I see it before me. Then I close my eyes, and keep walking. I’ve done this a couple times and each time I notice something new each time and discover what I can do with my senses and how I react when faced with new situations. There are some surprising similarities with everyday life.

At first, I have a feeling of ease. “This is easy, all I have to do is keep going forward.” Then a sense of disorientation sets in: “Am I drifting to the left or the right?” I start worrying trying to correct my perceived errors.

Unmistakingly, every time I feel I’m going a little too much to the left, I end up on the right of the path in a matter of steps, without even noticing my drifting. And vice versa.

I go back home and think about it.

Then next time I go take my evening walk, I repeat the same thing. After I open my eyes, I look where I want to go, close my eyes, focus on where I want to go, and keep walking. I maintain this focus for a couple seconds before another sense of disorientation arises and overwhelms me. I am focusing too much on what I’m used to: my sight; of which I am deprived. I’m so used to using my eyes that I forget I even have other senses.

After realising this, I decide to focus on my other senses. Which, after a little thought is the obvious thing to do. Though, when we are used to certain ways of doing things we can easily overlook the obvious.

So, now, I feel the ground through my shoes. Hear the surrounding noises and soft crickets singing. I smell the fresh air. I can even taste the saliva in my mouth. How different the world seems when you consider your other senses.

The path makes a particular crunching sound as my shoes land on the ground. A regular pattern of soft slow steps. I wouldn’t want to hurt myself by barging into some obstacle.

It’s a weird sensation to know there is no obstacle yet still be scared to hit something. Despite you telling yourself there is no obstacle  it takes a bit of persistence to overcome this instinctive fear. That fear never really disappears but stays in a corner of your mind, to keep you safe. It’s what I do about it that changes. I don’t let it stop me.

By paying more attention to my other senses, I can feel with my feet when I am at the edge of the path and correct my position without much effort. I can listen to the surrounding wildlife to give me my relative position. If a bird is on a branch chirping I can hear the noise moving, indicating that I am moving. I don’t have exceptional senses, and I rarely use them, but the feeling I got when realising I could use my senses quite accurately to orient myself was very interesting and reassuring.

Then I came to the lamppost.

With my eyes closes when approaching a source of light, I felt a fear. Like you get if you know some obstacle is coming. Though I know that the light is on the side of the path, I feel drawn to it. It is a distraction from my path. The first couple times I came to this lamppost I was distracted and was drawn to it. Then I was able to stop where I was. Assess the situation and keep on going walking the path. It took a bit of practice, but it is doable.

Every time now, that I start getting disorientated, I stop. I feel with my senses, assess my position, acknowledge the distraction and keep on trucking. It came to a point where I could confidently walk past the lamppost without deviating from my path.

I find this is a great metaphor for life. The path is our life’s path. We cannot see it. But we know it’s there. There is always fear and instinctual reactions to unknown situations that are rarely of any real danger. We often are distracted. But we can learn and practice staying focused and keep on trucking. I still have to deal with distractions every day, but I get better at doing it, the more I do it.

How does walking your path feel?

A constant struggle with yourself. How do you start? Do I do it or not? Is it a good idea? How do I write something of value to others? Well you have to start with stories from your own life. And you have to leverage the power of necessity. Well, you say,  that’s easy to say. It is. Here’s how you can do it.

Starting

The hardest part is starting.

Well, if truth be said, that’s a half-truth. It can be extremely hard to start, because we perceive the start as some giant task. I want to write a book, make a movie, become a professional photographer. It seems daunting.

The way to overcome this is to make starting something low-risk and make it very easy to do.

Write one word on a piece of paper. Just one. It starts with one. Can you do that? Any word?

Film one scene, or shot, it can be one second or less.

Take one picture. Only one.

Put on your running shoes. Just do that.

Dissect your goal into it’s most basic component and go do that. One step. One thing. The hard part is not starting, once you understand that starting, actually, only means doing the most basic element of your goal. The hard part is being consistent, following through and showing up again and again.

Leveraging Necessity

To facilitate that, you don’t want to have to make a decision as whether or not to do it every time. Because inevitably, it’s human nature, you will quit the moment it becomes hard and you don’t feel like it. So, rather, you make it something that is necessary.

Necessity breeds action in ways that you can’t imagine. That’s the power of deadlines. You have to get it done by that time or date you set and you don’t have a choice of putting it off.

For instance these 30 days of daily posts are just that. A structure that forces me to write stuff. It doesn’t matter that what I’m writing is good. What matters is that I’m writing stuff. Making content. If I write enough my writing is going to get better over time. I’ll be more effective at it.

You need to do. I need to do. To practice. To make. That is the only way you are ever going to get to where you want.

Do.

So create deadlines and structures that force you to put out content. The quality of the content is not as important as the act of creating. This forces production, reduces the fear of performance because you don’t care whether what you do is good. You simply care that you put in the work, and showed up.

This is something I struggle with every day. This is what Steven Pressfield, in The War of Art, calls Resistance.

Force yourself to create and you will improve because that is the only way you will. Force yourself to create and you will be forced to improve because you will learn to be concise and more efficient. That is how journalists become journalists. They must write something every day. A story. Anything. But it has to be done.

Make deadlines for yourself. Realize your future self will not be more likely to take action than you are willing to take right now. Force your future self’s hand. Get him to produce.

Start a 30 day trial, a daily challenge. Force yourself to create. Do that one simple thing and repeat it for 30 days. See how better off you’ll be. Go ahead do it. Plan. Execute.

How to ask questions? This is the sort of mindset I adopt when I have a question.

Short version:

1. Have a question.
2. Ask your question.

Long version:

1. Have a question.
2. Realise that your question could help other people.
3. Be willing to look a little foolish in the eyes of people who’s opinions don’t matters to you.
4. Recognise that the worst case scenario is generally for the other person to say NO.
5. Recognise the other person always has a choice as whether or not to answer.
6. Be prepared to hear a no, and not get your question answered.
7. Muster up the courage to ask.
8. Recognise that the longer you ponder whether to ask or not the less likely you are to ask, and that while you do that you are wasting your precious time.
9. Recognise that asking  a question is never as bad as you imagined it would be. And that your perception of great risk usually dissipates once you ask.
10. If you catch yourself pondering whether to ask or not, ask immediately or forget your question altogether, continue listening or move on.
11. Ask.
12. Listen.
13. Thank the person for answering, and or respect the person’s choice not to answer.

Today’s post is going to be a bit awkward. It’s parts of the two morning pages I wrote just this morning and that I found pleasant to write. There is no purpose or clear story but it shows how weird my mind can flow if I let it associate and do it’s thing without any restrictions, maybe some fun images will spring into your mind and give you some inspiration.

I put in links that made me think of specific things you could go check out. Oh and just because there is two times the same word linked doesn’t mean it’s the same link.

Twinkle breakfast dreaming sunset. Craving caving braving bathing seething stool. Pool. table billard. Billiard Billion Milliard Million. Trillion Quintillion. Octillion, frenzy Feynman technique. Image creation crafting paper dalmatians in salvation army crenelations of sinew fortifications.

Of all creativity, imagination is the best tool at your disposal. Free singing and gift giving. Care giving and wish singing birds in the green blue horizon of summerset hall to christen a baby of Tringamur Djin in flyby mode after jetlag space. These words of randomness, association, sounds, are pleasing to write and hopefully pleasing to read. Sing a song, sing along in your tong with your tongue and tang around while we dance the hell out of yee all. Pang yang and ying jingle in the jungle of my mind. In the jumble of my mind there’s a jungle jingling just like that. Can you hear it?

A soft roll of Rs ruffling rosey red rafters right, loosely lit lightbulbs left, while whistling white wayward women on writing stories. Rub a dub step in rosemary glasses, chicken ’em in twinkles of dingo crap flowers. In these melodies I hear in my mind that seem to flow forward onto the pressed paper through my straight stylus. Sylvie Sylvia a forest of trees, a forest of thoughts in a forest of people. Purple paper people pressed in paper places of patterned candle chandeliers and chocolate interspaces.