⚓Power of Anchors⚓
🔥Welcome to volume #00043! You know it's funny is they a I do the numbers🔥
I’m Christian Champ. This is ☯️The Middle Way Newsletter ☯️. It is a place where I write, explore, share, and invite you along for the journey.
⚓Power of Anchors⚓
Each morning I start with ten minutes of breathing. Ten minutes to welcome in the day and get in touch with my inner self.
Does it always work? No. Does it prepare me for the day? I believe it does, which is all that matters. This short meditation acts as an anchor to wake up my best self.
What are your go-to anchors? Where do you turn when you need to still the mind, find your balance, and reset?
Our anchors help us deal with the storms of life and get ready when the sun is out. They can be taking some breaths, a walk, or listening to our favorite songs. They include the people and places that support us in the calm and during turmoil.
Anchors allow us to hold on when the rain comes. They allow us to explore and experiment beyond our comfort zone, knowing they are there for us when we need them. They can become a crutch, and if we never fall, we aren't pushing ourselves enough. We need to find that middle way between stress and rest. We need to cultivate our anchors to support us when we get lost and support us in exploring.
It's sometimes sunny and sometimes stormy, but our anchors buffer us and keep us going.
Ultimately, our anchors help us find out where we want to go next.
📓Articles to Read📓
Saving Lives
My good friend, Mawi Asgedom, started a newsletter to try to save 5 million lives in his birth land of Tigray, Ethiopia
Philosophy of Life
Why did people stop caring about having a meaningful philosophy of life by Paul Millard
In the late 1970s, people switched from caring most about having a meaningful philosophy of life to being financially well off (based on a recurring UCLA survey of incoming freshmen).
But some staple ideas other than money and fame held true over the years, so maybe it is because we think everyone else cares about money. That being said, having a meaningful philosophy of life might be a good thing to add to your life.
Despite this, all of these surveys share some very consistent themes over the past 55+ years. People still see having a family, being helpful to others and being good at what you do as things that are centrally important to a life well lived.
Quantity vs. Quantity by Eliot Pepper
Quality versus quantity is a false dichotomy. Quantity is a route to quality. Not theroute. There is no the route when it comes to making good art or software or podcasts or sourdough. There is probably someone out there who would learn more from rewriting their first novel nine times than writing and publishing nine novels.
But there are few routes as simple, difficult, and effective as doing work you believe in for people you care about, gleaning what you can from the process, and then rolling up your sleeves and starting all over again.
🎙️ Listen / Watch 📺
Ali Abdaal offers his lessons for 2020
My favorites:
Take the top five regrets people have when dying and avoid them. Change our defaults or remind us of the things that we want to do and for Ali it’s putting the five things at the top of his daily to-do list (be true to your self, don’t work too much, be happier, express your feelings, keep up with friends)
Use get to vs. have to…. this reframe changes the things we do (Ali took this from Seth Godin)
Have a hobby that makes you money. A hobby that keeps you healthy. A hobby that makes you creative and keeps you
Check your information diet. He spends most of his time on business content yet relationship and health are more important, so adding more of that. The healthy person has a thousand wishes and the sick person has only one.
Accountability changes the game for us to make progress
Homework for life —> what was the story moment from each day?
Jerry Seinfeld on Tim Ferriss’ podcast (spotify)
Jerry needed to learn to be a writer to succeed at comedy. He is a process machine for comedy, health, and life
Remember to exit. Nine years was a long time for Senifield and ten felt way too long (reminds me of Theo Epstein, who just left as the Cub’s GM and said ten years is too long - editor)
Most things are simply waking up and doing the work over and over and then editing that work
His guiding rule is systematizing and then turn things into games to keep them interesting
When he performs a standup show, he has succeeded. He pats himself on the back for getting up there and giving it a go. Even if the show is a 4/10.
Jerry Seinfeld on passing along Ethics and Boldness —> “was just like whatever made men in centuries past become explorers. You know, I don't know how they became that. I guess I remember reading about Explorers clubs like in 17th, 18th century London. You know, I have two sons and a daughter, and that's the thing I really wanted. If I could pass along, the two things I would want to pass along would be ethics and boldness in life.”
📚 Books to Read or Listen to📚
7 and 1/2 Lessons about the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett (Goodreads)
Lisa writers short essays about the brain, illuminating a challenging subject with clear writing and metaphors.
Rationale behavior is making a good body-budget investment in a given situation.
Think of the neurons as clusters with hubs being the key connections
Predictions are just your brain having a conversation with itself
*the best thing for the nervous system is another human and the worst thing for the nervous system is another human
It’s all networks —> We are more responsible for babies, ourselves, and other humans in our lives!
Our brains create reality. Social reality ONLY exists in our brains.
💣Words of Wisdom💣
In Love With the World - Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Helen Tworkov
It’s amazing that you chose to spend your vacation this way. And you are learning exactly the way everyone does—with misconceptions, and frustrations, and trying and trying again. There is no other way.
“No matter how successful you are, change is always good. There can never be a status quo. When you have no money you can’t afford long-term solutions, only short-term ones. You have to always be upgrading. Otherwise you’re fucked.”
We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others, that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves.
In Love With the World - Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Helen Tworkov
But we do not recognize the precious treasure that we have. In reality we are dying all the time, but our mind is not letting us know this. If we do not let ourselves die, we cannot be reborn. I learned that dying is rebirth. Death is life.
Difficult Conversations - Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen
It’s Not My Responsibility to Make Things Better; It’s My Responsibility to Do My Best.
The Biggest Bluff - Maria Konnikova
"You never can tell whether bad luck may not after all turn out to be good luck... . One must never forget when misfortunes come that it is quite possible they are saving one from something much worse; or that when you make some great mistake, it may very easily serve you better than the best-advised decision." - WINSTON CHURCHILL, "MY EARLY LIFE," 1930
🙏Thanks for reading🙏
When you look out from your anchors, where do you want to go?
Any thoughts or comments, please share!
Namaste,
Christian
The Acro-Yoga adventures continue
