Build an environment conducive to you

If you really want to make a change, if you really want to shift the dial, make sure you at least place yourself in the right context. Not only that, if it’s something you really want to do, your attitude needs to show it.

A teacher can only provide an environment for our learning. We are the ones who do the learning.

Too often we give the responsibility of our learning to our teacher. We expect them to be the giver of knowledge, which is fine, but to actually take that knowledge on board, we need to be the ones to take the first step. We need to be the ones to put ourselves forward, and to put our feet on the ground.

Not only do we need to make sure we have the right environment for learning, we have to make sure we have the right attitude, and to show it too.

In other words, we need to put the context in our favour. We need to make sure the stars align, and then we need to show up. That’s how we move the dial.

What happens if the tables are turned?

How much easier is it to give advice to others rather than to yourself? How often do you find yourself thinking, ‘if only they did this or that?’

What if every time you had one of those thoughts, you turned the table on yourself?

It’s all for you

Open your eyes. Perceive the world for what it is. Sense the space around you. The atmosphere. The environment. It’s all real. It’s all fleeting.

And it’s all for you.

Is only ever a temporary solution

They call it ’playing’ the victim because it’s a role you put on. It’s not something permanent, and nor should it be. If you play the victim too long, you let the circumstances get the better of you when you really don’t have to.

To turn things around you can turn around the conversation you have with yourself. Think about what you can still do, and show the world ‘look at what I can do in spite of these circumstances’, ‘look at what I can do in the face of these challenges’.

Play the victim to help get through. Then once you are through, find something else to play.

Haters gonna hate

You’ll never meet a hater doing better than you. – David Goggins

I couldn’t put it any better. If you were doing better than someone, you wouldn’t have the time to put them down. You’d be too focused on doing your own thing.

Hating is jealousy. Pure and simple. You can choose for it to let you down, or you can use it as fuel for the fire.

Your choice.

Stay True to Shoshin

When you stay true to Shoshin, being put down isn’t so bad, and being wrong isn’t so bad either.

If you keep true to Shoshin, it’s always true that you don’t know everything.

And the best thing is, you’re in the best position to learn.

Focus on Emotions, Decisions, and Actions.

When we’re going through a funk, it can be easy to get emotional, and go a little bit out of control.

This only goes to compound the funk.

Best to focus on daily habits that help you get back to normal as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, be extra cognisant of your emotions, decisions, and actions. As much as possible, give yourself positive feedback. At the same time, limit yourself to actions and decisions that you would only ever do under normal circumstances.

Trust in the process, and trust that it is just a phase that will soon pass.

Let the funk deal with itself.

More? Or enough?

What if it wasn’t more you were searching for, but enough?

More than now. More than you’ve ever had.

More is future-oriented.

More is also a cop out.

You can always get more. You can always try more. You can always do more.

But more is not enough. More is a trap.

What’s important is enough.

Enough is now-oriented.

Enough requires a level of satisfaction. Enough requires a level of acceptance.

Enough is more than enough.

The now. Focus on the now.

The path you have taken is not wrong. It’s never wrong. You were doing the best you could to the best of your knowledge in the circumstances.

Similarly, the path you are yet to take is not wrong. There are many opportunities and many challenges ahead, but they aren’t defined by you right now.

What matters is that you reassess the now, and act on that. Do this in perpetuity, and take comfort in the fact you were doing what you thought best in the moment.

And great reason to reflect on your current path

Oftentimes it’s only by achieving a goal that we realise the journey we were on was the real goal.

You couldn’t ask for more

The other day I was drinking a latte from a local cafe. Until I lifted that lid, I had no idea some of the best latte art I had ever seen lay underneath.

And not a word on it from the creator either. They just passed it to me as if it was nothing.

For them, it probably was.

Putting pride in your work without making a fuss of it, just getting on with the job in the best way you can. Doing things in what you think is the best way, even if you won’t get credit for it.

You really can’t ask for more.

Leave the rest up to you

Fate has a way of doing its own thing, of playing out in its own way.

Let it.

In the meantime, leave everything up to you.

Not necessarily.

Some things that appear set in stone really aren’t. You can change your attitude completely to turn the circumstances around.

Once the All Blacks conceded their red card in the 2023 World Cup final, I all but wrote them off. Turns out I shouldn’t have. They only lost by one measly point in the end.

You can change your attitude partway through. You’re still in the race. No one’s going to think worse of you for changing due to changing circumstances.

You still have a choice. You still have time to change. Do what’s necessary.

Build your resilience with this handy trick

Put it in your head that you’re going to give your best effort towards the end. This works in terms of distance as well as it works in terms of time.

It’s natural to slow down during an exercise simply due to fatigue. So, try consciously putting in more effort in the second half, or at least more towards the end. This way you can trick your brain into better utilizing your reserves, or better getting results out of limited effort.

Then actually go through with it.

Create ripples, create waves.

One small ripple can have everlasting impact. If done correctly, the ripple becomes a wave when left to its own devices.

The key is creating the ripples. It’s about putting things out in the world and seeing not only where they go, but where they take you as well.

Creates ripples.

Even a drop in the bucket creates ripples.

It may not seem like much, but it can make a world of difference.

Wise words from a weird location.

Paths are made by walking*. Whether by you, or by someone else, paths are forged through action.

Walking the path of someone else is not necessarily a bad thing. Only, sooner or later you will have to walk your own.

*I wish I came up with this. Alas, it was written on someone’s shirt, of all places.

Thinking can come later

This may sound strange at first, but my experience as a yamabushi led to my decision to subscribe to Audible.

I was getting a bit bored of having the same podcasts on repeat, and I also felt myself not getting enough mental stimulation (I blame YouTube for that). Living in rural Japan there isn’t the same access to like-minded individuals as in other places. They are there of course, but they have their own lives too, and can only do so much.

So, for the longest time I was humming and hawing over whether to make the purchase. But in the end I realised my biggest reason not to was whether I’d actually be able to get value out of it.

And, of course, the only way to know for sure was the yamabushi way, to try first.

Not acting on an inkling won’t teach you anything. Acting on it will. So if you’re humming and hawing over a decision like this, jump straight in.

Thinking can come later.

The Roadmap

Say you have a roadmap. Say you know how something works in theory. This in itself can be reassuring, understanding that there is a way out of a predicament, or a way forward. But at the same time you have to understand that in most likelihood, things won’t go as planned. Even the best plans have some sort of unpredictable flaw that you simply have no way of predicting.

And that’s perfectly fine.

A plan is just that. A plan. It’s not the execution. It’s not the actual doing of something. That part comes later. But you need to have in your head that you will be ok with whatever eventuates. You need to have it in your head that you will accept what happens as a reality, and that that’s a perfectly acceptable way to go about things.

Just make sure you follow through.

Something.

Your first objective is always something. It’s always getting something off the ground. It’s too easy to beat around the bush, to play with things and wait until perfection, that moment that never comes. 

Something is better than stuck in your head. Something is your first objective. Do that, and you’re well on your way to better.

If only for a moment

How often do you stop just to smell the breeze, to feel the wind on your face, the ground at your feet? How often do you just stop to be in the moment and reflect on that moment?

If you’re anything like me, a lot less than you’d like, I guess.

These moments, they belong to us. When something special happens, a sunrise over the mountain, a rainbow, a leaf falling down and landing at our feet, when these things happen we feel special.

If only for a moment.

Mistakes as an unconscious decision

Mistakes can be a blessing in disguise. Sometimes we unconsciously make a mistake because we’re afraid of the results, but part of us actually wants to make the mistake. In a way this is your soul trying to get out. It’s your soul telling you something is not right with what you’re trying to do.

The problem is, it’s hard to be sure if it’s your soul coming out, or a genuine mistake. But I think you already know the answer to that one.

What will you do about it?

What can you do about it?

What will you do about it?

Are the answers the same?

Should they be?

Check the right metrics

When you get home after swimming for the better part of an hour you expect to have a pleasant surprise when you jump on the scales.

Except it doesn’t come.

And then you remember, muscle is heavier than fat.

Your first time back is time for building muscle, rather than losing fat. It’s building for the long run, muscle that will make it easier to lose fat later on.

If you find your initial investment isn’t working as expected, check your metrics for the long run. In the short term it may seem like you’re getting nowhere, or perhaps even going backwards, but sometimes the complete opposite is true.

Both necessary. Both lead to growth.

You can only refine your craft so much. But you can also only experiment so much too. With refinement comes the opportunity for experimentation, and experimentation builds refinement. Without experimentation, there can be no refinement.

Keep it up, keep refining, keep experimenting. It’s all part of the path.

Let them. Don’t get ahead of yourself.

If you find you aren’t making progress, or you aren’t getting the results you want, of course you have to reassess the situation. However, sometimes you may be doing the right things, but you’re just trying to force them too much.

Make sure you’re giving it every chance to succeed. Make sure you try the technique at hand from different angles too. Truly do everything in your power. If that doesn’t work, then yes, you should change tack.

The Beginners’ Mind

Start over.

Rinse and repeat.

Take nothing for granted. What’s in the past is in the past and has zero influence on what could happen tomorrow.

Why should it?

The beginners’ mind keeps you on your toes. It keeps you in the moment and keeps you moving forward. Most important of all, it keeps you eager to learn. It puts you in a posture of ‘what can I learn next?’, which is always the best place to start.

AKA a waste of energy

Regrets suck. Especially when they are for things with long-lasting consequences that pop up every once in a while. You have to keep reminding yourself it’s water under the bridge. It’s stuff that try as you might, you will never be able to change things back to the way they were.

So why worry about it? It’s wasted energy.

Turn your focus to the things you can control, the things you can do. These are the things that are actually important. These are the things that can actually make a difference.

Sure, some things are tough to accept. Sure, some things require a fresh set of eyes, or a reset even. But that you can do. That you can use to your advantage and turn things around.

Water under the bridge is your first sign to let things go. It’s your first sign to shift focus, and it’s your first sign to start elsewhere.

What’s the opposite of a distraction?

What is the opposite of a distraction? Something you are eager and willing to do that puts you in the moment.

Meditation is a good example. As is simply walking out in nature.

Eating. Netflix. YouTube, on the other hand. Distractions stop you from doing what you really should be doing. They get in your way just like the resistance, and just like the resistance, they need to be controlled.

Habits can be good at controlling these. And rules. Habits that you stick to. Rules that you stick to. Nonetheless, distractions have a way of rearing their ugly head at inopportune times.

Make a habit, and make a rule for checking in on the regular. Give yourself the time and space to simply be in the moment doing what you feel you should be doing, rather than what the distractions make you do.

Mantra Stephen Dubner goes by

“Be bad, don’t be boring”

• Stephen Dubner’s teacher’s teacher’s mentor or something.
  

This is in regards to acting, apparently, but it’s great advice.

When you’re boring, you either aren’t doing much, or you’re doing the predictable. This can be ok for some people, but being bad at something novel or exciting can teach you so much more, and can also be a hell of a lot more fun too.