Daily Yamabushi

What Else But

A function of:

Passion.

Pride.

Compassion.

Grit.

Persistence.

Love.

Better Style or Style Intact?

The copy editor goes through with a red pen to cut out any redundancies and help define your style. The translation checker goes through with a red pen to replace any inconsistencies leaving your style intact.

Two very similar jobs, two completely different mindsets.

The appropriate mindset depends on the circumstances. Either way, both in your arsenal is a great place to be. Choose what works for you.

Remove it

Take away the temptation. Remove it. It’s unnecessary. Don’t even think about having it in the first place.

Easier said than done. But where it is possible, it should be done. After all, the temptation is just an unnecessary addition.

How you fall is how you’re able to get back up

I did a rudimentary course in Ninjutsu many years ago. It was so long ago I can’t remember very much at all, but one thing I clearly remember is that we practiced falling properly. If you’re going to take a hit, being able to ‘roll it off’ essentially, means you are that much more ready to get back on your feet. You let the rolling motion and gravity remove a lot of the hit, so you can get back up and back at it in one motion. Do that right, and you start to not fear falling any more.

You relax. I relax.

If you want someone to panic, well there are a ton of ways you can do that. If you want someone to calm down though, there’s only really one way to go about it.

Calm people beget calm people.

As we should

Problems can only be solved when they arise. And they should only be solved when they arise. Trying to solve problems too early leads to the unpredictable getting in the way unnecessarily. Similarly, putting off solving solvable problems only leads to complications down the line.

Worry about things when we should worry about them. At all other times, don’t give them the light of day.

We can work it out when we can work it out. As we should.

Down, but not out

Sometimes there is no better word for it. Sometimes you are just beaten to the punch.

That’s just life.

Roll with the punches. Better yet, let them empower you. Use them as fuel to do something you’ve never done before.

Defeated may mean, yes, you are out of the game. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start another.

Relax

The plane is going to the destination. You can will it faster all you like, it won’t make a difference. What will make a difference is staying calm, and letting the plane do its thing.

Watch your state of mind

Your posture is one of the biggest clues of your state of mind. Your state of mind is one of the biggest clues of your posture. If you notice your posture starting to worsen, fix it. Take the effort to sit up or stand up straight, as this has positive repercussions on your state of mind. It’s the simple things like this that make a huge difference when you’re dealing with something heavy. Looking after yourself in troubling times could be as easy as fixing your posture. Fancy that.

If, not when.

Spare your brain’s bandwidth. Think about things if they come up, if it comes to it. If it doesn’t, you haven’t wasted any energy. You’ve spared your brain some much-needed bandwidth.

If it comes to it. Not when. Anything else is superfluous.

Making something from nothing

I know I’m big on doing things you feel like doing in the moment, as that’s how you follow what your soul is telling you. At least, this is a yamabushi take. Sometimes, this doing something means doing nothing. If you get the sense that letting the situation sort itself out is the right thing to do, then doing nothing is the right thing to do. It’s true, you may just be getting lazy, or worse, you may be giving into the Resistance. But either way, it’s good to have the option up your sleeve.

Don’t simply accept

Seth Godin is famous for pushing us not to ship for the sake of it, but to merely ship as a fight against perfectionism.

By the same token, if something isn’t quite right, it doesn’t mean you simply accept it. You merely accept it. You can change it so it fits your circumstances as much as reasonable before you have to accept it. You’re allowed to make it bearable, in other words.

Watch them if you must

Let them play their games. Watch them if you must. Sit there and bask in the wisdom that you don’t need to take part. The game is most certainly there, but so is the option not to play.

In any pursuit

I’m thinking swimming here, but this philosophy can apply to many other pursuits.

First , focus on doing it non-stop. Go slow enough that you can do that, then increase the time you can. After that, it’s a matter of building on your technique to increase efficiency. And that’s it. From then on, that’s all you’re working on. Building efficiency, and working to go longer.

The non-stop part is easily overlooked. You need to know what it feels like to do the thing for that length of time. But once you do, all that’s left is doing the thing, and focusing on those 1% incremental gains.

Start getting things done

However small, progress is built one step at a time. But those steps are nothing without taking the pivotal first step. All you need to do from there on out is to put one step in front of the other.

But make sure you go

You don’t need to make a big deal of it. You don’t need to worry too much about how good it is if it’s good enough. But you do need to do it. Just go slow. But at the very least, make sure you go.

Remember to look for it

“Writing is like driving a coal car at night in the fog. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

• E.L. Doctorow originally quoted by Anne Lamott in her classic book on writing, Bird by Bird.
  

What a great analogy. And it’s true. Even with just the slight amount of information we have of the road in front of us, by piecing the path together, we can make it home. Or we can at least make it somewhere.

The same is as true for creative projects as it is for getting through tough times. A small light ahead is more than enough to get us that much closer to whatever brings us comfort. We just have to remember to look for it.

There’s really only one answer

Now. Now is when you do. When are you living? The past? The future? Do either of those things serve you? I highly doubt it. When do you do is a much better question than what do you do. When do you do is a reality check. Because what else is there to live in? There’s only one real answer to this question. Anything else, and a change is afoot.

The small things in your eye

Do you ever notice those small things in your eye? More often than not it happens when you’re staring out of an aeroplane window. Chances are they are always visible. Chances are all we need to do is sit down, pause, and reflect on what we see.

They may not be significant enough to worry about in our day to day lives, but in the moment we stop to see them, they matter a lot.

Back into the bush

There’s a famous GIF with Homer Simpson fading back into the bushes. It’s a way of saying you’re there, but not really. In certain situations, this is exactly what you want. The view but not the visibility. Modesty, humility, call it what you will. People don’t need to know your situation, and when they do, they don’t need to know every little thing about it. Put out what you’re comfortable with, or what you know they are, and fade into the bushes.

Is complaining worth the time and effort?

On a plane the other day I stopped suddenly as the person in front of me had. Next second, the person behind me walks into me. Tired from having spent more than half a day traveling already, I was ready to burst out angrily at them. So I turn around, and, I had to look down. It was a grandmother, the kind with a bent back. She instantly apologized, and, in an instant all my anger disappeared.

This may have been a different story had the person been younger, but I like to think I have the self control for that to not happen. In that moment of exhaustion, I’m not 100% sure on that, but let’s just say I’m glad it was an old lady. If you can think of every interaction as such, it saves you a whole lot of time and energy. Just letting it pass is much better than engaging, and that’s for sure.

Embrace it

The lull, or whatever you want to call it, happens for a reason. It’s there to centre you, to ground you, to get you ready. That’s why it’s necessary. And the best part is that you don’t have to do anything. You don’t even have to think. All you need to do is be conscious of the situation, and take it in. That’s all. Everything else will work itself out.

The pause before the storm is happening. And so is your response.

How to share bad news

No news is good news. Or is it? When you have bad news to give, just stick to the facts. That’s all you need to do. Sometimes it’s all you can do. There’s no need to add emotion, there’s no need to pad things, or to offer your condolences. Of course if you can, and if the situation demands it, you should, but you should also know that it’s not 100% necessary. What is necessary, though? The facts. Get that across and everything else is secondary.

No Devices. The real stuff.

Sitting on a train watching the countryside go by. Sitting at the edge of a field watching the butterflies fly around. Sitting under a roof watching the thunder and lightning roll on in. There are a ton of alternatives to your phone. Isn’t it about time you prioritised the real stuff?

Ironically, not here

Looking for the answers? Looking for something to do? You’ve come to the wrong place. The answers aren’t here. All you’ll find is distraction after distraction. Best to put the phone down and get out in the real world where real things happen and real people live.

You’re looking in the wrong place. Try somewhere else.

You don’t need a reason

If you look at the world, it’s very easy to get dejected. The situation you find yourself in, often you hope no one finds themselves in. But this is all the more reason to be kind and caring. If you spot someone in a spot of bother, and you have the ability to do something about it, do it. Pay it forward. Not just for your own sake, but as a matter of common decency from someone who knows how tough it can be.

There’s nothing stopping you from being kind.

Stake for the sake.

Even if you’re doing something just for the sake of it, put some stake in it. If something is worth doing, even for the sake of it, it’s worth doing it continually. No stake risks the project not continuing. Not only will this allow the project to continue, it will also demand you to put your best foot forward, giving it the greatest chance of success.

Put some stake in it.

Not to live

Life is too short to be bitter.

Life is too short to be complacent.

Life is too short to worry.
Life is too short to be long.

Life is too short not to live. Don’t get bogged down in the insignificant.

Live.

After all, life is too short.

Only then can you find yourself

Go out on a limb. Go somewhere new and don’t use a map. See if you can get yourself back. Even better if you can do it without retracing your steps, without taking the steps that have already been taken. Get lost, it’s the only way to find yourself.

This one you are living in

What about this moment? This one you are living in. Is this not a moment you should cherish? Is this not a moment that makes you say ‘thank you for giving me this moment’? Moments are precious. They are fleeting. And we are almost undeserving of them. Almost. Moments have been given to us, and we must cherish them as if there are no more.