Search Results for “doubt” – Page 3

The gift of raw emotion

September 16th, 2020

The visceral, like laughter, flows through the heart and blood before hitting the brain. Laughter doesn’t need thought.

We intuit emotional impulses, with no intention to describe what they are until after they occur. Feeling first, then comprehension ex post facto.

Unperturbed and under-conscious, we are ravenous eaters of life. No guessing, no prejudging. We unthink on our feet.

To float with instincts strips us of following compulsory mores, even as the grip of conformity pricks us in the background.

It is human nature to doubt but also to deliver a clear promise — that behavior is just as loose (and free) as a leaf falling from a tree.
Belief + Doubt = Sanity

April 19th, 2018

Belief+Doubt by Barbara Kruger

We dump our problems on tomorrow because we can’t handle the anxiety of today.

Time keeps moving on its way, unimpeded. We’ve already lost.

Yet there’s still a sense that one day, we’ll snatch time and ride the wave of an opportunity to change society.

‘Belief + Doubt = Sanity’

All we can do is show up to the world, not hide behind in its shadows. ‘Excellence is the next five minutes,’ and then the next five minutes after. And so on, with unparalleled lightness.

Attitude is the most rational day to day decision. Only then can we go on a critical run.
How we decode reality

April 27th, 2020

We are not born with information.

The severity of an illusion lies within its shadow of a doubt. Objects as artifice are as credible as our eyes make them out to be.

The gut loves to sensationalize fear. The beating heart frustrates under the tick-tock of boredom. The mind interprets thoughts that drive reality.

What makes the external world feel real?

From the outer world to the inner state, sculpting perception is irrational but intentional as we all seek to decode reality into meaning.

What is the external world but just a bunch of code that exists in our heads, sorting out the facticity of objects?

Our impulse intends to give experience the benefit of “truth, both in matter and in mode.” We use our pragmatist razor to cut comprehensions down ruthlessly.
‘The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it’

March 6th, 2020

“Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it. The more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no resistance.”
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
Don’t hold that thought 💬✒️

March 31st, 2020

When in doubt, speak up. Talking is a tool for excavating thoughts—microphone in hand or not. It’s only after the speaking occurs do the words begin to flow.

The same goes for writing. One doesn’t need an audience in order to do it. The movement of the pen gears the brain into motion so that words hit the top of the tongue at precisely the right time.

“The pen is the tongue of the mind.”
Horace

Speaking and writing cue the neural pathways. They lay the groundwork for ideas to germinate and bloom.

Chatter, whether external or internal, are the firsts step in solidifying beliefs and discovering something interesting to say. The real enemy is a chattering brain that hesitates and never spits it out.

Inspiration and perfection are for amateurs–start before you’re ready.
Guilted into trying

February 20th, 2020

Things are never perfect the first time around, a bit better the second, and mind a few tweaks, they seem to be just about right in the third and fourth efforts.

The fear of failure is good quality control. It ensures that in the process of disrupting ourselves, we appreciate the challenge of ascendancy.

Riding the wave of uncertainty

The attempt to blaze our own trail is never easy. Being misunderstood for long periods of time dampens the mood. But there will always be more guilt in not trying.

Dreams require a ceaseless imperative of movement, the confidence to tread into unknown territory regardless of faith and doubt.
It’s never too late to do something incredible

March 19th, 2020

Everything good takes time.

We have to get comfortable with the idea that the work worth doing almost always never comes to fruition immediately.

Our craft is also likely to be misunderstood for long periods. There will be periods of self-doubt and chapters of confusion, all signals that the muse wants us to keep going.

If we’re 100% certain about where we’re headed, then we need a little more nuance and complexity in our life.

Being vulnerable and taking on challenges fuel aliveness, preventing one from getting too satisfied with results.

As the Japanese artist Hokusai said:

“Until the age of 70, nothing I drew was worthy of notice. At 110, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive.”
Hokusai

If we work on something long enough, it should look just as simple and confounding as when we first found it.
Thinking less to do more

February 9th, 2020

Rhythm builds thoughtlessness. Work can become more natural out of mechanical motion, a kind of doing without thinking.

Employees can’t make one hundred sandwiches in a couple hours without silencing the monkey mind. The process of unthinking begets a chorus of action.

Similarly, we can’t dribble a basketball nor soccer ball effectively while focusing on the mechanics of the perfect touch. The gears of cognition get in the way of flow. Continued practice helps numb the disease of crippling doubt.

Habits are bicep curls for the brain

Good habits strengthen human software, primarily if we aim to do something consistently.

Like brushing our teeth, it’s the repetitive locomotion that undermines inertia and compels one to keep connecting the chain.

We can get used to being productive if we choose to make practice non-negotiable. All such preparation helps plow the field.
It’s a hard-knock life

December 4th, 2019

The easy life exists but it fails to register.

Anyone who’s name is worth remembering endured some type of struggle.

The imperfect life contains lingering questions and punctuating doubts. But the vulnerable also acts — whether out of curiosity or bravery.

“I never lose. I either win or learn.”
Nelson Mandela

Knowledge is a byproduct of failed activity.

It’s the hard-knock life, after all.
A curious rebel

November 15th, 2019

When in doubt, you can always depend on your curiosity. It is the fire starter for all important questions.

But inquisitiveness is not the only fuel you need. Sometimes you need an anarchic kick. The best medicine is straight-up rebellion.

When conviction fights convention and curiosity whets the mind, the amalgam produces an orderly disorder that begs for reinvention.
Face the facts

October 6th, 2019

gif by Falcao Lucas

To weave through a world when there’s no anonymity and everything is discoverable — we are one google away from all the answers.

But it doesn’t matter how much we know. People cognize to fit what they want to believe, regardless of the facts.

We tend to throw all the information we don’t want to hear into a deep hole.

The more we deny the truth, the more it snowballs into a series of lies, rubber-stamped onto black screens of irreality. Call it the disinformation highway.

Upon further reflection, we should be forced to deal with what’s no longer pleasant: the real world.

Disagree with it. Run away from it. But live with the doubt that we could be wrong on many issues. Tribes are meant to be broken.
The complexity of confidence

June 1st, 2019

Repetition and practice drown out self-doubt and bolster fortitude.

Do anything enough and the brisk tempo of the mind takes over. Habits help undermine pressure.

Just as a camera presents the mere surface of reality and not its context, so too does the complexity of confidence.

We can only push on if our belief is stronger than our fears.

Strong opinions, loosely held

“Be confident, not certain”
Eleanor Roosevelt

Without instruments for coping — practice, fear-setting, meditations, etc — we would feel forever lost.

Because of the pre-programming work we put in, we can shake off all the dizziness of uncertainty if and move on with courage despite any self-doubt.

‘Belief + Doubt = Sanity’

What makes the external world feel real?

Riding the wave of uncertainty

Habits are bicep curls for the brain

Strong opinions, loosely held