If you want to learn, find an experience to teach you and make it happen, not just the answers written out. Let the experience create the answer for you. When I wanted to learn something, I used to get a book and read about it. We learn more through experience. I teach that way. I also realize I’ve adopted the habit of trying to do things to learn. If I[…] Keep reading →
What do you need? Typically responses include food, shelter, love, relationships, vacations, etc. I’ve written before on the social repulsiveness of neediness (“You need to read this post” and “The risks of saying “I need…–, for example). Let’s consider the personal perspective. What perspectives on things can you change from feeling you need them into enjoying them? What relationships do you feel you need but you could instead simply enjoy?[…] Keep reading →
The other day I had to do something hard. I forget what it was. You know the feeling when you don’t want to do something. You find ways to avoid it. Then I asked myself, “Is it the hardest thing you’ve ever done?” It wasn’t close. Then it didn’t seem so hard, so I did it and it was easy enough that I don’t remember it anymore, only the question[…] Keep reading →
I think you’ll like what I wrote about food to someone who wrote: I’ve been looking for something like this [to learn to cook, in balance with my work] in my life, but what’s a good place to start learning how to cook? I’m a young single dude in his 20s, and the most I can do is boil some pasta. I work from home so time is not really[…] Keep reading →
A reader wrote about a successful use of a technique I wrote about in “Someone not returning your emails? Here’s a polite tactic that gets responses.” I thought I’d share for others, since we all face the challenge sometimes. Also because I find over and over that low-level instruction, even or rather especially on low-level details leads to high-level success. Schools don’t teach these details but they matter. Hey Joshua,[…] Keep reading →
I hope long time readers are asking, “What?!” Five years ago, in my fifth post on this blog, I wrote “Less, please,” which founded one of my most fundamental practices, one I recommend to everyone. That post described reducing my wall of books to about ten, learning about my values and discovering freedom where I used to feel weighed down. I’ve since gotten rid of more books and more other[…] Keep reading →
The reader I responded to Saturday also wrote the following: in the meanwhile i am writing to a medical doctor who is also a fitness expert so that i can meet her and set up a program that looks at both nutrition and exercise She’s doing what a lot of people do, especially well-educated businesspeople who have developed habits to analyze things before acting. I do so too on many[…] Keep reading →
Do you ever have someone not return your emails for a long time? Over the summer I had a two-person team not return several emails for a few months. The correspondence was low priority, but I didn’t want to lose the project. They said they wanted to continue, and I believed them. Usually persisting politely without losing patience works. This time it didn’t. It’s easy to get angry, feel disrespected,[…] Keep reading →
Who doesn’t find people telling them what to do annoying? Here’s something people who don’t eat meat commonly say: I’ve been saying for a long time that it’s weird some people are anti-vegan and try to argue against it. That’s like saying “I’m pro-cruelty, pro-heart-disease, and anti-environment.” It’s not just people who don’t eat meat. People who eat meat have different reasons but the same amount of judgment and telling[…] Keep reading →