Habits

Meditation thoughts: What is meditation?

Awareness / Doof / Freedom / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / Nonjudgment / SIDCHAs

Meditation thoughts: What is meditation?

I lead a meditation group that meets in person a couple times a month. We've found we can get a laugh if we talk in the group about talking about meditation to others who don't meditate by saying, "I can't meditate. My mind is too crazy to empty it of thoughts," or words to that effect. Why does it make us laugh? Because it's like a knee-jerk reaction that betrays a misunderstanding of meditation closer to its opposite. Everyone's mind is full of thoughts we can't help. Meditation doesn't empty your mind. Meditation can do many different things for different people, but a common goal is to find comfort with the eternal state of all human minds: scattered like yours. We know that what they…

January 26, 2026

My first time since starting not finding litter in Washington Square Park, because over six inches of snow covered it.

Addiction / Doof / Habits / Pollution and Depletion / SIDCHAs

My first time since starting not finding litter in Washington Square Park, because over six inches of snow covered it.

I've committed to picking up at least three pieces of litter from the northwest corner of Washington Square Park since it became overrun with fentanyl, meth, and all that results from it during the pandemic. I decided I'd keep up the sidcha until three days passed in which I couldn't trivially find three pieces of litter, as I wrote three years ago in On when I should stop picking up litter in Washington Square Park. I wish I could believe that outcome should be easy. No litter is necessary. Yet in about five years, I've never been unable to find three pieces trivially. We should collectively cry. Today, over six inches of snow have fallen, covering the ground and making the benches not places anyone…

January 25, 2026

Year 16, day 1: posting here daily

Creativity / Habits / SIDCHAs

Year 16, day 1: posting here daily

If you want to reach your potential simplify your life live by your values create mental freedom create more free time save money build a community of people doing similarly You can achieve all of the above more effectively with a sidcha than any other way I know. I created the sidcha concept inadvertently by creating each part, step by step. The first major step came on this day in 2011, when I started posting daily to this blog. I haven't missed a day since. The result? See the list above. Want to do it? Many of my leadership clients and students have done so. I don't think any have spent a penny developing and implementing their sidchas. You can too. Watch the video on…

January 23, 2026

The joy and satisfaction of a hand cart falling apart from so much use

The joy and satisfaction of a hand cart falling apart from so much use

In yesterday's post about volunteering in the cold, I showed a picture of something that always reminds me of the Blues Brothers movie when the Bluesmobile falls apart: They'd taken that car through a lot and it meant something to them. It's like it was telling them: I held myself together to give you all you needed. Note the wheels in the picture of my cart below. I've been using it five years or so and they're falling apart. My doormen comment on how they're falling apart. As far as I can tell the cart is disposable---that is, not made to be reparable---like nearly all consumer products these days. I didn't choose it. One of the volunteer coordinators for the Chelsea fridge lent it to…

January 22, 2026

Wow, some hard work volunteering in the cold yesterday and today.

Doof / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / Volunteering

Wow, some hard work volunteering in the cold yesterday and today.

I try not to complain about heavy work, especially since the physical labor I do is trivial compared to people who work for a living and I just finished One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, though I'm talking about volunteering, not work for pay. Still, over the past few days a few things conspired to make volunteering with delivering surplus food to give away to people who can use it. A few people who volunteer are out of town It's cold! ... below 20F (-7C) One place had about 25 gallons of milk nearing their expiration date so had to be delivered this morning It also had several cases of soda. The upshot: I made three deliveries nearing my heaviest loads. Liquids are…

January 21, 2026

Another big, passionate writing day

Creativity / Habits

Another big, passionate writing day

Last week I finished the first draft of my next book, though more accurate I finished the most challenging parts. I took a couple days off after a couple days of intense writing, then got back to work. Regarding the word "work," here, I talked to a friend who said he wouldn't want to write because of deadlines and pressure. He sounded like writing sounded like a burden or obligation. I tried to convey that when working on something meaningful, a deadline inspires. Besides, I'm not writing the book for a hobby or ritual, like meditation. I don't try to meditate on a deadline, nor do calisthenics on a deadline. I'm not writing this book for me, though I love writing it. It's not the…

January 17, 2026

A sidcha and self-awareness update

Awareness / Choosing/Decision-Making / Fitness / Habits / Perception / SIDCHAs / Stories

A sidcha and self-awareness update

Doing things consistently and daily for a long time enables you to notice nuances, which increases self-awareness. Since I have a six-day exercise cycle that I begin on the first of each month, in months with 31 days, I like to vary what I do with the extra day. In December I did two things. Sorry for the long post, but what I describe below felt like a meaningful experience of aging, contemplation, risk, and humility. Longer meditation Some background on one: I've meditated daily for about five years and counting. Normally I set my timer for 31 minutes and sit for that long. Why 31 and not a rounder number? No special reason. I worked up from shorter times and ended up there. A…

January 2, 2026

Help restore my shaken confidence in people from Christmas Eve day

Habits / Nonjudgment / Stories / Volunteering

Help restore my shaken confidence in people from Christmas Eve day

Regular readers know I volunteer once or twice a week to deliver food from stores that were going to throw it away to community fridges, shelters, and other places for people to get it for free. I wasn't scheduled to volunteer yesterday (Christmas Eve day), but the person who was reported so much overstock that we needed three people to clear it all. Not many other volunteers were around so I was one of them. Here's the load I picked up: So far so good. For better or worse, the usual place I deliver to had this sign on its door: Darn! Now I had to find a place to donate around 3pm on Christmas Eve day, pulling a big load of food. You can't…

December 25, 2025

Year 15, day 1 of my burpee sidcha

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

Year 15, day 1 of my burpee sidcha

I was 40 years old when I did my first burpee in 2011. Today I'm 54 and haven't missed a day. Now I do more than burpees in what I call "my twice daily burpee-based calisthenics." Daily burpees helped me develop the sidcha concept, which I consider one of the most important developments of my life. I've come to see sidchas as the most effective way to reach one's potential. My recent resting heart rate of 38 beats per minute is evidence of not missing a day. It's hard to fake. I wonder when I'll decrease my daily number of burpees or other parts of my calisthenics sidcha. The most annoying part There is one very annoying side effect of sidchas: the near-universal reaction to…

December 22, 2025

The second trashed Christmas Pagan Tree of the season, six days before Christmas

Habits / Nature

The second trashed Christmas Pagan Tree of the season, six days before Christmas

I can't believe how little value people place on trees. Each year I ask myself if I want to bother taking all those pictures of trees people throw away. Am I going to change culture this way? I doubt it. Then again, I'm not hurting anyone and I'm going to post daily anyway. Then I see another Christmas Pagan tree being thrown out well before Christmas. This one appears denuded. I guess someone wanted pine branches and didn't mind cutting down a tree for them, or paying someone else to do it. Will I do a series of pictures again this season? I'm not sure. I guess I'll at least take pictures of the trees I see before Christmas. They're the most brazen and craven.…

December 20, 2025

New resting pulse: 38 bpm

Doof / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

New resting pulse: 38 bpm

I got my annual checkup yesterday. They took my vital statistics. Reading 1: the blood pressure machine As usual, my resting heart rate was lower than they're used to. The nurse taking my blood pressure saw my pulse was showing 42 bpm while the blood pressure machine was doing its pressure cycle. I was looking forward to taking a picture of that rate, when she started asking me questions, the ones they always do: if I run marathons, bike, or swim. When I answered, the rate increased to 45, I think from my talking. That number stayed on the screen after finishing the blood pressure cycle. I guess because I said I don't run, bike, or swim, and that even rowing I only do once…

December 13, 2025

My first time doing a NY Times crossword puzzle

Addiction / Habits

My first time doing a NY Times crossword puzzle

Last week I was working at the library. I ran out of scrap paper. They have a bunch. On the other side of a sheet was something they provide every day: the New York Times crossword puzzle. It was a couple days old when I got it, hence it being scrap. I was about to use the back side, which was the side I wanted. I scanned a few clues and a couple seemed obvious. I don't think I ever tried to do a New York Times crossword before. I noticed it was a Monday puzzle, which I understand is the easiest day. I probably should have worked on my book, which is why I was there, but kept working at the puzzle. Next thing…

November 22, 2025

A new personal best (bench/floor press) and a failed attempt (Turkish Getup)

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

A new personal best (bench/floor press) and a failed attempt (Turkish Getup)

I wrote in August about a couple personal bests in my lifting practice, Two personal bests in a week: Freedom, and last month about the risk of injury in exploring your physical limits. Why form is important in lifting weights, especially Turkish Get-Ups. First, the personal best on the bench press, or more accurately floor press, since I don't have a bench. My last personal best was to do three sets with the 70-pound weight per arm, 8 reps, then 7, then 6. Earlier this year, an injury lowered my ability to max out at three reps. When I bought the kettle bell (used from Craigslist) I don't think I could do one rep. Six days ago, for the first time, I did three sets:…

November 4, 2025

When I mess up doing a sidcha: I get to practice integrity

A recent morning burpee

Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs

When I mess up doing a sidcha: I get to practice integrity

I'd been meaning to write a post like this since what I'm about to describe happens every now and then. Part of the value of a sidcha is developing the skill of integrity. As with any performance-based activity, we learn to practice integrity through practicing the basics. There are probably many basic practices for integrity, but sidchas are a good one. I can think of few things more valuable to learn than to live with integrity to one's values. My evening burpee-based calisthenics usually involves 27 burpees. How I do them depends on my six-day exercise cycle. On rest days, I do three sets of 9. Tonight's set was four sets of 6 followed by a set of 3. Today was busy. My mind was…

October 28, 2025

The joy of learning from people I diametrically disagree with (I recommend the practice)

Education / Habits / Tips

The joy of learning from people I diametrically disagree with (I recommend the practice)

I've written before about a practice I've come to see as a part of maturation: reading and studying people I disagree with---the more opposition, the more I value the learning. I mean more than just learning their views. I mean empathizing with them, learning the sources of their views, and reaching a place where what they say makes sense. Reading, learning, and understanding don't mean agreeing or supporting. On the contrary understanding to the point where they feel understood enables you to lead them. For example, if a pro-choice person says a pro-life person just wants to control women's bodies or a pro-life person says a pro-choice person wants to kill babies, each has undermined their ability to influence the other. When I tell people…

October 22, 2025

I missed a sidcha yesterday: picking up litter in Washington Square Park

Addiction / Doof / Habits / SIDCHAs

I missed a sidcha yesterday: picking up litter in Washington Square Park

Regular readers know my sidcha to pick up at least three pieces of litter from the northwest corner of Washington Square Park. While most of my sidchas I haven't missed, that one I've missed, maybe one or two times per year. The park could use more people picking up litter. No, the point of picking up litter isn't just the temporary removal of litter. Picking up litter makes not buying packaged food and doof easy. People act like avoiding packaged food and doof is hard. Partly they're addicted. Even if not, they still like that stuff and their jolt of a reward. Picking up litter daily leads you to feel repugnance and disgust toward those things. It's not hard to avoid things I find repugnant…

October 16, 2025

How environmentalists are like smokers who tell others not to smoke … while smoking

Addiction / Habits

How environmentalists are like smokers who tell others not to smoke … while smoking

Below is an idea for the new book that I probably won't use so figured I'd share it here. I'm sure I'll use it in conversations with the media. I may develop it more. I like the idea. I should probably specify the behaviors of environmentalists whose counterparts I show in the smokers', though I hope it's obvious. For example, vaping represents all the technologies and efficiencies that people want to reduce pollution and depletion but augment it, like carbon capture, electric vehicles, and lighter packaging for doof. I see many environmentalists like cigarette smokers who tell others not to smoke while smoking themselves. They do the equivalent of the following: They get angry at Big Tobacco while not acknowledging that they themselves are funding…

October 14, 2025

The easy and hard parts of exercise and another value of sidchas

Awareness / Fitness / Habits / SIDCHAs / Stories

The easy and hard parts of exercise and another value of sidchas

This morning's calisthenics involved four sets of burpees. I noticed a funny thought as I started the third set. I had barely done a tenth of a burpee in that third set when I thought, "Only one set left." That's an odd thought. Since I had barely started the third set, I had closer to two sets left. Why did I think I had one set left when I actually had closer to two? Because of an effect nearly all of us have experienced. One version is when you planned to jog or go to the gym but you're sitting on the couch relaxing. It's hard to start, but you also know that once you start running, you're likely to keep running, or once you…

September 20, 2025

“Do the reps, you get the results. Don’t do the reps, you don’t get the results.”

Education / Fitness / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / Leadership

“Do the reps, you get the results. Don’t do the reps, you don’t get the results.”

I've been saying these words lately. Do the reps, you get the results. Don't do the reps, you don't get the results. I've said them to myself, my teammates, and my coaching clients. As regular readers know from my sidchas and standard procedures, I live them. When I search the web for them as a quote, I don't find them, so maybe I created the quote. They ring true, particularly based on the Martha Graham and Jocko Willink quotes I live by. Graham: The dancer is realistic. His craft teaches him to be. Either the foot is pointed or it is not. No amount of dreaming will point it for you. This requires discipline, not drill, not something imposed from without, but discipline imposed by…

September 17, 2025

Another 70-pound Turkish Get-Up, also more lifting personal bests

Exercises / Fitness / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / SIDCHAs

Another 70-pound Turkish Get-Up, also more lifting personal bests

You may remember me posting about Two personal bests in a week: Freedom, in which I jumped 8.4 pounds (3.8 kilograms) in my Turkish get-up to 70 pounds, plus lifted more in my presses. I think I commented that part of why I tried it when I did was because it was the end of a month with 31 days. I do a six-day exercise cycle starting on the first of the month, so several times a year I have days to experiment. Well, last month had 31 days, so I tried my next 70-pound Turkish get-up. I had a few wobbly get-ups in August so even though I had done it before, I treated this attempt with respect. I concentrated on form. I was…

September 1, 2025

Which way of living embodies more love: Picking up litter or walking past it?

Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / SIDCHAs

Which way of living embodies more love: Picking up litter or walking past it?

We didn't ask to be born into a culture that produces so much garbage, but we were. Now, nearly any place you live, if you walk in a public place, you pass litter. I don't go out of my way to pick it up, but when I pass litter and it doesn't take too much effort, I pick some up. I don't pick up everything. I give myself constraints to make it easier. I generally don't pick up: Things the size of a cigarette butt or smaller Absorbent things Wet things Flat things that are hard to pick up, like sheets of paper When no trash cans are near If my hands are full If I'm in a hurry With those restrictions, I commonly find…

July 2, 2025

Love Is Love, Garbage Is Garbage, and Pollution Hurts People: Pride 2025

Doof / Habits / Visualization

Love Is Love, Garbage Is Garbage, and Pollution Hurts People: Pride 2025

Yesterday was the annual Pride March, which means a wrecked Washington Square Park. I make it an annual habit to take pictures of the state of the park after. As usual, to clarify, I'm selecting the event not to say anything about the march itself, its causes, or its people, but for the garbage. My mission is to change American and global culture and the pictures illustrate our culture. I wish I could record the noise overnight of the street sweepers, garbage trucks, and leaf blowers. They sounded like jet planes right outside my window, hour after hour. In past years, I've gotten up around 3am to take pictures. This year I went around 7pm, when the march had just ended and park was still…

June 30, 2025

Why I love volunteering

Habits / SIDCHAs / Volunteering

Why I love volunteering

A few people commented on my delivering food yesterday at the hottest part of the day. The temperature hit 101F (38.3C) while I was pulling around 80 pounds of food in a cart, according to my phone's app . People often also flap their gums about not having time to volunteer. I never hear them say they don't have time for social media or other screen time, yet Americans average over 5 hours of screen time per day. I rarely spend that much time volunteering per week. And, depending on the volunteering task, I count some as cardio work. Plus my food delivery volunteering leads to free food. I help neighbors. I reduce waste. Volunteering as an auxiliary police officer helps make my neighborhood and…

June 25, 2025

A quarter million burpees

Fitness / Freedom / Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / SIDCHAs

A quarter million burpees

Regular readers know what a sidcha is and that my second daily habit that both became a sidcha and helped me conceive of the concept began with doing ten burpees a day. I think I started my burpee habit in early 2012. In time, that habit evolved into a twice-daily set of calisthenics. I agree that discipline equals freedom, so more than the sizeable gains of saving money, saving time, strength, balance, flexibility, mental acuity, cardiovascular health, self-awareness, humility, and all the other usual benefits of physical fitness, I've gained freedom, mainly mental. I haven't missed a day since I started. Since I do a fixed number, I don't have to keep track daily. I update a spreadsheet I created and it tells me how…

May 25, 2025

Addiction by chance versus Addiction by Design with Intent

Addiction / Freedom / Habits

Addiction by chance versus Addiction by Design with Intent

That something in poppy can be extracted into something that addicts (opiates), that fruit and grains can be fermented into something that addicts (alcohol), or smoking tobacco can addict, or that gambling addicts are all chance results from nature. People may have found ways to capitalize on and profit from that addiction, but no one created the effect. Evolution did. By contrast, we now know how to addict people to things like video games. We know how to make substances that addict and to lower the costs of making them. We know how to refine addictive things to make them yet more addictive. I see a major difference between the first type and the second. I'm starting to distinguish them by name: addiction by chance…

April 19, 2025

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