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Fear and a brief thought

What would you do if you were not afraid? Afraid of failure, afraid of being tired, afraid to break routine, or afraid to test yourself? These questions are very pertinent to our discussion of growth as an individual. I myself am subject to fear and in fact this is the reason I’ve chosen fear as my topic tonight.

I fear testing my limits. Testing my capacity for pain and discomfort, mainly. If I proceed through life without really addressing these fears, I’m afraid that I will have failed. I personally feel, as do many others I am sure, that I will never be content. I suppose I will never experience any sense that I have truly tested myself, but I should try. I will try. But how?

I think the answer to this question is to just start.

Blather On

You must never renege on the promises you make to yourself. To achieve mastery is to achieve greatness. Without cohesion, I write.

My thoughts are fragmented and interests wide. It is for this very fact that I must cultivate and maintain bedrock foundations in my life. Tenets that govern my modus operandi that are consistent as the rising sun, I march on and honor these tenets regardless of weariness or struggle.

It’s the struggle that makes a man. To coast through life is to waste ones life. Health is important and should hardly be sacrificed, but it’s legacy that matters. Legacy is subjective and everyone can leave one as long as you are true to yourself and perceived so by others. You may be familiar with the ever-pervasive dictum of: disregard what others think. This is true only to the extent that it does not compromise your ambitions. Perception is important in the rise to your envisaged self.

There is always a large game to be played. If you do not like the way the table is set, then turn the table around. The mindset of a warrior is built on three platforms, with those platforms being: self-talk, body, and breathing. You must have the confidence to succeed. Practice self-talk and encourage it. Practice being and thinking for confidently, for this is the first foundation of the warrior mindset. Secondly, you must have the body of a champion. Not in the sense that it must be sculpted (although that helps), but in the sense that you own dominant body language. How does a champion present himself physically? How does he stand? How does he walk? This is especially important from the perception perspective. Lastly, breathing. Breathing is your regulator, modulator, and pace. If you can control your breathing, you can control your mind. Expand your lungs and practice focused breathing.

To be a warrior is to be consistent and resolute. Do not present a patina of reservation or resignation unless permissible. Do not say you don’t have time, because you do have time, you just need to prioritize. :)

#warrior

Martial

The time will come. Stay consistent and hew the course, for things will turn up.

Positive outlook and optimistic frame of mind are intangible. For the most part, these attributes are inherent and congenitally bestowed, but they are also malleable through practice. Work hard to develop yourself regarding skills essential to your envisaged self and envisaged work, take calculated risks and be ruthlessly strategic in the way you operate. Nothing is more important than where you want to go and where you want to be.

Having a plan is important and it is okay if your plan is not specific. Specificity will come later. You must remember why you are here. You must remember who you are. Take nothing for granted and work tirelessly, but remember, over-extension, over-exertion, or over-application can burn you out. Do not stanch creativity and do not work until you cannot enjoy the work anymore. Take time to rest, but rest only slightly, and just enough to recharge - then back to the hustle. Nothing is more important than the hustle.

Cherish the hustle and allow it to become your life. Become immersed and inextricable from your work, your personal development and the expansion of your network. Know your why. As referenced in my previous post of last night, knowing your why is one of the most important questions that needs answering before you can be sure of this spartan lifestyle. The spartan lifestyle, this way of work, this modus operandi of elan and ergo for ones purpose is not for everyone. Do not waste your life on trivial matters, double down on the work you’ve completed so far and do not lose hope. You will emerge from the travails of this incipient start to a life of purpose. Do not let go.

#warrior

The need to develop your why

Why do we do things?

I think this is a profound question that is not given due thought. We must constantly ask ourselves why. Our lives are filled with competing interests and we have to have the ability to ascertain why we do certain things over others.

I think your why should be directly aligned with your purpose. What is you mission on earth? What is your life’s task? The reason provided for why we do things must be because it is concomitant with our purpose. If the things we are doing help us in the development of ourselves for application to our purpose or are necessary to reaching a certain step in the journey to our purpose, then this is good. Eschewing extraneously time consuming activities will distill our cognitive resoluteness and devotion to our life’s task.

This demand is not steeped in levity because in all seriousness, his is a very austere and spartan way to comport. However, life is not steeped in levity and thus we must hone the ability to deny ourselves superfluous time demands in favor of such demands that advance our purpose. Within each and every one of us lies latent abilities and talents that can be nurtured or exploited given practice, experiences, or introspection. If you do not have a purpose yet or have not discovered your life’s task, continue to devote yourself to personal development, reading anything and everything that interests you. Commitment to this modus operandi will be simple if you do not distract your conscious thought with irrelevant (to your development) activities. Eschew superfluous and extraneous activities and hew to your personal development. Deny anything that could compromise your personal development, purpose or life’s task. Stay consistent and build momentum.

#why

Random

After the end of a long week I feel physically tired. The mental activities refresh me and keep me sane, however. The daily task of writing, meditating/visualization, and reading have provided me with verve and a feeling of wanting more. Keeping my schedule regimented is important because I need to rest. Even though I may feel like I want to stay up late, I know I should rest because I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. My schedule has been working so well of late that I don’t even want to go out.

I use to want to go out on Friday or Saturday to drink and socialize, but I don’t feel that desire anymore. I know the value of my work and it’s value to me, and I enjoy upholding commitments. I derive utility from this uber productivity, or so I think. How long will my current schedule last? Is it unsustainable? I don’t know the answer to these questions accept for the fact that I intend to maintain my schedule until I experience diminishing returns. Although sometimes I feel very busy and overwhelmed I know this to be a good thing. This temporary discomfort pushes me into a new domain in which I am growing. This should be maintained until I sense comfort again, at which point it will be time to shift directions again to grow some more.

Become comfortable being uncomfortable, isn’t that a SEAL mantra? Well, it sure does resonate.

#random

My thoughts on virtual paper

Recognizing your thinking patterns reveal information about yourself that can be harnessed for growth. If you find yourself thinking about certain things recursively throughout the day for an extended period of time, this is indicative of what you want for yourself or where you see yourself headed. This pattern could also shed insight onto your personality, your values, ambitions or interests. These are the thoughts that occur naturally, rise from your subconscious into your conscious thought and permeate our mind like spilled water spreading across a table surface. They are cleansing. Oxymoron?

Aiming to be more introspective and receptive to your daily habits, thoughts, and interactions will bare fruit. Personally, I find myself thinking of my career a lot, which tells me that my career and the legacy I leave as a result of it are very important to me. I possess conceptual images in my head that are visualizations of myself 5, 10, 15 years from now in my career, and it is through these images that I take actionable steps each day to move myself closer to that future self. However, these recurring thoughts do not permeate my mind and inform my outlook on life without foreboding.

Naturally, I spin everything optimistically and I sincerely try to only allow positive thoughts to pervade my mind, but I harbor impatience. I do not harbor doubt, nor fear or insecurity, but really only impatience. I’ve mentioned repeatedly in my blog posts that time is a great ally, but it is also fleeting. This is a good thing I believe. It is because I’m aware of fleeting time that I honor my habitual commitments that move me toward the future self I envision. In particular, there is one step - my next step, that I am waiting to come to fruition. This step in essential to my future self, and I will not evolve until this step is in development. This step is in the process of development but largely out of my hands for the time being, so I must wait. My impatience emanates from this wait.

I have realized that I may not get my opportunity with this particular step and I am in the process of outlining similarly tangential steps that can be used as a replacement of sorts to get me where I need to be. These steps are merely thoughts at the moment and I have not resigned myself to any alternatives yet. I am still committed to plan A and will not concretely formulate a plan B until it is unmistakably obvious that plan A will not come to fruition. If you develop in full a plan B, this is your resignation that plan A will not work.

#introspection

Morning and Night

Back again to uphold my commitment.

My parents bought me a TV for Christmas. A considerate thought on their part, but this is not something I will use. To my knowledge, it remains at my parent’s residence if I ever want it. Many of my peers would relish a new TV (or in my case, my first ever personal TV), so why did I reject it?

The reason I rejected the TV, mainly, was because I do not intend to cultivate such a habit. Watching television that is. It’s personally permissible for me to indulge in a documentary on the weekend if I want, but watching television every day (like some people I know) is a fruitlessly passive and vapid way to spend ones time. Time is our greatest ally and should be used to progress and make advancements in pursuit of our goals.

I was reading a statistic that some % of the American population watches on average 2.8 hrs of television/day, adding up to circa 20 hrs/week. Think of what you could do in lieu of television with those 20 hours! I hear some people say that they don’t have time for exercising or reading or meditating or some other mode of physical/mental/spiritual/intuitional/emotional betterment, and that, frankly, is absurd. One can always carve out time.

Drop those vacuous past-times and engage yourself in something stimulating, something that will require focus and something that you can improve upon. I understand the need for relaxation to recharge our batteries but, this should be used sparingly. My suggestion would be to substitute an hour of exercise for that hour of television. Cut back on your TV consumption and add a morning and evening ritual to your daily routine.

Our days are demanding and chaotic, which makes it ever-more important to carve out “me” time, time to focus on yourself. This time could be used to read 20 minutes of a good novel, displacing you to a different world or to visualize your future self. By engaging in your morning routine, you will set the tone for the day and have opportunity to employ that mindset into your day. Utilizing a nightly routine will leave you heading to bed fulfilled and satisfied with yourself. Nurture the “me” time, and remember which dog you are feeding when you passively watch television more than necessary to recharge. (Refer to previous post if inquiry arises regarding which dog you’re feeding)

#elan

To share or not to share?

Each one of us is unique in every sense of the word. The uniqueness I want to focus on for this post is unique knowledge. When it comes to knowledge and insight, each one of us possesses something another doesn’t. Many of us share knowledge and this is what we call common knowledge, but there is also knowledge that is not known to another but you may very well know much about. If we think of life as a game with the obvious objective of doing as well for yourself as possible, how do you know how much unique knowledge to impart to others? With such a premise, we would presumably only impart knowledge that would benefit our self.

Is this really the way to operate? Should we be sharing our goals and ambitions with others who are seemingly on the same level as us and aiming for the same objective as we are? Should we impart unique insights to others if there is no benefit in it for us?

Part of me thinks that I should share what I know to help out others in their lives. There is a humanistic altruism that appeals to me here. However sometimes, I feel the exact opposite, that I should be choosy with my dissemination and exhibit discretion with what I promulgate to others. I think that there are domains of life in which the choice is obvious, but lately I’ve found myself in a patina of middle-ground where the choice is not obvious. The setting in which I find myself feeling these thoughts is a competitive one and more often than not, I find myself withholding goals, ambitions, information, and insight if my interlocutor is not on my team. Is this the right thing to do? I don’t know. More rumination ensues.

#thoughts

Which dog are you feeding?

Here I am again, sitting down to begin this blog post. My progression seems to be: write, meditate, sleep - and it’s been working great, I really enjoy it. Anyway, the title of this post is: Which dog are you feeding? Let me elaborate.

Within each of us we have two versions of our self, with each version constantly competing for our conscious resources. These two selves could be coined good wolf and bad wolf, but I’m going to use courage dog and fear dog based on a book I’ve been reading. We have a conscious decision in determining which dog to feed and it’s important to recognize our feeding habits.

Fear is natural and not something we can get rid of. It’s an inherent element of human nature that serves a purpose. Fear can be beneficial, but for the sake of this post we will look at it as an inhibitor, something bad. When we feed the fear dog we do not grow, we coast. While feeding the fear dog we settle for things, rest on our laurels and become complacent. We fear the transient pain and suffering usually concomitant with personal growth. Do not feed the fear dog, feed the courage dog.

The courage dog instills a mindset withing us that we can accomplish things and grow as individuals. We can expand our capacity for pain (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, etc.) in the name of betterment, transcendence, or enlightenment. By feeding the courage dog, you will be naturally feeding the three D’s. Those D’s being: drive, determination, and discipline. Nurturing these three D’s will lead to greater work ethic, more opportunities for success, a blissful feeling from the work and an improved self.

This writing habit I’m working to establish is one mode by which I feed the courage dog and nurture drive, discipline, and determination. I hope to establish fruitful habits (like this one) that supplant wasteful or disintegrating habits like mindlessly browsing the internet for extended periods of time. This daily routine of writing (among other activities I’m working to establish as productively engaging habits) is at times, discomforting. I feel, sometimes, that I’m at a loss of words or not clearly articulating my thoughts, but that’s okay. It feels good to change direction in search of the true self. Change your habits by feeding the courage dog, embrace the ephemeral discomfort and have fun while doing it.

#couragedog

Subconscious Affirmation

Since I’ve started these daily blog posts, I’ve also started meditating. Meditation, for me, always occurs 15 minutes before I go to bed. Before I sit down with my back against the wall to meditate I make sure that when I’m done I can get up, walk over to my bed and go to rest. It’s meditation and then sleep, with no distractions in between. I find this a soothing transition from conscious suppression to dreaming.

When I sit down to mediate for those 15 minutes I focus on breathing and reverie. I do my best to abstain from my life’s difficulties, focusing entirely on breathing and a little bit of daydreaming. What I mean by daydreaming is, a visualization of where I want to be. What do I mean by that? Well, mainly, I mean I envision myself in its highest form. The visions I have for myself are pictured in my mind’s eye each time I sit down to meditate. This daily practice of visualization and breathing really helps to ground me. With the chaos of my life, I find it important to subdue my mind and provision it stillness.

When I do my envisaging, I think this serves as an affirmation to my subconscious. In a way, every night before bed, I am visualizing the best version of myself and the position I strive to be in down the road. This is a compounding activity that helps me move incrementally closer to this version of myself when i’m going about my life during the day.

I have not practiced meditation long enough to witness any substantial change in my modus operandi or thought process, but I think I have experienced some immediate benefits. I think I feel calmer, with a better control of my emotions and more resolve with my past coupled with a greater focus on continual betterment each day. I think this incipient habit will pay long term dividends as I continue to evaluate it progression and its effects on me.

Belief

One quote that has been in my mind recently is: “My success does not stem from my arrogance but my belief.” This is an abridged version and one I’ve probably altered because I’m recalling from memory, but its maxim is very important to think about.

The quote comes from McGregor, and Irish UFC fighter who is notorious for his talk. He’s made several accurate predictions of how his fights will unfold. He’s very confident and very well versed in fighting stratagems. His minds eye sees himself as the best, and he does not rest on his laurels. His genius was not born, it was made - through pain and effort. Pain and effort are what I like to call prerequisites for mastery.

Success does not only bestow the lucky. People like you and me were not pre-selected for success, while others were not, or vice versa. Sustainable success, I believe, is the result of following our inherent inclinations through drudgery and travails because we believe in it so much and enjoy the pain required to grow. Whatever your natural inclinations may be, follow them and do not alienate yourself from them.

Once we acquiesce to conformation from society, parents, peers or the like, we are moving away from what makes us unique and setting ourselves up for pain and disappointment in the long run. McGregor started his adult life as a plumbers apprentice in Dublin, Ireland. What does he do now? He makes $500,000 for showing up to fight. What if McGregor would have maintained his plumbers vocation? It’s quite possible that he would suffer disappointment from not following his natural inclinations.

McGregor trains daily, putting unduly stress on his body and mind to always be ready to fight. He would not be of the stature he is if he was not enjoying what he was doing. Obtaining the pinnacle of success results from work and love. If you love what you do, you will not be deterred by the transient difficulties that inevitably obstruct your path to greatness. Whatever it is you enjoy to do, immerse yourself in it and let it consume you. Practice your art and strive for mastery.

Within every one of us exists latent abilities that we have yet to exploit. Through expanding our capacity to learn, we begin to see these latent abilities unfold as they become a component of our life’s arsenal of operation. Think about what really excites you and do not be afraid of failure. Embrace change and move forward on to a newfangled version of you.

Mastery is the ultimate form of power - Robert Greene

#inclinations

From the Universe to Mastery

When you sit down and your mind goes blank. You thought you had a limpid idea you wanted develop and articulate, but once you sit down and open your Lenovo you realize you didn’t have much to say anyway.

With notecards pilled high on my desk and thoughts fleeting from my mind, I write this. At work I read about the Fermi Paradox, and it was rather intriguing. With the universe being as large as it is, why is it that we as a species have not discovered extra terrestrial intelligent life? It’s interesting to cogitate on this. The paradox provides several reasons as to why this might be the case, ranging from a distorted perception of our reality (we’re really in a computer simulation and it was not programmed into the sim for us to discover extra terrestrial life) to Earth really only being a planet harboring life. When I think of the universe and our role in it, I feel a dissatisfaction of sorts, among other things.

Why do I feel a dissatisfaction? Probably because many of us do not devote ourselves to some form of mastery. I, for one, am culpable of not devoting myself to mastery, albeit I can say that I am taking actionable steps (habit changing/cognitively demanding steps) to set me on the right course. Many of us fill our lives with entertainment and trivial pursuits that really don’t improve ourselves or move humanity forward. We all have a limited capacity, but we can play an important role if we commit ourselves to a field and resolve ourselves to master it.

When I was younger I really loved basketball. I loved it so much, that I could hardly go a day without rigorous practice. I had to better myself and I was willing to endure pain and hardship to do that. Expounding on the details here is irrelevant, but my point is that we should be willing to embrace the suck to improve ourselves and make a lasting impact on others. I have no doubt that my actions back then had a positive impact on those that saw me do what I did. After realizing that I had no future in the sport and had no opportunity to compete competitively, I ceased the practice. I now seek to find that fire again, that burning passion to improve.

Life is difficult, and we always feel like we don’t have enough time, but the reality is that time is your greatest ally. Pursuits take time to come to fruition and observe marked results. Persist and toil, ruminate and evolve, for you will improve. Pick a subject or some pursuit and be unyielding in your work ethic.

#mastery

Memo

Memo to the community:

This is my first post in a long time, but the first in what I intend to congeal as a daily habit.

I’ve drifted from my creative energy, moving blithely into passive consumption of knowledge. I’ve been reading but not producing. Not producing much of anything really, other than what I get paid to do for my day job. I have recognized this pattern and am unsatisfied. When I ignore my creativity and simply consume, I stall, and stalling prevents me from moving forward. I don’t necessarily know in which direction I will move, but I need to start, and starting is what I will do.

If you peruse my previous posts from two years ago, you will see a plethora of blog posts on climate change. This blog revival will have a different spin to it. Although I do not know which spin it will espouse, I can unequivocally say that it will not involve much research prior to posting. This resurgence will probably not present itself as factual articulation, but rather a domain in which I write about opinions or thoughts on my mind. It will be an outlet or platform on which I introduce ideas. An ideas platform, perhaps.

As I sit in my room with the darkness outside and my two desk lights illuminating my work-space, I think about the direction in which my life has taken and the direction I wish to pursue. Although I will not elaborate on those ideas right now, I can say that becoming a better writer is among those ambitions and I think Tumblr is an effective and creative medium for me to explicate ideas.

Just as all of you, I feel many emotions throughout the day, and also, like many of you, my emotions inform my decisions, perceptions, and modus operandi. Therefore, I expect these proceeding blog posts to reflect that. I aim to be consistent only in frequency, but I cannot promise that I will be consistent in the writing. My posts will have a daily topic and may exude a patina of theme, but that will not be my aim. I aim to better articulate myself through writing and the promulgation of ideas, engage my creative mind, and simply develop a new habit with my primary motivation being production > consumption. I’ve consumed too much, and although I will not cease to consume, I must simply reverse the inequality.

#memo

Australia's Iconic Animal Threatened by Climate Change

4/30/13

Australia's Koala is threatened by climate change. The Koala's main food source is eucalyptus leaves and it is these eucalyptus leaves that are now producing less nutrients because of increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. How can Koala's get the nutrients they need if the nutrients are becoming less prevalent in the eucalyptus plant leaves? Ian Hume, a biologist at Sydney University also found that toxicity increases in the eucalyptus leaves when carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere increase (1). Koala's usually produce one young each year, but with decreased nutrient levels in eucalyptus leaves, the Koala's may only produce one young every three or four years, Hume said. (1). This is one of many instances around the world where wildlife are being effected by climate change. Koala's will have to adapt, just like other animals, but conservation efforts can help. Human intervention may prove to be one of the greatest factors keeping threatened animals alive.

Source (1): "Want More US News? Join Us on Facebook | Follow Us on Twitter." Msnbc.com. N.p., 7 May 2008. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.

Plants Combating Climate Change

4/29/13

Previous research has predicted that plants emit vapors which reflect sunlight. New research has confirmed this prediction. A new publication in the Journal Nature Geoscience found that plants emit vapors which scatter and absorb solar radiation (1). This is a negative feedback system because the process works toward an equilibrium. The negative feedback works like such: greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere and these plant vapors coll the atmosphere. The study found that as temperatures increased, plant vapor emission increased as well. The scientists of the study found that this process only combats 1% of global warming. This is such a small percentage that global warming will still affect us. This finding could help improve the understanding of climate change (1).

Source (1): O'Carroll, Eoin. "Plant Gases Help Curb Global Warming, Finds Study." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Apr. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2013

Climate Models

4/28/13

Climate models use numbers and quantitative methods to simulate the interconnected nature of the oceans, land, atmosphere, and ice upon planet earth (2). These models can be used to predict future climate and study the climate system, among other things. Recently, climate models have been used to predict the impact of greenhouse gases on temperature. These climate models can be very helpful in determining how climate change will affect climate patterns and temperature, but how accurate are they?

According to Jonathan Gilligan, an Environmental Science associate professor at Vanderbilt University, "models of the greenhouse effect are very reliable," but "atmosphere and ocean interaction," "behavior of clouds and aspects of global winds," are "less understood (1)." Gilligan said that models can be trusted in their prediction that temperatures will rise over the planet and temperature and climate patterns will change, but Gilligan also added that the models cannot predict details with confidence (1). So, climate models are accurate until you start asking for detailed predictions.

If scientists do not fully understand the land and atmosphere interactions, for example, then it is hard to incorporate that interaction into models. This is why scientists are working hard to understand this interaction. Better understanding of phenomenon we are equivocal about will lead to more accurate climate models. The majority of uncertainty within these models comes from the unknown amount of air pollution humans will add to the atmosphere in the future (3). It is unknown whether air pollution will increase, decrease, or stay relatively the same as human population grows and the world takes steps to fight climate change (reducing air pollution). Climate models are often run several times under different conditions in order to account for unknown variables (3). Using the air pollution example, climate models would be run several times with different amounts of air pollution because the amount of air pollution emitted by humans in the future is not known yet, and thus the different conditions provide alternate scenarios of what could happen in the future.

Source (1): Gilligan, Jonathan. "Nashville Scene." Nashville Scene. N.p., 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

Source (2): "Global Climate Model." Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

Source (3): "Accuracy and Uncertainty in Climate Models." Climate Model Accuracy and Uncertainty. N.p., 1 Feb. 2010. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.

Nuclear Power and Climate Change

4/25/13

Today in class we talked about alternative energy sources and nuclear power became a hot topic. I decided to write about it today and I ironically stumbled upon a report issued by NASA on April 23, 2013 containing the recommendation to retain and significantly expand the use of nuclear power in order to avoid climate change impacts and effects from fossil fuels (1). This paper specifically states that without nuclear power it will be even harder to mitigate climate change and air pollution (1).

The scientists involved with the paper calculated that nuclear power prevented 64 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions from 1971-2009 (1). The paper compares nuclear power to natural gas and coal as sources of energy. The paper states that although natural gas is much cleaner than coal, it is dirtier than nuclear energy regarding its environmental impacts (1). The problem is anthropogenic greenhouse emissions, and one solution to that would be to store the carbon somewhere. NASA's report states that this technology for storing carbon is early in development and not likely to restrain greenhouse gas emissions (1). Our fossil fuel supply is running low and accelerating climate change. Nuclear energy, like all forms of energy, has its issues. However, it is a clean source of energy that can greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The recommendation is right here from NASA. The world should look into evaluating its stance on nuclear power, for its few instances of disaster are far outweighed by its productive and clean energy nature.

Source (1): "NEWS." Global Climate Change. NASA, 23 Apr. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2013.

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