The journey

With any area we feel insufficient, we can quickly get down on ourselves. We think that with enough willpower, we can turn things around. The hardest part about getting past these areas is the shame we build around ourselves. We know we could do better, and we even try to do better. But it’s the consistency we struggle with. Anyone can stay on a diet for a day. But are we staying consistent for six months? That’s the hard part.

The journey is the journey. Measuring the distance and understanding how long something will take can assist with the narrative. Frodo from Lord of the Rings knew he couldn’t get to Mordor in a day. You shouldn’t expect to get to where you want to go in a day either.

Main character energy

No one meets in the middle without first telling a story of how their side won. Whether they were the ones who took the high road or how they were the ones that compromised. Rarely, do we compromise because our minds changed. Instead, we say our minds our made up. The alternative is to be moved by force. But even in the space of compliance, we tell ourselves how we become the victim of circumstances. The lesson here is that we have a hard time telling ourselves a story that we are not the hero.

Empty threats and opportunity costs

Most threats are empty. We say we will do something, but humans are too complacent to follow through. It’s a space reserved for what you “could” do. But once cooler heads prevail, the reason for what you “could” does not make much sense anymore. The question then becomes what should you do instead. The answer then becomes move on to the next thing.

The board moves

Sometimes, we make one decision under one set of circumstances at one given time—and it’s the right call.

But then things change. You change. The world changes.

And that one set of decisions becomes obsolete because the landscape changes, people change, and circumstances are different now.

The board moves, and you have to move with it.

Cape crusaders

Halloween is a great excuse to suspend reality. For one night, we can pretend to be something we are not, forget about all the insufficiencies or shame, and just be something else.

But why must you put on a cape to feel like Superman? We can understand that it is a placebo. And if one is useful, by all means, wear a cape. But perhaps more practical is training ourselves to know when it is time to be a superhero the other 364 days of the year.

You are that special; you just might not realize it yet.

Pasteurized milk

Pasteurization is the simple process of heating something for a specific period of time and temperature and then rapidly cooling it to kill microorganisms. We take for granted pasteurized milk because we are so used to seeing it on every milk carton and the fact people dont die from milk borne illnesses anymore. I would guess most people don’t know what pasteurized milk is and what they are purchasing.

The reality is that until the late 1800s, when Louis Pasteur, milk-borne illnesses were hazardous to children, buying pasteurized milk was at a premium.

We forget how far we come along to make things safer. Seat belts, traffic laws, 9-1-1, vaccines, the extinction of sabertooth tigers…as we continue to make the world physically safer, we think this means we can make the same rapid progress for emotional safety.

But there is no scientific process for overcoming our fears or standing up to injustice. That’s molded and learned over experience and time. Even then, we must have the guts to stand up and say something. Experience is not even a guarantee. But it does help when we realize that most of the time when we find the courage to speak, nothing will physically happen. We can see when the two are separated.

There’s no magic once you understand how things work

Your furnace doesn’t decide to quit working one day. Much like a hammer doesn’t choose to become a tool. Agency and consciousness are the magical gifts only humans possess.

But we can also assume that other things have it, too. For example, AI has the appearance of these human-like gifts. But appearances are indeed deceiving, and we can be more careful, saying the Wizard of Oz must be a wizard only to find a person behind the curtain pulling levers.

Once you lift the hood, you will not find magic but, in fact, engineering.