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Category: Philosophy
Think deep.
What Motivates Us?
Of Grasshoppers
Student: Have you ever really wanted something?
Master: Have you ever really pursued it?
Of Grasshoppers
Student: So heavy.
Master: Build strength.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: Why can I not go back and correct my mistakes?
Master: Because now you must deal with the consequences.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: I do not like who I have become.
Master: You are as you have always been.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: If but e’vr so briefly, I experienced normalcy.
Master: What’s that?
Living the Middle Ground
Somewhere between the things we want to do, and the things we need to do, are the things we can do.
Quote of the Day
Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.
On Time Management/Organizational Tools
I’m a huge fan of Jott. I don’t know how Siri (recently acquired by Apple) slipped through my radar. I now have Siri and am very excited. SpringPad and I have this oddly tenuous relationship which I’ll explain in another post. I think SpringPad has incredible potential and should be appreciated by fans of Evernote.
Like Stephen R Covey’s First Things First and David Allen’s Getting Things Done, none of these tools do any good if you don’t use them. And by use them, I mean fully. For instance, in Gmail I frequently flag emails to review later but then I may not review them. The same thing can happen with any of the tools above. I fill Jott with voice notes and text memos daily. Like sharpening the saw, a review is critical. One of my mantras is "15 minutes a day for proficiency." It comes from preparing for juggling shows. If I wait until the day before a performance and try to cram several hours of practice in, I don’t perform well. If I spent 15 minutes a day for those same number of hours, I perform very well! That 15 minute mantra applies to all things in life be it learning a skill like guitar, a language like Spanish, losing that extra weight, reading a book, writing a business plan, or just keeping your life in check.
Trying to get organized while living our crazy lives often feels a bit like trying to balance your checkbook while going down a water slide. You can’t do it and your checkbook gets really soggy. Feels like a catch-22; too busy to organize, must organize to not be so busy. That’s were 15 minutes a day comes in. We can spend 15 minutes just staring into space. Even exhausted, we can muster 15 minutes. And now, I will spend 15 minutes reviewing my notes in Jott.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: I never wanted to be the enemy.
Master: You can still be friendly.
Tomorrow’s Future
If there was a future in my past
At present I can see
There was no future in it for me.
I awoke living each day for tomorrow
And slept lamenting yesterday.
Today I can only think
Of going back and doing it differently.
Tomorrow will be a new day
Then I can begin to live my future
Much more happily.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: I don’t care anymore.
Master: No one else will either.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: In retrospect, I did it all wrong.
Master: What about all you haven’t done yet?
If Not
If not for this darkness
I could see
If not for this sadness
I could be happy
If not for this weight
I could move
If not for this pit
I could escape
If not for this solitude
I could laugh.
