philosophy
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Springing up in the heart
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1 min read
Whatever you find intrinsically motivating, you should probably do that. It may be discomforting at first, but the calling is too great to pass up. It’s better to invest your time and work hard in something you enjoy now rather than feeling stuck a decade later in something your indebted to for financial reasons. …
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Make the leap
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1 min read
Risk, like music, makes us feel alive. It encourages us to coalesce out of the void, to bounce off the rock of inaction and into the arms of a trampoline. Taking chances can be a wonderful habit design. Never satisfied, the only precision becomes the decision to experiment. The work is trying to figure out…
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Act before you think
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1 min read
Trying too hard, the artist or the athlete lets slip their best abilities. The aim of perfection breeds imperfect results. The monkey mind always tries to woo one into unnecessary complexity and confusion. But let it be. A good way to negotiate with a chaotic mind is to let it be while you keep it…
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The telescope of attention
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1 min read
We’re ideating everywhere, all the time. But it’s not so much about the information haul as it is the synthesis. We really don’t understand something until we write it down or draw it out. Behind comprehension are two influential variables: our genes and the undercurrent of environmental factors. Some people look at society from the…
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Against playacting
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1 min read
It takes an anarchic mindset to disrupt the status quo. The freedom from playacting the role society enlists us permits the most creative thinking and endeavors. Do you think Steve Jobs would’ve created the Mac growing up on the East Coast? No, the West Coast was where all the wackies and hippies lived. Once we…
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Reset the mind, fulfill your day
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1 min read
Intelligence isn’t fixed. We can change our mind just as we can change our bodies. But first, we have to make the mental shift into believing the brain’s elasticity. While past performance is an indicator of future success, it doesn’t rule out the possibility of deliberate variation. How we think determines what we do and…
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Know thyself
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1 min read
Self-awareness is a vehicle for making better decisions. It’ll prevent you from the pitfalls of time-wasting, confusing busyness with productivity, and force you to reconsider the importance of stepping back to think. The external world fights for your attention so it can rattle you. Email, negativity, and breaking news never go out of stock. Instead…
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Home is work. Work is home.
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1 min read
Home is work. Work is home. With the smartphone, we straddle one foot in and out of the office at the same time. There is no real freedom, no way to untether from the tyranny of the desk. We are addicted to being ON all the time. But the phone is not the new cigarette,…
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The self that signals
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1 min read
What signals are you giving out? Everything from your wardrobe to your attitude goes on display in to convince or dupe others of who you really are. Led by imaginings, you chase the perfect external note. But sometimes the creation of the ideal self sends you in the wrong direction. Trying to change from outside…
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Compartments of personality
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1 min read
Know when to laugh and when to cry, when to work and when to play, when to focus and when to daydream, when to float and when to sink — different pieces of our personality snuggle in aliveness in various compartments of the head. What gets complicated is when you cry because you’re happy, play…
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We need the prodding
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1 min read
We need the prodding, we need Mom’s extra push. If it weren’t for other people like Mom, Dad, a coach, brother, or teacher advising us what we should do, important experiences and future cues would go missing. This is not to say that following advice is a prerequisite to success. For one, instructions are subjective…