Who are you?
It shouldn’t be a hard question. You’ve been living as yourself for many years. But it is a hard question. And you get very different answers when you ask people about this.
The reason is that your identity is formed through an interplay of different factors. But what are the factors that make you you?
Continue readingAs humans we tend to think in boxes. There’s a box with knowledge about how to write, a box that informs us about how to edit the work, and one about publishing and promoting. We think of each of these boxes as independent areas of expertise. But they’re not independent. The boxes we construct are usually interconnected and knowledge in one domain is useful in another. For example, writing and the skill of story telling is tremendously useful when it comes to promoting your work as well.
Continue readingIt is a given that your mindset fundamentally determines your success and impact on the world. Beliefs such as a victim mentality are huge hurdles to achieving what you strive for. Conversely, having the right beliefs is the foundation for realizing your full potential.
Continue readingI was always wondering how people can be so blind. Turns out I was making the mistake of thinking there was something like rationality of a belief.
Continue readingEveryone agrees that your body needs a healthy diet to function optimally. Only with with the right fuel, nutrients and building materials can you live a long and happy life. It prevents you from many ailments and strengthens your immune system so you do not have to spend your days sick in bed.
However, I argue that your mind needs a healthy diet too. I am not talking about how the brain as part of your body is affected by food as well. I am talking about the diet of information and knowledge you feed your brain.
Continue readingIf you care at all about productivity and getting more out of your time, you probably are constantly on the lookout for tools that might help you. In fact, the question I hear most often related to improving in any area is usually related to what tools successful people are using. If you know me, you probably know that I believe that principles are much more important than tools, however, I also believe that sometimes the two don’t exclude each other. So if people ask me what I believe to be the greatest productivity tool my answer always is: my calendar.
Continue reading“You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness — the elusive prize that you are all clutching for, my friends! — depends on that.”
Arnold Bennett, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
I was deeply fascinated reading Arnold Bennett’s book “How to Live on 24 Hours a Day” years ago. In it he expresses his puzzlement of the amount of literature and focus that people put on the “money problem” — how to get by on X-amount of money — however, almost none on how to get by on 24 hours a day. The world offers countless possible activities, a multitude of possible paths to follow, infinite lives to be lived, but at the same time you have been bestowed with a very finite time on this earth. In light of longevity research still being far away from cracking the code of immortality, we have no other choice than to accept this and make the best out of it.
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