When is the last time you realized that you didn’t decide to do what you just spent two hours doing? For example, when you want to find some numbers in an old email and instead find yourself half an hour later responding to yet another unrelated email. Or, you open Facebook while riding the subway only to miss your stop…
Category: Contemplations
Means before ends?
Establishing ends before means affords creative solutions. Establishing means before ends affords creative justifications.
Don’t make it easier to do things you shouldn’t be doing
Sometimes we want to do things that will make it easy to do one thing and will enable us to also do things that we shouldn’t. For example, I have a recording tool that I’ve found is amazing for editing. It makes it incredibly easy to make changes to videos after the fact. And it’s great when I do editing…
Go back and do it the new way
When you’re developing a new habit, if you catch yourself following your old habit, go back and do it the new way. For example, let’s say someone tells me about a new driving route that’s faster than my current route. No doubt I’ll find myself slipping into the familiar route. When this happens and I notice, I can turn the…
Your thoughts are not your own
When you think and feel, it’s easy to assume that what you think and feel is what you want and who you are. If a big decision is being made and you favor one outcome over another, is it because of your thoughts alone? Perhaps you felt strongly one way over another, but is that way really the way that…
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One of the first things I learned when I moved to New York City is that people don’t follow the signs. People go when other people go. And people stop when other people stop. It doesn’t matter much what traffic is doing. I’ve noticed, if I don’t go when the light turns to walk, that other people will often wait…
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I LOVE these new light fixtures we found this weekend. What do you think? A few days ago I stumbled upon several light fixtures missing covers in our kitchen. Turns out Jonathan removed them because there “wasn’t enough light.” At first I was repulsed, they appeared unsightly. Then I wondered, what if we had bought these fixtures from a high…
Who should change?
When something is bothering you, and you assess your options to deal with it, don’t forget to consider what you can do about it. All too often we look at options for how others can fix the situation and we overlook the ways in which we can fix it without the help of anyone else. For example, say someone is…
Petty morality is the reason you’re not happy
If you let go of right and wrong life becomes much easier to deal with, and much happier. I’m not saying that you never shun certain behaviors, but if you understand the fluidity of morality, you see that in most situations you don’t have to get worked up anymore over petty things. You can simply change your beliefs, in real…
Being happy, without compromising, when you don’t get your way
Liking is familiarity. You might think that liking is out of your control but that’s not true. You like what you’re familiar with. So, if you don’t like something you just need to give yourself time to get to know it. Liking or disliking is of course linked to the valence of the experience. Was it good or bad? In…