Ooof, I remember this one.
The Atlantic Ocean off Long Island, NY. December 10th, 2022. Water temp. 6C/43F.
Whenever I'm by the ocean, a lake, a river, a decent sized pond for that matter, I'm going in!
The 24-Hour-You.
One of the best questions to ask yourself when faced with a decision is “what would you tomorrow want you today to do?”
This has been something I’ve relied on for years to help give me perspective and make better choices.
It rips you out of the moment.
It stops you from relying so heavily on the confused chemical signals coming from your body and instead gives you a bit more distance.
It depersonalises the decision and helps you to treat yourself like a friend you’re responsible for helping.
It forces you to optimise for long-term thinking rather than immediate gratification.
It reminds you that ultimately decisions aren’t being made for you now, they’re being made for you in 24 hours, and 24 days, and 24 months.
Our decisions are investments we make into our future, and the more ruminative and deep of a thinker you are, the more you need to make decisions for your future self, not yourself now.
Optimising to gratify your desires in the moment at the expense of the way you feel and the story you tell yourself about yourself in the future is rarely a good deal.
You live with the story of your decisions for far longer than the impact of them.
Choose wisely.
We don’t have crystal balls to see the future, but this is about as close of a tool to clairvoyance as I can think of.
In fact, I can’t think of a single decision which would be worse if I actually did what I wished I’d done 24 hours later.
So yeah, try to be kind to your 24-hour-you, they’re ultimately the one who has to deal with whatever you do today.
Resist the urge to change too much all at once.
When you’re at the helm of a ship, you’re not making major, infrequent 90 degree turns to get where you want to go...
...you’re making frequent, considered micro-adjustments.
The psychological journey’s no different.
What if...
The peak performance state is to be unmotivated?
Unmotivated = lacking motive.
To do, needing nothing in return.
To do, following personal bliss, combating convention, satisfying the soul.
To be unmotivated, the ultimate freedom, peak flow.
“There are two questions a man must ask himself:
~ The first is ‘Where am I going?’
~ The second is ‘Who will go with me?’
If you ever get these questions in the wrong order you are in trouble.”
- Howard Thurman
(From 'Fire in the Belly' by Sam Keen)
Unpopular opinion:
You don’t need to deserve everything you get.
Wanting is reason enough.
That’s no excuse to be an asshole, and of course you’ll have to work for it.
Just know that morality has nothing to do with achievement.
Resist the pressure of endless input, non-stop knowledge.
Learn, sure, but take it deeper.
Integrate.
Disappear, log out, disconnect, go dark.
You can’t own it until you become it.
Subscribe to The Edge Newsletter for the first in a two-part series on Cognitive Distortions including tools and strategies for overcoming them.
https://t.co/Gy6yxjhigK
Cognitive Distortions ~
Irrational thought patterns involving faulty reasoning & thinking errors that contribute to an excessively negative self & world view.
The key players - Part 1;
1. All-or-nothing thinking
2. Labelling
3. Overgeneralization
4. Emotional Reasoning
🧵⬇️
4. Emotional Reasoning
Inaccurately evaluating yourself and your circumstances, including people you interact with, based on your experienced emotions.
In doing so, we conclude that our emotional reaction to something proves truth, despite empirical evidence to the contrary.