Tag: Action

Pressing Forward

Posted on by jabittan
In his book The Obstacle is the Way, author Ryan Holiday presents advice based on principles of stoicism developed by ancient Greek philosophers. When it comes to our life journey and reaching the level of success we desire, Holiday gives us a window into what we must do to achieve our goals. Holiday writes, “If you think it’s simply enough to take advantage of the opportunities  that arise in your life, you will fall short of greatness. Anyone sentient can do that. What you must do is learn how to press forward precisely when everyone around you sees disaster.”

 

The message from Holiday’s quote is that we must be able to persevere in challenging times and that we cannot just be great when things are going our way. We need to be wise and take advantage of the good fortune that we have in our life, but we must also be able to recognize ways in which we can press forward when we face adversity.

 

When challenges face our country, our company, or household, or just ourselves, we can look forward to find a way to build a path that makes us more resolute. Holiday’s book stems from the idea that adversity and struggle help us develop new skills and reach higher levels of fulfillment beyond anything else in our lives. Action when times are easy can take us far and make us feel great, but we will never be as successful or impactful in our lives if we only learn how to take action and drive toward success when the path is easy. Holiday’s message is to become aware of the difficulties and obstacles we face, and to use those to propel our growth and help us become better versions of ourselves.

Courage

Posted on by jabittan
In the book The Obstacle is the Way Author Ryan holiday has a great quote about courage and action reading, “We talk a lot about courage as a society, but we forget at its most basic level it’s really just taking action — whether that’s approaching someone you’re intimidated by or deciding to finally crack a book on a subject you need to learn.” I enjoy this quote because it is not just a trite saying that we use in situations where we know we need to take action to do something, or where we know we should take a risk and put ourselves out into the world.  The quote from Holiday shows that we can have courage by simply deciding to act, especially in challenging situations.

 

When I think about taking action on things I often dream about, I don’t always think about courage, in fact, courage is probably the last thing I think about. I consider whether or not someone will ever respond  to an email or phone call and I usually procrastinate on reaching out to someone for as long as possible before finally putting words down in an email or punching the numbers into my phone. When I think about courage in Holiday’s view, I better understand what is going through my mind during those moments, and I think I may be better able to adjust in those moments simply by saying that I had courage to act, rather than criticizing myself for having delayed action for so long.

 

Holiday is definitely correct in his reflection on the way society thinks about courage. We currently love superhero movies (at least I do and I’m going to assume anyone reading this is like me and enjoys them as well) and our idea of courage is displayed and possibly shaped through the story of the heroes in our movies. The courage to stand up against a bully, fight a foe in a glorious battle, and speak out against injustice are the forms of courage we are familiar with and can identify in real life people like firefighters and veterans. The problem with this courage is that it is in many ways out of reach for most people. Looking at courage as Holiday does shifts the way we use the word, and makes courage more accessible to more people in their daily lives.

 

Simply speaking with someone you have been avoiding or that is not part of your group is an act of courage. Emailing someone with decision making power and letting them know that you have a great idea or observation is an act of courage. Even a decision to step away from a comfortable night of television to be involved in a class, art project, or community event is an act of courage that we should recognize. These examples are just actions pulled from the perspective Holiday illuminated, but I’m sure there are more acts of courage running through your mind. Ultimately the thing to remember is that courage does not have to be something defined by heroism, but rather by simple action, by the decision to do something, even if it is small, and the fortitude to cary out that action.

The Right and Wrong Perspective

Posted on by jabittan
“The difference between the right and wrong perspective is everything,” Ryan Holiday writes in his book, The Obstacle is The Way. “Where the head goes, the body follows. Perception precedes action. Right action follows the right perspective.” In the two quotes above Holiday lays out his thoughts for the importance of the systems we build for looking at the world. Stepping beyond our initial view of the world and learning to adjust our perception is incredibly important in the world today. Limiting our views and entrenching ourselves in our single perspective creates a reality for us that is not shareable nor understandable beyond ourselves to those with different experiences, beliefs, and views.

 

Holiday’s quotes feel very timely for me given the recent election. Our country has become increasingly polarized and there seems to be a great disconnect between those living in rural and urban areas. I’m afraid not that we have different opinions, but that we are not cultivating the ability to see the world from multiple perspectives, and that we are not striving to to better understand the other half of the country that does not live the way we do. When we limit our perspective and don’t seek a greater understanding of what others believe, we cut ourselves off from a large number of people. It becomes easy to hide behind those who share our views and we fail to even talk to those who are different from us.

 

In his writing, Holiday approaches our ability to change our perception as a tool for adapting to life’s many challenges. We can become more productive by thinking about the work we do from a different angle, and we can learn to better appreciate any given situation when we can focus on the present moment. For Holiday there are two parts of perception that shape the way we experience the world. We have the context of our lives that connects our view with the larger world, and we have our individual framing which is our determination of the meaning of a given event. We decide what something means according to our world view, and our entrenched perspectives on the specifics determine how that thing fits in with our daily actions and individual reactions.

 

Expanding on the idea of perspective as discussed in our daily lives makes me think about Amanda Gefter and her quest for ultimate reality in her book that I recently read, Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn. Gefter is a science journalist and author, and she explains how she built a career for herself reporting on physics. What she and her father have spent their life focusing on as a hobby is the search for ultimate reality, the search for the truest building block of the universe that may be the foundation for all of physics.  Ultimately, what she and her father found is that to the best of our understanding right now, there is no ultimate reality. Our perspective truly is everything. Where we are in the universe, how we choose to view the universe, and what we choose to look at determines the reality of the physics around us. Stepping outside the universe and taking a god’s-eye view of everything causes physics to break down, and ruptures reality. Change your frame and you lose gravity, divide atomic and subatomic particles far enough and you reach a possible eleven dimensional field of vibrations where there is no actual physical thing, accelerate yourself to the speed of light and time ceases to exist.  The physics and reality of our world only seem to work from our single perspective where we view the world and assemble our own information. There is no ultimate reality that can be agreed upon by everything, and there is no gods-eye view that can help us find “truth”. If this is true in the world of physics then it can be applied to our lives, and we can begin to understand that we never have an answer to the right way of doing things, we only have our perspective and how we choose to understand the world given the framework and understandings that we have built and adopted from our slice of the universe.

Activity Versus Passivity

Posted on by jabittan
Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius believed that we existed on this planet to be active, creative, thoughtful, and engaged with the world around us.  At multiple points in his book Meditations he reminds us the value of action in our lives and the value of striving to work toward something.  Toward the end of his book brings up the idea directly stating, “Not in passivity, but in activity, lie the evil and the good of the rational social animal, just as his virtue and his vice lie not in passivity, but in activity.” In this short quote he is showing that on our own and without engaging the world our existence is a void. His thoughts in this quote can be better understood when looking at his view of the work we do (regardless of what that work is) which is summed up in a previous quote that I wrote about, “In the morning when though risest unwillingly, let this thought be present—I am rising to do the work of a human being. … Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bed clothes and keep myself warm?—But this is more pleasant.—Dost thou exists then to take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or exertion? … and dost thou not make haste to do that which is according to thy nature?”

 

Combining the first quote from above with Aurelius’ outlook on work and human nature helps us see that he believes we are destined to be engaged social beings that strive to accomplish the work that is in front of us and asked of us.  We are not meant to simply keep our bed warm and to exist in isolation in our own comforts.  We may be unwilling to take action in our lives and may simply want to enjoy passivity, but we will not find our meaning in passive moments.  We can build ourselves up in a positive manner only through action, Aurelius explains, but our action also presents the option and chance for negativity.

 

Aurelius interestingly seems to favor the chance for us to be evil and to face danger and peril as opposed to being comfortable and disengaged from the world while passively lounging in our bed.  In his explanation we simply do not exist, neither in good terms not bad, when we don’t engage the world. We don’t have the ability to show the world our virtue if we don’t engage, but we also hide the parts that are evil. Keeping any part of ourselves to just ourselves and not the world, Aurelius would argue, is selfish and against human nature. In his view we should strive to fulfill ourselves as humans by action, even if that produces both positive and negative results. I think Aurelius would further develop the idea of our action leading to both good and bad by encouraging us to focus our thoughts and reflections back upon ourselves, so that we can understand whether we are using our talents in a positive way for ourselves and society, or if we are simply advancing ourselves at the expense of others.

How to be Tranquil

Posted on by jabittan
“Occupy thyself with few things, says the philosopher, if thou wouldst be tranquil,” wrote Marcus Aurelius in his common place book which was published after his death in the volume Meditations.  In a short section he writes about doing a few things well and being focused and content with those things so that your mind can be at ease with your effort and action.  Aurelius continues,

 

“But consider if it would not be better to say, Do what is necessary, and whatever the reason of the animal which is naturally social requires, and as it requires. For this brings not only the tranquility which comes from doing well, but also that which comes from doing few things.”

 

The first quote from the emperor addresses the idea of developing skills focusing on a few areas. When we are pulled in too many directions trying to accomplish too many disparate things, we are unable to focus and do well with any individual thing.  The second part of Aurelius’ quote speaks to the idea of being socially responsible and doing that which is required of one (through relationships, work, or societal obligation) with a singular focus.  Guiding all of our focus in a single direction helps us perform our best with the task at hand, and knowing that we did the best we possibly could with any objective helps us find a sense of tranquility about ourselves.

 

It can be difficult in a world of Facebook where we see our friends doing so many cool, interesting, and charitable things, to feel content with our own lives and actions.  To find the peace of mind and satisfaction with the daily habits and decisions we make in our own life, we can employ the ideas of Marcus Aurelius and ensure that things that we do are done with the greatest focus and effort. Knowing that we have focused to do our best with any activity can give us the reassurance that we need in a social media filled world.  Additionally, by considering the tasks in front of us and putting all of our mental capacity toward that one task, we can fully apply ourselves in a way that helps us avoid doubts and questions about why we are doing the work on which we must focus.  Whether your task is writing an essay, mowing a lawn, or scrubbing a bathroom, completing the task in a deliberate and quick fashion (meaning your are avoiding multitasking with things that hinder your performance) can bring a sense of pride and peace in what you do.

High Performers

Posted on by jabittan
Throughout his book Considerations, author Colin Wright provides his audience with little pieces of advice from his observations about the world. His chapters are all short essays about a given subject ranging from branding, to personal development, to habits, and self awareness. What I really enjoy about each essay is that the insights and advice offered is not limited to just the topic being written about. His thesis and his interesting points can often be taken and applied to multiple areas of life.

 

In a short essay titled “Default to Action” Wright writes about how easy it is for us to hear about something interesting and plan to return to that interesting idea, but get distracted and never remember to look into it. He writes that our default when our interest is peaked should be to immediately act upon our interest and (in most cases) to dive deeper, finding more information. By acting in this way we avoid distracting cat videos and push ourselves to investigate and learn.

 

Towards the end of his essay is a brief section that I find to be an incredible idea for one to apply to life, relationships, and ones career, “One distinction between high-performers and those who tend to lurk around the middle or sub-average is that the former are willing to expend energy to pursue that which they’re not told to pursue…”

 

Recently at work I have been working to bring in more self awareness to my actions and habits with the hope of becoming better at what I do. Part of my goals is to stand out to have more opportunities in the future, and part of my goal is to simply do the best work possible.  When I look back at my performance and daily routine, I see areas where my lack of a default to action has left me in the middle or average range as an employee.

 

A way that I have found to motivate myself in changing behavior is to examine the identity that I want to have. If I see myself as a high performer and want to be a standout, it is helpful to imagine that identity and consider my decisions and actions as they apply to the identity I want. If I want to be a high-performer my identity should contain the default to action personality explained by Wright. Eliminating distractions can often be outside of my control, but acting immediately rather than procrastinating is within my control and can push me towards the identity I want. With the goal being to achieve a specific identity I am not driving towards a promotion or good evaluation, but instead I am working on character and habits, knowing that the benefits and rewards will follow.

 

Wright’s book is a philosophy book, but like the quote above, many of the examples and pieces of advice offered can be used and applied throughout life. This quote also fits in with relationships, organization and stress management, and academic pursuits. By reading Wright’s book with an open mind, the opportunities to connect new dots abound.