Daily Yamabushi

It’s no easy feat.

It’s no easy feat. It takes years and years of dedication and patience. Not everyone is built able to do this.

And yet here you are. And yet you’ve found a way here. You’ve taken a respectable task, made it your own, and in the process made it not only realistic, but also real.

Respectable. Realistic. And now real. That’s no easy feat.

The irony that I’m writing this on a smartphone.

Smartphones are moment killers. They suck you into your (their) own world and keep you there. It takes a lot of self control to avoid their pull.

Easier said than done, but put your phone down somewhere and forget about it. If it’s in an inconvenient enough place, your reflex at grabbing it will start to fade, and if you’re disciplined enough, disappear.

If you don’t, you risk missing important moments that happen right in front of your eyes, just not on your screen.

Build it

Get creative. Daily. Make it a habit. No, make it a compulsion. Sooner or later you will find your voice. Or at the very least, you will build it.

Focus on that

What’s right in front of you? What’s possible with what you have at hand?

Do that.

Push other things out of your mind. Don’t give them the light of day.

If things become too much, prioritising what’s at hand becomes all the more important. Take stock of what’s needed, take a step back, and do what’s necessary.

Cognisant Ignorance

To be in the moment, you simultaneously need to be cognisant and ignorant of time.

To be in the moment, you need to be aware of the situation, of the surroundings, of the sensations. You also need to be aware that the moment is fleeting so you can learn to appreciate it.

At the same time, if you are focused too much on the time, if you keep checking your watch uncontrollably, or keep glancing at the clock, well you clearly are not living in the moment. Your mind has taken you to some other time, and you are not appreciating what is right in front of you.

The best thing to do, therefore, is to practice being cognisant of what’s around you without looking at the time.

And the best way to do that? Get rid of your clock. Get rid of your watch. Get rid of your smartphone. Get rid of anything that tells the time. If necessary, set yourself an alarm or other reminder so that you aren’t constantly compelled to look for the time.

And just focus on being. That’s all you need to do.

No-one else

One of my favourite artists has the simplest mottos for their music: music for anyone who wants to sing and dance.

It’s simple, and it works. Their focus is on making stuff that makes you want to sing and dance. Anything else is just not their cup of tea. So they don’t do that.

What is it you want people to do? What is it people want to do that you can provide for?

Do that. And make a point of doing just that.

Keep it that way

Writing is a productive escape for me. Putting down words on paper and then fiddling around with them until I’ve said what I wanted to say. But if you’re not careful, even productive escapes can become unproductive. If you get lost in the world too much, it stops you from doing other things and can be its own form of procrastination.

For a productive escape to remain so, you need to ascertain boundaries and you need to stick to them too. Otherwise you risk all that hard work going up in smoke. If you have a productive escape, keep it that way.

Bold and brave

Bold thinking is motivational, it gives you something currently unrealistic to strive for in the future. Bold thinking keeps you on your toes wanting to achieve more, but also wanting to stretch the realms of possibility.

Kami knows we need more brave people. Not only that, we need people to think and act bold too!

Default to the bold. You might just reach your goals.

Know how to use it

It’s no use having the tool if you don’t know how to use it. Knowledge of the tool is as valuable as the tool itself.

The tool is already in your toolbox. It’s there waiting to be used.

You have to know how to use it and you have to be able to use it when the time is right.

Until then, knowledge will have to suffice. But suffice is more than what you need.

Is real

The struggle is your chance to test yourself. It’s your chance to see how resilient you can be. The struggle is there to help you grow as a person, as a leader, and also to remind you that you have what it takes to get through.

Of course the struggle is a struggle. But you don’t have to think of it as one.

It’s too late

Things you need to do have a tendency to pile up, if you’re not careful. When things do eventually pile up, for one it becomes harder to prioritise, but it also takes time away from what you may feel like doing in the moment.

When later comes, it’s too late. Get it done as soon as feasibly possible. That way you can have the moment to yourself. You’ve earned it.

Can’t it be both?

The day everything changes, or the day you change everything?

Can’t it be both?

What say you?

What will you do?

I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

And I don’t see it as a problem. For one, we don’t know what the world is going to do. Many jobs that exist these days are slowly becoming obsolete. Yet at the exact same time, jobs that don’t exist today, or some that do but aren’t viable yet, are increasingly becoming so.

So I don’t think it’s wise to focus on the future like this. I think it’s wise to focus on putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward at your own pace. There’s no rush, and there’s no need to put unnecessary pressure on yourself either. Just let things happen as they do, and be confident in your ability to survive and thrive. You’ll get there, and that’s what you want to do in the future.

Whatever way shape or form works

Real-world exposure is how your ideas go from good to great. Within reason, ideas in your head are better once they’re out in the world.

If you’re struggling to get an idea out into the world, you may be overthinking it. Is it possible to get the idea out in a much simpler way, shape, or form?

Get your ideas out in whatever way works. Then decide if it’s too complicated or not.

Bon chance.

Hard work increases your chances, but hard work is not a guarantee of success. At the very least, make sure you are in with a chance. And if you’re in with a chance, you might as well increase your chances as much as possible.

Way, way up.

There’s space for the home runs. Way up there in the stratosphere, where you can be.

There are only so many people who go for the home runs. The space is uncrowded, and it’s wide open just waiting for you to hit a ball up there.

Aiming. And hitting. And hitting.

And hitting.

Who knows, you might hit it? At the very least, you’ll make those hits much more accurate the next time around.

A moment for something new

Make the most of the serendipity you find yourself in, whatever situation that may be.

Some moments are opportunities for serendipity in disguise. Some moments that were unexpected become a chance for a different potential reality.

Things don’t always quite go to plan. Sometimes drastically. But is that a bad thing? It can be if you let yourself think it is, but it doesn’t have to be.

Think of the opportunity for serendipity as the opportunity for serendipity it is.

Yet I don’t know if it will work.

I know exactly what I’m doing. I don’t know if it will work, but that’s the point. If you know it will work, could you aim for something different? Something better? Who knows, you might just get it?

Are still dreams

Dreams are great and all, but they shouldn’t stay that way forever. Dreams are there to be acted on.

Otherwise they’re just a pipe dream, and that never served anyone.

A sign of growth

If you look back on yourself and you cringe or feel you were an idiot at some time in the past, it’s a sure sign you’ve grown.

I look back at the textbooks and notes I used when I learned Japanese and, more often than not, I can’t remember a time I didn’t know that stuff.

The knowledge had accumulated enough, and it had accumulated long enough ago, that it had become a part of me.

An idiot today, a wise man tomorrow.

And just go for it

Some choices aren’t at all obvious. Some choices require deep thought and analysis to know that you are making the right one.

When both choices seem to be good, it’s not something you should worry about. This means that either option is good. It’s time to calm down, and to flip a coin, or just go for the cheaper option without thinking about anything else.

Then accept the decision and get on with your life.

Like your life depends on it

Where do you go when you feel like you’ve lost all hope? Like you’re at rock bottom. Where do you go when you need a pick me up? How do you get through the tough times?

You go on the offensive. You get tough. You nail down and see what you’re made of.

You get creative.

Humans are resilient creatures by nature. We are built to adapt to almost any conditions, and we have built to adapt to any conditions too. We know what it takes to get through; creativity. Innovation. Ideas.

We don’t just sit there waiting for things to happen, we put on our thinking caps and we take action. We turn to our creativity, and we get through.

That’s why we should practice our creativity like our lives depend on it. Because sometimes they do. Sometimes we need to rely on our creativity to get us through. Sometimes we need to trust ourselves and our ability to get things done. Sometimes we need to get creative.

Keep it together

If the fort is going to crumble, it does so on its own terms. Not because you let it.

There is light on the horizon and it will reach you, but in the meantime, you know what to do.

Have their best interests at heart

There’s an old saying, meet them where they are. It means coming in with as little baggage as possible, and removing any obstacles that can get in the way.

Meeting someone where you want them to be means wanting the best for them. It means changing your focus from what’s directly in front of you to a few steps ahead.

It’s not exactly yamabushi, but it helps to keep people pushing forward, and shows you have their best interests at heart.