Month: January 2025

It isn’t when things are going well, because that’s easy to attribute to one’s own efforts. We are so easily seduced by this.

The hardest part is assessing when things are broken. Far too often, we want to blame ourselves. But this isn’t the whole picture. Perhaps the effort is there but isn’t in the right place. Or you have it in the right direction. It just isn’t going to work.

We are usually not on our own time but someone else’s. It takes tremendous courage to say, “Yes, this isn’t working. But I’m doing everything I can to turn it around.”

We are not good at giving credit to ourselves when things fall apart.

We often associate risk with our actions, the consequences of going left or right.

But what we get way wrong is assessing the cost of doing nothing.

Every choice has consequences, even when we choose to sit things out.

If the constant in life is change…

Then life must be a reflection of it.

It is our perception of this change that counts.

Not an objective world but a preveived world.

It is foolish to lie to yourself…

But what makes someone a fool is when they begin to believe them.

In basketball, there are buried players who come off the bench, come in, and just go. They make it because of their motor. Every possession matters because it does. They won’t be getting the reps and opportunities as starters.

If you’re starting, you forget this mentality cause you can go to the next one. However, even with starters, you never know when this will be your last.

The thing about ideals is that we can have them but not live a life that follows them.

That’s what makes them ideals. They are not convenient and give humans something to strive for.

Everyone has ideals. Not everyone has the constitution to follow them.

Emotions can be written down on a piece of paper. It can make sense logically what to do.

However, emotions are not a set of instructions that need to be simply followed.

They are much more complicated, which makes them difficult to understand.

Most problem, believe it or not, are not caused by external forces. They are cause by ourselves. Economic disparity in a capitalist society doesn’t just happen. It is a design feature. Of course, if you travel back several thousands of years, we were still fighting over resources. We still fight over these resources. We are just too blinded to see. While problems of solving things like access to clean water or eliminating waste, have been solved, we then deal with the next of problems. Which ultimately, we get more opportunities for man to search for meaning.

There are physical problems that continued to be solved. Intellectual realm could topple in just a few years. But no convience will ever end the work of finding and defining the things that matter most.

Perhaps we need to be reminded. Growing old is a privilege while at the same time a burden. And being able to wrestle with an exestiential crisis, is also a privilege. It likely signals an educations and discretionary time to tackle such things and bit more than most. It also says a lot of where you are at.

With the advancement of tools and technology, labor conitnues to get easier. That doesn’t mean all of the hard labor jobs are gone. And it doesn’t mean they won’t ever be eliminated. But with physical labor conintuing to get easier, the rise of intellectual work continues to rise. So, you are no longer called to move a pile of rocks from one end of the field to the other. You are now constantly being tracked by Zoom, how quickly you respond to Slack messages, and being asked to be available off hours.

Monks figured this out long ago. When the bell rang it was time to work. When the bell struck it was time to stop. Not finishing one more thing. Not sticking around until the job was done. Because they understood something that here in the west we cannot still wrap our head around, the work is never done.

Chop wood carry water–until the shift is done. And then go on to the next thing. Leisure, recreation, quality time with family. Our achilles heel isn’t that this generation doesn’t work hard.

1) They want to be working toward something. Economic movement continues to be a stand still. And just based on the zip code you are born into, it can now be accurately predicted where you will end up. So why try?

2) We have the most difficult time seperating work from play. And the hustle and sacrifice culture, doesn’t work when there are only a lucky few that move up the economic ladder. It’s an interesting period we are in. And with more new tools, what happens to the intellectual labor provided by a worker that is no longer needed? What is left? What happens next? What defines humans when your services are no longer required?

Victories are rarely won by one individual hitting a last-second shot.

Victories are won together. A connected group is a dangerous group.

Hats off to Park City Ski Patrol for their recent victory.

It’s challenging to beat Goliath. But with every victory, you can best him. And, over time, every giant or empire has fallen.

Time is on no one’s side.