Brand, thing, behavior, method, advice, mantra, etc.
I swear by Blackwing pencils.
Also, the ‘two minute rule’, which has really improved my life: “if it takes two minutes or less to do, just do it now; if it takes longer, schedule it.” I’ve got untreated attention issues and it’s very easy for me to notice something needing done, and overlook or procrastinate it because it seems inconvenient in the moment. Having a totally painless rule that forces me to acknowledge that thing I should pick up, that trash bag I should change, etc, or, to at least put on my calendar anything I mustn’t forget in the long run has been great for me.
Learn to be curious. Don’t know that word, define it. Never heard of that person. Wikipedia. Ever wonder how a combustion engine works. Look it up. I grew up when I had to write things down and go the library. We live in an age of wonder with unlimited knowledge at your fingertips. There is no excuse for ignorance today. You’re just being indolent. Learn to be curious 🧐
Also. Admit when you are wrong and apologize.
I say a variation of this to my kids almost every week. It boggles the mind how, with such an easy access to all the information in the world, they don’t know something and just shrug it off instead of searching for information (90% of times a simple google search would do). I imagine myself at their age with such resources at my disposal: I’d have been a much happier (and knowledgeable) kid!
Yes, yes. This is me. I also love a quote adjacent to curiousity.
Be curious, not judgemental - From Ted Lasso, originally by Walt Whitman
There is no excuse for ignorance today. Your just being indolent
Fucksake 😂
Autocorrect. I should’ve added not to be pedantic because you’re insecure about your intelligence.
Edit: That was mean. I’m sorry.
Don’t ever, for any reason, do anything to anyone for any reason ever, no matter what, no matter where, or who, or who you are with, or where you are going, or where you’ve been… ever, for any reason whatsoever…
What say we order in some pasta?
“You are under no obligation to be the same person you were 5 minutes ago” - Alan Watts
This one is a bit hard-won for me. You see I used to be an asshole. It was my brand. I thought “it’s just in my nature”.
Fortunately, I was also a student of religion (mostly because I was a militant atheist. Know your enemy and all that). Studying Buddhism, I began to observe the nature of self. I found enough distance from it to see its transient nature.
I realized being an asshole was a choice and I could just as easily choose otherwise. Soon I began to discover this was true of most character traits.
I’m not saying you don’t have consistent patterns of behavior. I’ll hopefully always be curious and analytical. But for the most part, the way you conduct yourself and where you focus your attention is a choice.
So, if you’re not happy with who you are maybe don’t be so attached to the idea of 'who you are". And if that seems hard, observe what you pay your attention to and try to find the distance between observation and behavior. In that gap lies the choice you make, consciously or not, to be “you”.
No offense, brother, but this is a great example of my swear-by.
Don’t write a “wall of text.” Even if a reader is interested, it’s hard to read the whole thing.
Separate your wall into smaller sections, use bullet points (esp at work) if it helps.
Use small sentences. Forget what they told you about keeping similar ideas in one paragraph. You’re not Salinger, and no one is expecting you to be.
This is a digital age, and our job as not-salinger is to convey information.
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No offense taken
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These are salient points
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I edited my post
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I hope it’s easier to digest now
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Thank you for the constructive criticism
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A few years ago I read a post about self improvement where someone wrote about the concept of no-zero-days to form habits. It basically means you just need to do something meaningful every day to make it count, even if it’s something very small. Read one page in a book - no zero day, do 10k steps - no zero day…
Of all the things I read and tried in the past to change my behavior, get more active, learn new things etc, this by far worked the best for me and basically changed my life.
Right now I have 18 different habits I’m tracking on my phone. Things like reading, learning Spanish, doing chores, solving a puzzle on lichess, taking a cold shower, learning something about world affairs/history, taking care of my finances, meditating etc…
I don’t need to do all of them, one is enough. But because they require so little effort I quickly started to do more and developed habits I don’t need to force myself to do.
Now I have a 1500+ day streak on Duolingo and do 2-5 minutes of Spanish lessons every day. For more than 4 freaking years. This eventually ended up in visiting a language school in Spain last summer. One of my best vacations ever.
I read almost daily and found interest in new genres. I get enough exercise at least a few times a week. I educated myself about finances and now I don’t live paycheck to paycheck, paid off my debt and started to save something.
I later read about this concept in the book Atomic Habits and found variations of it in songs like Little Acorns by the White Stripes. In the end it’s about breaking things up into small, easy pieces so you don’t get overwhelmed or give up before you even start.
If anyone asks me what I swear by it’s this. It’s like magic.
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Good point. I guess I have a lot of stuff I can get rid of, donate, sell. I’ll focus on that in the future
You can boost it a bit by tracking a few things that made you happy that day.
Try leave everyone and everything better than you find it.
I read a story on Reddit one time that some of you probably remember.
“Today you. Tomorrow me.”
I think about that often and try to be a generally helpful and kind person to anyone in need. I guess that’s a mantra that I swear by.
Grabthar’s hammer.
Is there air?? You don’t know!
Don’t buy cheap daily use items.
Shoes Mattress Car TV Computer
That doesn’t mean buy the most expensive thing. if you rely on this thing to get you through the day, get yourself something of quality. Do your research. Often times, buying the more expensive thing now, can be cheaper in the long run.
Secondly: Use mental health professionals. Go to a therapist, psychologist, or anyone else trained to help people mentally. For years I advocated for my employees to seek help. I built work schedules around their appointments. I could tell that it help or productivity as a team. I did this for years. Finally, this year, I went to see a therapist myself. I’ve been having depression problems for a while but I never took my own advice. Now, just 4 months later I’m doing way better. Not perfect, but I can tell I’ve made very good progress.
I disagree about the TV. Unless you are flush with cash a $300 LCD TV is perfectly good in 2023, you won’t lose any life satisfaction from not having the new $3000 OLED TV.
Sugaring.
I’ll never understand why people continue to wax when sugar is an option. Wax is heated up to an extreme degree, which is why people can get burned. It sticks to your skin and rips off the top layer, which is why infections are common amd why its so goddamn painful. Wax requires multiple single-use paper strips, which is waistful.
Sugar never gets that hot so you’ll never get burned. It only sticks to your hair, not your skin, so infection risk is much lower and it’s not nearly as painful. No paper strips required, and only one glob of sugar is used.
Overall, all around, sugaring is far superior to waxing.
Is sugaring ok/safe down there?
Heck yeah, I get it done every 5 weeks down there.
Never piss off the people who make your food, cut your hair, or work on your teeth.
Adding to this, consider a second opinion on any dental work. One quoted me for a big job, but because of circumstances, I ended up going to a different dentist and they didn’t see anything wrong with my mouth. Been a number of years since and there’s been no problems without any work being done.
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Slowly transitioning myself into more FOSS and self hosting. Linux is tough because I’m fairly dependent on software that, to the best of my knowledge, wouldn’t work on it. Dual booting doesn’t sound fun
I dual boot win10 and Garuda Arch(I use Arch BTW) and it’s pretty painless. Garuda is a gaming centric distro, it plays almost every game I throw at it with no fuss. The only reason I still use windows at all is because my music production programs refuse to run on Linux, regardless of what settings I use in wine or Proton.
Random list but I am told I am a unpaid ambassador for:
- Vitamix
- Zero inbox for work
- Stoic mindfulness / negative visualizations / Momento Mori
- Birkenstocks , even if they went a bit downhill
- Star Trek
- Chimes peanut butter ginger candy
- Tea…in general
- Merino wool socks
- Lemmy
CeraVe unscented lotion punches way above it’s class. Cheap enough to use as body lotion, good enough to use as face lotion. Apparently even the unimaginably rich Bryan Johnson, who does nothing but take care of his body and spends thousands a month on it, still uses this drugstore lotion because there really isn’t much better at any price.
Would recommend. I stopped using it because it never played nicely with my sunscreen, but if you’re looking for an inexpensive face moisturizer, CeraVe’s moisturizing lotion is really good.
- Don’t mess with people
- Don’t mess with people’s stuff
- Don’t poke the bear
You cannot pay people or companies to care. Do/Build it yourself whenever possible. And use this rule to fake unnecessarily expensive things like furniture or clothing. In most cases your worst service will still be better than hiring someone or buying a product from a company.
