Links to Expand the Mind
1. Food of the Gods. Humanity has had a long past with honey. It is food in the purest sense and contains compounds that are beneficial to the human body. However, we have to keep in mind, "Honey is rocket fuel, not a meal".
|
|
Passing Thoughts & Ideas
A catalog of my ideas can now be found at intellectoptional.com
1. Would I be alright if everything changed? Would the people I care about be alright if everything changed? The unknown answers to these questions are the reason so few allow true risk to enter their lives. It's why we strain to keep things status quo even as they decay.
One concept that's stayed with me since learning it in college is a difference between radicals and revolutionaries. Both are risk takers willing to put their lives on the line for what they believe is a meaningful future.
The difference is that the radicals have no intention of being responsible for the future they usher in. The revolutionaries, on the other hand, see it through. They replace the system they've changed with something more meaningful.
2. When you deal with people all the time, recognizable patterns emerge. One pattern that I have difficulty navigating is the person that keeps their foot stuck in the door to see how much they can continue to leverage you.
They keep the interaction open-ended to see the extent to which they can acquire more from you. They want to dig their claws in. Under ideal circumstances, it's best to avoid these situations altogether. But that isn't always in the cards.
If I begin an interaction with someone I have a standard of professionalism and quality that I intend to uphold. Provide good outcomes, make people feel attended to, and you will gain a positive reputation.
My difficulty comes when I encounter one of these people that is intentionally never satisfied. If I'm not paying close enough attention I become ensnared in their manipulations without realizing it, often because my attention was split or distracted by a number of other tasks.
When they talk, their intention is not to communicate or come to agreement, it's to wear you down until you promise or agree to something that is to their advantage. Once I agree to something, I feel obligated to fulfill the agreement.
Many will operate their lives on this level; looking to gain leverage wherever they can get their foot in the door. Many can attribute their success to this tactic. Something about that behavior leaves a lasting impression. It lacks goodwill and empathy.
Once I've noticed that pattern behavior in someone, they are kept at arms length and interacted with very carefully. When you recognize the game that they play, you can choose not to play it anymore.
3. On spring evenings, the sun remembers that days should not end in haste. The lazy descent postpones the daily meeting with the horizon so that nature is given time to reawaken in light and warmth.
The birds recognize this time, chirping their melodies with little mind for a dusk that remains a distant thought. Trees unfurl new tender leaves that dance with youthful vibrance on the warm breezes that have returned on May's grace.
The same breezes lightly lap up the surface of creeks, lakes, and bays texturing the water's surface so that it may play merrily with the sun's glinting rays.
Though, even the sun cannot resist the horizon for too long. Like sailors and adventurers, our noble star must go it, resting only once it is found.
4. Diet was the first area of my life to change when I began to focus on my health. The book that kicked it off was the Primal Blueprint. The principles remain true: Whole foods, traditional methods; health comes from the land not the lab.
You go down a rabbit hole and a new world opens up. You begin to think differently. The world expands. I began to think more holistically. Mystery of the unknown, how things might ‘actually’ work, became more compelling than learning the consensus.
Beyond diet, my perspective on movement and exercise changed. (Still is growing) My perspective on work, leisure, and society shifted.
You know how a bolt of lightning has a random, branching, but predetermined path? It lights up once, fades slightly, and then comes back more intensely along the same pathways.
That’s a good analogy for how one door opens and you get an intimation of the map ahead of you. You then have to become the surge of energy that travels and completes the path.
I’ve never been overweight or suffered from a disease or anything that would typically cause someone to start taking their health seriously. It was a natural progression of wanting to be better than I previously had been.
If you can choose better health, why would you settle for something lesser. Why would you not want to be better than you currently are?
There are of course seasons of life where things prevent you from living up to your vision. But to not have the vision is something I don’t understand. I’m not an expert, rather I’m an experimenter exploring the pathways that interest me.
I notice the problems in myself and explore ways to correct them. Most recently I’ve been exploring ways to correct my rounded shoulders.
Along the way you pick up on ideas and perspectives that you weren’t ever looking for, but are useful nonetheless. The branches of your knowledge expand without making an attempt to do so.
It’s the tale of the adventurer that comes home with more than they set out for. We’ve been trending toward this purview for some time. ‘Experts’ aren’t what they used to be so we must become explorers.
5. The more you develop your intuition, how to understand things by “feel”, the less dependent you will be on discipline and routine.
6. You should never know exactly how a workout will go when you start. It’s better to be playful and tinker at the edge of your capabilities, making it up as you go along.
|
|
Potent Quotes
1. "Man is the measure of all things" — Protagoras
2. “What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand and Stars
3. "One of the tasks of our time is to make God dangerous again" — John O'Donohue
4. "All great personal evolutions begin with some act of destruction." — Rich Roll
5. "In life, the idea is to be happy. So, I believe in calm, simple, low-profile life. You live simple, you train hard and live an honest life. Then you are free." — Eliud Kipchoge
|
|
Questions that Liberate
Would I be alright if everything changed?
Would the people I care about be alright if everything changed?
Why would you not want to be better than you currently are?
|
|
Offering for the Rock Gods
Rock and Roll may be down, but it's not out. Here are some offerings to the Rock Gods in the hopes that this profound art makes a strong resurgence:
Rusty Cage (Cover) by Johnny Cash
Be Yourself by Audioslave
Living in a Ghost Town by The Rolling Stones
Dollarbill by Screaming Trees
Perfect Day by Lou Reed
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
