Daily Yamabushi

Don’t turn your regrets into even bigger ones.

Life throws you lemons. That’s what life is for. It’s how you react to the lemons that counts.

Some things can’t be helped. Don’t let them be helped. Don’t give them the time of day. Find something else to do while you simply focus on forgetting about them.

Keep at it, but let bygones be bygones. Don’t turn your regrets into even bigger ones.

It’ll be over soon enough

Change has a habit of happening. And when it doesn’t, we have a habit of changing to meet the change.

Nothing lasts forever, not even our feelings about a given situation.

It’s just a bit of life. It’ll be over soon enough. And if it isn’t, it’ll at least be over in our heads.

In your pocket

You know the one. The one you let get the better of you more often than not. The one that has a lot more control over you than you’d like to admit.

Your attachment machine is designed as such. It’s designed to keep you glued to it. But we humans are not designed as such. We are not designed to be constantly attached to anything, to anyone.

It’s time we took back control. It’s time we detached ourselves and stood on our own two feet. It’s time we left leave our attachment machine behind and learn to detach again.

Seeing is believing

With the fog you can’t see far. But what you can see, you appreciate.

It never was

There’s one thing you need to understand. It’s no-one else’s race but your own. The competitors are there only to provide some sort of benchmark, but there can be no better benchmark than your own.

It’s not their race, it never was. It’s yours. And it’s up to you to prove it.

Things I always abide by

Don’t lie to people you’re trying to teach by praising them prematurely. They’ll find out sooner or later, and when they do, they’ll lose faith in you. No need to be a dick about it, but it’s always best to keep it honest.

Same goes for when you don’t know something. Say you don’t know it. You can hazard a guess, but you have to say that it is only your best guess. Either way, it’s usually easier to say you don’t know the answer.

Do more of that

What’s the good part? Do more of that.

This is what it’s all about. Doing the good part time and time again. However, do it in the knowledge it’s only deemed the good part because of the ‘relatively-speaking not good’ part. And that at the same time, something that is deemed ‘relatively-speaking not good’ now could be a completely different story when given enough time.

What’s the good part?

Do more of that.

Is the best you can do

You can prepare your coffee as well as you like. The best scales, the best kettle, the best grinder, the best water, the best timing… but in the end, it’s the beans that matter.

And for that, you need the best nature, the best climate, the best weather…

The best you can do is the best you can do, and that’s all you should ask for too.

Unashamedly.

The coach of the Māori All Blacks, Ross Filipo, said something on The Breakdown that I felt reflects greatly on the New Zealand psyche: being unashamedly yourself.

Filipo is in a difficult position leading what you could consider NZ’s B Team. He has to lead the team but with the knowledge that it needs to be for the strength of the All Blacks. However, the All Blacks coach Scott Robertson, made the right technical decision and that was for Filipo to have full reign, to do whatever he feels is best for the team.

The answer? Did you read the title?

The key is to let it

Unpredictability breeds angst. It breeds frustration, and it breeds insecurity.

But unpredictability also breeds expectation. It breeds excitement, and it breeds hope.

Unpredictability is not to be feared. Like everything else, unpredictability is to be embraced.

It’s a powerful thing.

Using your phone is not nothing. Neither is having the TV on. Nothing is sitting down, just focusing on being in the moment. And it’s a powerful tool. It is in these moments of nothing that we discover where we are, and remind ourselves of who we are.

Nothing is a powerful force, but are you just going to stand idly by and let it happen? Or are you going to do nothing?

Stick to it

If you’ve made progress, if you’ve learned something new, which you have, then you’re on the right track. Then you’re where you ought to be.

Progress is the name of the game. Progress is where it’s at. You’re still on the path to better, and sure you could have done better, but who couldn’t? Stick to the path. Stick to the progress. It’s where it’s at.

Where are they?

You just haven’t found the right tools yet.

The right pen. The right brush. The right paint. The right scalpel. You just haven’t found the right tools yet.

The right motivation. The right time. The right mindset.

Tools are irrelevant. You don’t need to find the right tools.

You need to find the right actions. There’s your tools.

Give it the benefit of the doubt

When there is seven the slightest chance something might work, give it the best chance it will.

You don’t know if it will work, but it might. That might could well mean the difference between yes or no, action or no action, success or failure.

What’s yours?

If you had to give a one minute pitch on what you’re most interested in right now and why, what would it be?

And if you’re not doing that, why not? One minute could change your life.

Feeling compelled to do something?

Something to get off your chest? Or simply feeling compelled to do something? Get it out of your system. Do something about it. You’ll love yourself more for doing so, and you’ll forever regret not doing it if you don’t just make a move.

Focus on what’s in it for you

About to do something you’d rather not? Think ’what’s in it for me?’ ‘What’s to be gained from the experience?’ Then put your focus on that. And if that gain isn’t so apparent, trust that in time it will show itself.

Because it will. Even the worst experiences have silver linings.

As many times as you can

Don’t get caught up in the game’s tactics and strategies, that time is over. Aim for the goal, and shoot. Getting the points is what matters, not the stats. There’s not much else to it.

Uncertainty and Grace

If you think something bad is going to happen it puts you into a negative stance despite the uncertainty. This is a weak place to be. You are giving yourself over to what you think is inevitable when you cannot be certain it is.

Best to think and plan for the best possible outcome. Your stance is one of positivity, and that positivity rubs off onto other aspects of your life and becomes a positive motivator.

And when push comes to shove, this makes all the difference in the world.

Have more value

Lessons come from everything, but the lessons that hurt are more valuable. These lessons have more value.

The reason why? These lessons cause us to take action. They cause us to do something about the situation, not just sit idly by and let things unfold.

We don’t always have to wait for these lessons, we can take proactive action so that they are nontrivial. However sometimes we can’t. Sometimes they creep up on us. But the value in them is still the same.

Is the name of the game

Anyone can see a mountain for a mountain. It takes a certain type of person to see the steps up it. And a certain other type of person to not only see, but also take the ones right in front of them.

Slowly but surely is the name of the game. One step at a time.

Being the part

You don’t have to look the part. Looking the part isn’t what matters when it comes down to it. And sometimes, looking the part can be a distraction.

Looking the part is nowhere near as important as being the part.

Let us know.

There’s a reason for you doing what you’re doing. You may not be able to explain it, but it’s there. It’s the reason why you are you, and we want to know what it is.

The way you let us know doesn’t have to be as direct as telling us, writing it in a blog post, or making a video about it, but it does need to be told.

Why is what you’re doing important? Why should we know about it? Why does it mean the world to you? And if it doesn’t mean the world to you, don’t you think it should?

And The Beginner’s Mind

Yamabushi have no hierarchy. There are yamabushi who come before us, such as Sendatsu, but we’re all apprentices of nature. We’re all at the same level, the one under nature.

Likewise, Shoshin, The Beginner’s Mind concept from Zen Buddhism, is all about starting from zero, or thereabouts.

Equal footing is important not only because we stand to have the same opportunities, but because of the humility it gives us. It’s our reminder to stay true to ourselves and our own intentions, and to come into every interaction with fresh eyes.

Beyond reasonable doubt

It’s a losing battle.

It’s a lost cause.

It’s the end.

Things don’t need to end prematurely simply because you think they should. See things out beyond reasonable doubt. For all you know, your doubt is unreasonable, after all.

The one and only

The only one. The one and only.

You want to do something that only you can do, preferably something valuable. Do so, and you’ll never be short of work. Plus, you’ll get to pick your jobs, and this means you set the terms.

The only one, the one and only. How do you get there? Well, you start by thinking different, thinking outside the box, as it were. To be the one and only, you need to zig when others zag. You need to beat to your own drum, and you need to stick with it.