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  1. A Winding Path of Progress/

Strengthening my focus on the present

·5 mins·
Challenge
Table of Contents
Me in the autumn forest

Hi 🙂,
this edition of the newsletter is a bit late. That is due to sickness last week and a failure to write on my end week prior. When this happens, I usually just keep doing the current challenge (if I’m able to.)

Review of the last challenge #

The last challenge was: Generating 10 ideas every day.

This was a great challenge. Easy to do, flexible, provides useful output and trains a valuable skill.

A valuable skill? Ideas are the currency of the 21st century1.

I found that I make new connections. For example: How an underused concept like accountability could apply to solve a problem I’m facing.

I found the principle of ‘There are no stupid ideas.’ useful to generate ideas. It lets the ideas flow out, without questioning each one too much. Beyond the stupid ideas (there were plenty of those), lie better ones.

For some lists it felt like going to failure lifting at the gym. I had to exert myself to get to that 10th idea. You learn, though, that you can always come up with 10 ideas🙂

The output is useful, because I can generate a list of solutions to a problem I’m facing, a list of questions I can ask somebody I will meet, etc. Whatever might be relevant in your life, you can generate some ideas for.

I highly recommend you to try this one. ‘10 idea lists to write’ is a good first list to write😉

Next challenge #

I had noticed a marked absence of presence, these last few days. So, this week, I will to focus on being present. That is: my attention is in the moment, I’m not thinking about the past or planning for the future.

Some might say, this challenge sounds familiar. Yes, but these challenges don’t always have to be original. Their purpose is to focus me on some area of my life that I want to improve. If I feel the need to “repeat”2 a challenge (like presence or no media), then maybe there is a lesson there that I haven’t learned yet. Maybe the last challenge was not enough to thoroughly integrate it into my life. Or maybe just I half-assed the last challenge🙂

For the why: I am a better person, when I’m present. My work output is improved, I am more capable of listening to others and I just feel better.

This is what I will do, to be present more of the time (generated as ‘10 ideas to be more present’😃):

  • Block time from multi-tasking. Just be present while walking, driving, eating or doing chores. Don’t add another thing.
  • Be curious about my surroundings. Observe what is there. This always puts me in the present.
  • Maintain body awareness.
  • Affirm the importance of being present. I will reinstate listening to my philosophy while making breakfast. That is, a recording that lists the attitudes that I hold and want to emphasize. This does not count as multi-tasking, because it doesn’t require my attention: low volume and repetitive.
  • Schedule less. If I stuffed my whole day full of tasks, I constantly think about the future (what I will do.)
  • Keep my phone in the hall, instead of next to my bed. This avoids that I do something on my phone at night or read my emails in the morning.
  • Get recurring thoughts out of my head. Ideas and tasks for later go into my note-taking system, thoughts and tasks for the day onto my notepad.
  • Don’t act on every idea that pops into my head. I don’t have to look that up right now.
  • I will make decisions in the moment, when I can actually do something about them. Instead of planning ahead so much.
  • Listening to the audiobook of The Power of Now reliably puts pulls into the present moment. I will use that, if I otherwise have a hard time to get into that state.

In closing, a quote:

English translation
If you stand in front of a door waiting, you are standing in front of a door waiting.

If you are bickering with your wife, you are bickering with your wife.

That is mindfulness.

If you using the time while you are waiting in front of the door to also bicker with your wife in your thoughts – that isn't mindfulness.

That's just plain stupid.
– Karsten Dusse, Achtsam morden (Murdering mindfully)

Wenn Sie vor einer Tür stehen und warten, stehen Sie vor einer Tür und warten.

Wenn Sie sich mit Ihrer Frau streiten, streiten Sie sich mit Ihrer Frau.

Das ist Achtsamkeit.

Wenn Sie vor einer Tür stehen und warten und die Wartezeit dazu nutzen, sich in Gedanken zusätzlich noch mit Ihrer Frau zu streiten – dann ist das nicht Achtsamkeit.

Dann ist das einfach nur blöde.
– Karsten Dusse, Achtsam morden

On previous challenges #

I had decided to do two weeks no media every two months. The first of these recurring media detoxes is now underway. It came at a good time too.

New articles #

Cheers,
Jonathan

  1. James Altucher in Choose Yourself and The Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth. Christof Niederwieser said this about the coming air period: Daten, Informationen und Ideen sind das neue Gold. ↩︎

  2. A repetition is never really the same, since I, the person doing the challenge, is much different to the last time. ↩︎