I’m not in love with being disciplined or delving into nuance; I just find those activities necessary to get things done.  Being disciplined or strategic doesn’t make me superior as a person, it simply allows me to be effective and execute sound strategy.

I like to keep on top of stuff so that it doesn’t pile up and overwhelm me through sheer weight of circumstance.  I figure this is a way of speaking through my actions:

I will proactively manage myself, so that Life doesn’t feel inclined to micromanage ME.

As humans, we tend to entrench our minds in rules and tribalism.  And yet ambiguity/chaos rears up again and again, forcing us to make an age-old decision:  do we stay in the trenches, knowing we’ll be steadily beaten down by our own stubbornness?  Or do we attempt a charge, even though it entails the discomfort of evidence-based scrutiny?  

I think the proper way to navigate this dilemma is to focus on effectiveness within ethical boundaries (which is subjective, and requires unflinching self-honesty to know).  This eliminates all labels, all ideals, all conflict between old methods and new.  It is simply striving to become a pure reflection of evidence-based harmony, while doing the best you can for others and seeking to do as little collective harm as possible.

I believe that employing phenomena in a useful manner—whether it be trauma, good fortune, skills, weaknesses, money, time—is largely dependent on my ability to shift perspective and seriously entertain others’ points of view.

With a flexible perspective, I can assess the merit of a given occurrence with a clear perception, one that isn’t clouded by my own pet peeves and entrenched biases.

Whether I’m at fault or not, I like to assume the blame (not the guilt) to position my imagination so I can consider all solutions I might have employed, exactly as if I WAS at fault.  I find this infinitely more effective—as I’m extending my consideration to every single action I might have taken to nullify the negative outcome—than wasting my creativity on making up excuses, or drawing up elaborate systems designating who failed me at what point in time.  

Taking on blame is one of the most empowering things I have ever done.

We’ve seen the same, classic, success-propagating principles iterated time and again throughout the centuries.  What seems to deny us positive results is the ability to perceive nuance—the willingness to recognize different contexts and different circumstances, and knowing which principle will effect a positive solution.  

I don’t think we lack knowledge of the existence of principles; I believe we often lack the perception to transform these principles into actionable methods, and then solutions.  Perception, in my opinion, is a thing that must be tested and trained with hard evidence and honest analysis.

I’m a firm believer that stuffing dark things into deeper darkness (I have to admit it’s incredibly comfortable) is not the way to go.  It’s best to drag them into the light of examination and acknowledgement, where even though it hurts, you can keep them small and manageable.  I don’t necessarily have to tell anyone about them, but I do have to be comfortable enough to where if I did, the only consideration would be if it was a practical thing to do, rather than whether or not it hurts my ego.

Our life is guaranteed to end, one way or another.  So to make most of what time we have left, it becomes necessary to understand who we are, what we’re trying to achieve and why, so we can align our actions and convictions with worthwhile results.

Our life is guaranteed to come to an end, one way or another.  So to make most of what time we have left, it becomes necessary to understand who we are, what we’re trying to achieve and why, so we can align our actions and convictions with worthwhile results.