Knowing What You Know Now

Every time I go back and visit campus, I find myself thinking that, if offered, I’d probably take my old job back in a second.

That’s weird, because I didn’t enjoy my job. Most of it was soul-crushing cubicle work, and although the pain was lessened by the presence of some wonderful people, it was what inspired me to start a website in the first place.

But things would be different if I came back.

The work would probably be just as tedious, and the office would probably run just as inefficiently, and the people would probably make it just as tolerable as it used to be.

But I would be armed with knowledge I have now — knowledge that I didn’t possess back then. That’s the difference.

All of the old stressors and annoyances and aggravations would cease to exist. Or more accurately, they would cease to affect me. Because how could I possibly allow myself to be affected by things I now know to be trivial?

When I first started the job, I was eager to please, and I was motivated by fear. I wanted to do my job well, and I wanted people to like me, and I was afraid of getting in trouble. As the semesters progressed, I became more comfortable with the job, and I grew more at ease. Less anxious. Less afraid. And yeah, less eager to please.

So now, if I were able to go back, I’d be able to do so knowing there’s no reason to fear payment request forms, or to dread voicemails, or to wear khaki pants.

I know these things because of the time that has passed since I worked there. Compared to what I face now — on my own, blazing my own trail — sitting in cubicle is a cake walk. Looking back, it wasn’t so bad.

Sometimes, you don’t really know what something is until you put some distance between yourself and that something.

Imagine if you could go back to high school knowing what you know now. The experience would be completely different. You’d know that getting a C in AP Biology doesn’t make you a bad person. You’d know that no one cares if you’re in the Honors Society. You’d know that everyone in the hallway is scared shitless and has no idea who they are either.

Of course, we so rarely get the opportunity to go back, knowing what we know now. But we can still take what we know now and apply it to the present and the future.

We can ask ourselves, In a year, will this matter?

In a month?

Tomorrow?

Is it worth being afraid?

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The World's Commander

When in the world I lived I was the world’s commander.
Shakespeare

It’s weird being in a place you used to — but no longer — call home.

I was on campus yesterday, after completing my courses and full-time internship there a year ago. Back then, even though I didn’t appreciate it at the time, I was comfortable. Safe. I had courses I was doing well in. Professors who liked me and thought I was talented. Students and coworkers who were friends and support systems. And a cubicle, which though I detested it, was always there.

Back then, it was home. I knew what I was doing. Who I was. Whom I could count on. I could walk across campus confident and self-assured.

Now I’m a stranger there. A guest. Walking across campus makes me uneasy. I walk by people who are living a life I used to be a part of, a life that I’m now just passing through. I’m just a guy who still hasn’t finished his stupid thesis.

Part of you longs to get back there, where things made sense, and you were on top of the world even though you didn’t realize it.

But a campus is just a place. You can’t take the buildings and the parking lots and the trees. You can’t take the cubicle.

But you can take with you what matters. You can take the memories and the people. You can preserve the friendships. That way, when you leave campus, you haven’t lost as much as you think.

And you can focus on being the commander of the world you live in now.

Thanks for reading! Want more? Grab the free QLE Manifesto. Perhaps follow me on Twitter. Need something? Email me.

Dropbox Camera Uploads

In their never ending quest to simplify your life, Dropbox has added the ability to upload photos directly from their iOS apps.

This is awesome for several reasons:

1. Backing photos up to my computer is much easier. Rather than periodically plugging my iPhone into my Mac and using Image Capture, I can just open the Dropbox app, and any new pictures will be automatically uploaded to my Dropbox. I can then move them anywhere I like.
2. Getting photos onto my computer is much easier. Instead of emailing them to myself, my photos can now be everywhere almost instantly. This is especially handy when I need access to one particular photo on my iPhone.
3. You can earn more free space just by using Camera Upload. Try it once, and you get an extra 500 MB. For every subsequent 500 MB of photos you upload, you earn an additional 500 MB. You can earn up to 3 GB of free space this way.

Even in the age of iCloud, Dropbox is still one of my most valued services. I keep all of my writing in Dropbox, and Crush On Radio runs almost entirely via our shared Dropbox folder.

When I put something in Dropbox, I immediately stop worrying about it. I know it’s safe, secure, and backed up.

If you use this link to sign up for a free account, we’ll each get an extra 500 MB of space.

Thanks for reading! Want more? Grab the free QLE Manifesto. Perhaps follow me on Twitter. Need something? Email me.

Write Spontaneously

Writing every day is a challenge. There’s the whole finding-an-idea part, and the finding-the-time part, and the finding-the-motivation part.

Depending on my schedule, I tend to write around the same time each day. Sometimes I’ll get into the habit of writing at night, which I enjoy. Nighttime tends to make me more emotional and contemplative. When I was doing yoga every day, I did all of my writing during the day, which seemed to result in more straightforward prose and a practical voice.

Both are good. Writing at the same time every day is a powerful habit because your brain can subconsciously prepare for writing mode as the hour approaches. Or it may not.

But lately I’ve been flirting with the idea of being more spontaneous with my writing.

Writing at a regular time is good, but sometimes I feel inspired when it’s not writing time, and sometimes I don’t feel inspired when it is. As most writers will tell you, inspiration tends to strike when your pen or laptop are inaccessible — in the shower, driving, mowing the lawn, etc.

But I do have an iPhone. And it’s always in my pocket.

If I have the opportunity, why shouldn’t I write when the mood strikes, instead of capturing the idea and saying, “Oh, that’s good. I should write about that… later…”? Often when I go back and look at the idea I wrote down, I’m not as psyched about it. I may still think it’s a good idea, but the motivation to write about it has passed.

I’ve written long articles on my iPhone before — just my two thumbs and me. So it is possible. It’s just a matter of having the discipline to stop what I’m doing, open a new document, and start typing. I might be sitting in my car in a parking lot, or in the office at work, or waiting for something or someone. But a lot can be written in five minutes with real concentration.

Ubiquitous capture is something I think about often. Why not ubiquitous writing? Byword syncs right to Dropbox, where I keep all of my work. The system is in place.

One reason I haven’t done much spontaneous writing is that I convince myself I don’t have much to say beyond the idea itself. But as is often the case, once I start typing, much more than I anticipated tends to come out.

Instead of holding back ideas when they come to me — when I’m most excited about them — I’m going to try to let them become manifest as quickly as possible, regardless of the time of day. In theory, this should allow me to more genuinely capture the enthusiasm for the idea, rather than trying to recreate it when it’s “official writing time”.

We’ll see how it goes.

I hope you have a truly memorable weekend.

Love,
Andrew

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A Creative Catalyst

Sometimes my brain feels stuck. I have a hard time coming up with new ideas, and I feel a general sense of stagnation. Dissatisfaction. Boredom.

I found myself in such a mood yesterday while I was in my room. I just felt so… bleh. I even did a bunch of push-ups and sit-ups, but nothing would shake the malaise.

It wasn’t until I left my room to go grocery shopping that I snapped out of it. I got in my car, put on Clockwork Angels at the appropriate volume, and started driving. Within minutes, I had an idea about something I wanted to write about. I jotted it down with Pop. A little while later, I thought of something else. And then something else. Before I had even arrived at the grocery store, I had a small handful of new ideas.

And I thought to myself, “Isn’t that funny?” All I had to do was start driving.

A creative block can have many solutions. Sometimes it pays to just sit in silence and think — to enter an oasis of quiet — until the ideas deep within us bubble to the surface. This sort of inspiration is internal.

But sometimes we need to look outside ourselves. In my case, sitting in my room wasn’t cutting it. It wasn’t until I got outside, in motion, that I was reminded of everything that existed outside my little room — including some things I could write about. The music, the sky, traffic, other people… observing all of these things — none of which were in my room — jumpstarted my brain and caused it to think differently. Suddenly, I wasn’t grasping for ideas in space. The ideas presented themselves to me, and I was fortunate enough to receive them.

I suppose this is a roundabout way of saying that inspiration doesn’t always have to be summoned from within. We can perhaps find it just outside the door. But then again, inspiration isn’t just over there, waiting for us to go get it. Rather, whatever’s over there may have the potential to stir something within us, something that leads to the next idea.

Instead of trying to squeeze water from a rock, consider the possibility that it may take something outside yourself to rekindle your creativity. You may be in need of a catalyst.

When stuck, take a ride.

Thanks for reading! Want more? Grab the free QLE Manifesto. Perhaps follow me on Twitter. Need something? Email me.

Favorite Apps: Quotebook

Capture is an important part of my workflow. I use Instapaper for saving articles I want to read later, and Yojimbo for bookmarks and archiving.

But what about saving quotes for future reference?

Hello, Quotebook.

Quotebook is a notebook for capturing and organizing the quotes that matter for you.

Like many of my favorite apps, Quotebook does one thing, and it does it very well. When you add a quote, you can include its author and source, as well as rate or tag it. You can view all of your quotes chronologically, or by author, source, or tag. You can also full text search your entire collection with ease.

The iPhone app is great for quickly capturing quotes, but with the release of Quotebook 2.0 a couple of weeks ago, the app is now universal and sports a wonderful iPad interface.

The iPad version’s textures and typography are beautiful, and it’s specifically designed to display quotes in all their splendor. Of course, the iPhone and iPad versions sync via iCloud, so you’ll always have all of your quotes with you at all times.

You can easily share quotes right from the app via email, iMessage, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Quotebook also features auto-detection, so if you have a quote copied to your clipboard, it’ll automatically ask if you want to import it into your database.

I’ve been using Quotebook since it was released (via Patrick Rhone), and I currently have 332 quotes in my database. I even used it to look up inspiration for yesterday’s post. Its reliable, useful, and super pretty.

If you like quotes — and who doesn’t? — you need Quotebook.

Get it for $2.99 on the App Store.

Thanks for reading! Want more? Grab the free QLE Manifesto. Perhaps follow me on Twitter. Need something? Email me.

On the Notion That Your Phone Sucks

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.
Oscar Wilde

Yesterday, Apple announced an onslaught of new laptops, software updates, and general awesomeness at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

Like all WWDC keynotes in recent years, it was a great day to be an Apple fan. When the company releases new products, its not only a chance to drool with excitement and start contemplating selling your organs. It’s also a reminder of why we in the Apple community stand so firmly behind the company.

Apple perpetuates what we believe in: simplicity, elegance, and sophistication.

But it’s not for everybody. Nothing is.

Try as I might, I couldn’t help but encounter the usual Internet skepticism and criticism about Apple’s announcements — people who scoffed and rolled their eyes while promoting their own obviously superior brands and devices.

There was a time when I would have taken their criticism personally. Apple is doing what I believe in, and therefore, when you insult Apple, and you insult me. We could have a lengthy discussion about how and why a company engenders such emotional attachment, but that’s not the point of this post.

The point is that I’ve learned not to waste my energy trying to disprove someone’s opinion.

As long as they believe blue is red, you can’t have a rational conversation about the color of the sky.
Patrick Rhone

If you believe your phone is better than mine, that’s OK.

If I believe my computer is better than yours, that’s OK.

But trying to convince the other person that their opinion is wrong is futile.

And why bother?

What do you have to gain from telling me that my phone is stupid? What do I have to gain from letting you know your computer sucks?

Nothing.

When we feel strongly about a thing or idea, we attach ourselves to it. It becomes a part of our identity. To have someone bash your thing is to have them bash you as a person.

But it’s not worth preserving that attachment. Someone will always disagree with you, and so the more attached you are to your idea, the more likely you are to have your inner peace disturbed by a willful dissenter.

Instead, be content to let the other person think whatever it is they think. Chances are their way of thinking makes them happy. Why rob them of that happiness?

Let go.

It’s pointless to defend a personal preference. It’s like trying to make an intelligent case for your favorite color.
Merlin Mann

If you don’t like my phone, don’t buy it. I won’t buy your computer.

And we’ll all be OK. Trust me.

Thanks for reading! Want more? Grab the free QLE Manifesto. Perhaps follow me on Twitter. Need something? Email me.

The QLE VIP List & 25 Things: The QLE Manifesto

Today I’m pleased to announce the QLE VIP Mailing List and the debut of 25 Things: The Quarter-Life Enlightenment Manifesto.

Awesome! Wait, what?

A few months ago, I wrote a post detailing 25 things I’ve learned in 25 years. These 25 Things are the ideas, mantras, words of wisdom, etc., that I believe in the most. I repeat them to myself on a regular basis, and I’ve found them to be the most valuable in my pursuit of inner peace.

In short, these 25 Things form the foundation of what QLE stands for.

As such, I decided to polish them up and compile them into a handsome, travel-sized ebook in .pdf format.

That sounds nice, but how do I get it? Is it expensive?

25 Things is totally free, and you can get it by becoming a QLE VIP.

What’s a QLE VIP?

The QLE VIP Mailing List is a special newsletter for hardcore QLE fans only. It’s not the same as subscribing to the blog via email. It’s a separate list, and it’s a very important one.

QLE VIPs will be the first to know about new ebooks, products, services, and other happenings. You’ll get access to exclusive QLE VIP content. You’ll enjoy discounted rates for all of the above, and you’ll also get top secret other benefits that I cannot utter here.

Joining the list is totally free.

Rest assured that I won’t spam you, sell your email address, or deliver an onslaught of garbage to your inbox.

I promise to email you only when it’s both very important and very exciting.

If you enjoy your time here, and you want more, joining the QLE VIP List is the best way to do it.

Sounds like a bribe.

Kind of. But:

25 Things is my gift to you for becoming a QLE VIP. It’s my way of saying thank you for reading and supporting the site as it enters its second year next month.

I’ve been writing this website for almost a year, and it’s become a true labor of love. I wasn’t sure I could do it at first. I thought I’d start it and then lose interest. I thought it’d be a waste of time. But I didn’t. It’s not.

QLE is my Internet home. It’s my way of documenting my pursuit of inner peace and helping others achieve it for themselves. I love it very much, and it’s time to take it to the next level. The VIP List is just the start.

Please note that you are under no obligation to join the list. It’s merely an option — a bonus of sorts — for those who want to go further in their support of the site and/or deeper in their pursuit of inner peace.

QLE is and will always be a free online publication. You’re welcome to read the blog as much or as little as you like. You’re welcome to leave now and never come back. I won’t mind. Seriously.

For those of you who’ve enjoyed yourself, you’re welcome to stay, and I’m so very thankful for you.

And, if you want the VIP treatment, come on in. I think you’ll like it.

All you need to sign up is an email address, and you’ll receive a link to download 25 Things: The Quarter-Life Enlightenment Manifesto in your welcome email.

We’ll return to our regularly scheduled program tomorrow, but if you’d like to start your week off like a rockstar…

Join the QLE VIP Mailing List.

Let’s do this.

Wonderful. Thank you. Really. You’re awesome. Gorgeous. Brilliant. Exceptional.

Welcome. And thanks.

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Stranger in a Strange Bed

Michael Schechter on The Make Mindset:

I want to do more, I want to make more and the best way to ensure that that happens is to continue this shift in my mindset from take to make. I’ve been pushing myself to put down the remote, to ignore my RSS feeds, to avoid my browser and to try and make something out of nothing. I’ve needed to push myself to make better choices and attempt more ambitious endeavors.

This is exactly the mindset I’m trying to adopt now that I’ve moved out of my parents’ house.

I haven’t been sleeping well since I moved out. The bed is loud. The birds freak out in the morning. The sun wakes me up very early.

But it’s good.

The thing about sleeping in a strange bed with a strange pillow in a strange room is that it gets me up in the morning.

My bed at my parents’ house is insanely comfortable. It’s queen-sized. The pillows are fluffy. The sheets are soft. The room is dark and silent. I can sleep for days there, in safety.

But it was too comfortable. It’s very difficult to get out of a really comfortable bed. Just five more minutes, you say. And before you know it, it’s lunchtime, and you haven’t made anything. And that’s depressing, so you retreat back to the comfort and safety of your bed.

A strange bed is easy to get out of. The mattress groans and creaks. It’s sway-backed on one side. The sheets are rough. Your feet hang off the end. This isn’t a long, deep, peaceful sleep, but merely a series of short naps, interspersed with strange noises and uneasy dreams.

And so getting up in the morning is easier. There’s no temptation to stay in a strange bed. And that initial motivation can propel your entire day forward.

A strange bed is a reminder that you are not where you want to be. Not yet.

Michael:

I’m not quite who I want to be, but the more I align what I want with what I create, the more things begin to move in the right direction.

Maybe take off that extra pillow tonight.

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Required Listening III

Today’s post is my third Required Listening piece over at First Today, Then Tomorrow.

If would mean the world to me if you clicked over and checked it out.

As always, my thanks to Randy for having me and Penny for making sure I sound smart.

Movin' Out

My internet colleague and cohost, Richard J. Anderson, on The Big Move:

Once again, I don’t know what I want, but I know what I don’t want. I certainly don’t want ten times more of what I have now. For God’s sake, I am ready, at least, to be scared shitless and stop doing what I am expected to do, and go do something new and different.

I moved out of my dad’s house this weekend.

I’ve been writing this website for eleven months, and I’ve always neglected mentioning that I lived at home, primarily out of shame. Not that I don’t love my parents — of course I do — but no twenty-five-year-old wants to admit he lives in his parents’ basement, no matter how nice a basement it is. (And mine was really nice.)

I graduated from college in 2009 and then immediately went to grad school. Because I was still a student and living on a paltry graduate intern salary, I moved back home. The initial plan was that I’d move out six months after graduation, but because my thesis is taking for-freaking-ever, those lines got blurred. Eventually, my dad and I agreed that June 1 would be the deadline.

It was a benevolent and mutually agreed upon deadline. My parents wanted me to leave the nest and spread my wings, and I wanted to not live in my parents’ basement anymore. So it’s a good thing. Kind of scary. But a good thing.

Living at home is a double-edged sword. It’s very comfortable; food, shelter, love… Everything is provided for you. But because of this comfort, complacency inevitably follows. There’s no sense of urgency when you live at home. Sure, you know you need to move out and do something with your life, but there’s no one threatening to break down your door if you don’t. You’re safe. Protected.

And why shouldn’t you be? That’s what home is. But while home is a wonderful thing, it’s not the best environment for getting to where you want to be.

Sometimes the fire under one’s ass is best lit by fear.

While I was living in my parents’ basement, I found it very hard to be productive. I got my blog posts written, but did little else in the way of creating. I certainly couldn’t work on my thesis. I was home. I was comfy. Too comfy. There’s my couch, and my computer, and my books, and my television, and my basses. I can’t do work right now. No way. I’ll do work later.

I was trapped in this vicious cycle of comfortable complacency, and it depressed the shit out of me.

And so begins Phase One of starting my life as independent.

I’m staying with a good friend for the summer. The bed is loud. The birds are loud. The sun is bright in the morning. It’s not my house.

But it’s a start.

It’s a start because, now that I’m out of the house — scared, vulnerable, uncomfortable — there’s a sense of urgency. This is the real deal.

I’m out from under my parents’ roof. I’m exposed to the elements. It’s up to me to decide what I’m going to do today to get to where I want to be.

It’s survive or die.

And I’m not going to die.

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Favorite Apps: Recollect

I love music, and I love Twitter, so naturally I love to share music on Twitter.

The thing is, you can’t just tweet a lyric, because people won’t know what song it’s from, and they won’t get to hear it in the context of the song, which is often what makes a lyric great. For me, as per Crush On Radio episode 4, it’s often not the lyrics themselves, but how they are sung. People need to hear your music if there’s any hope of them liking it.

With that in mind, the most effective way to share music on Twitter is using a song preview.

I’ve tried a few different apps for tweeting song previews, including Soundtracking and Path. Both apps do music fairly well.

But I’ve found a new favorite.

Recollect bills itself as “the best way to recommend and discover new music on Twitter”, and I’m inclined to agree.

Unlike Soundtracking, Recollect is beautiful, and unlike Path, it’s specifically designed for tweeting music. It does one thing well. In short, “choose a song, write a brief recommendation, and tweet it.”

Recollect has a news feed where you can view everyone’s recommendations, featured users, your friends, or trends in list or shelf views. These feeds make it very easy to discover new music, and you can “collect” (similar to a Facebook Like) any song to bookmark it for later. Recollect also lets you flip through any user’s recommendations in a record bin style view, which is well done. You can also retweet and reply to people’s tweets, or buy the song in iTunes. Your own profile shows your recommendations, collected songs, and your friends and followers.

At any time, you can compose a new recommendation. There are three options for doing so: search for any song by artist and title, use the song currently playing on your device, or choose a song from your device’s library.

I usually tweet the song I’m currently listening to. If you don’t have album art for the song, Recollect will offer several options and let you pick the best one. Finally, you can include a message, or just use the buttons to automatically input the artist, album, and song. Tap Send, and you’re done.

Besides its speed and ease of use, what makes Recollect so great is the web page it uses to present your recommendations to others. It displays high quality album art, all of the songs information, your message, plus the preview and “Buy on iTunes” buttons. It looks wonderful in mobile view, as well as on the web. I haven’t found an easier or more attractive way to share music on Twitter.

Overall, Recollect might be my favorite app in a long time. It’s beautifully designed, fast, easy to use, and does one thing well. I wish there was a desktop version so I could easily tweet music from my Mac, but that might be on its way.

Recollect is free on the App Store, so there’s really no reason not to check it out. Go get it.

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Year of the Habit: June

It’s June 1, and that means a new habit.

But first, the year in review:

• January: Started flossing every day.
• February: Stopped biting my nails.
• March: Attempted to read every day. Unsuccessful. Currently reading The $100 Startup.
• April: Health nut month. Was Primal 80% of the days in April.
• May: Tracked all of my expenses via Saver.

I actually don’t have much to say about May’s habit. I was successful. My most expensive area was Auto, which comprised about a third of my spending. I only filled up with gas twice though, which pleases me. The Payments category took up another third of my spending, mainly due to student loans, which I’ve now consolidated. Food came in next at 10%. I ate out four times last month, not all of which were necessary, but not bad overall.

I’m pleased to report my number of unnecessary expenses was fairly low. I did buy a couple of t-shirts, which are my guilty pleasure. I spent a bit of money on Mother’s Day, and a little on personal items. I spent $23.90 on ten apps in iTunes, which I suppose is a lot. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with my spending habits, and I’m going to continue tracking expenses in the coming months.

Bonus Habits

These are additional habits I’ve picked up along the way this year.

• Writing every day.
• Taking cold showers.
• Working out regularly, including doing yoga every day in April. This is an area where I’ve fallen off the wagon. Since the 30-Day Challenge ended, I’ve been reduced to going to yoga once or twice a week, which I’m not happy about. Subsequently, I’ve also lost most of my early rising habit. I’m not sleeping as late as I used to, but I’m nowhere near waking up at 6:30 AM every day as I did in April. I’ve let my thesis flounder as well. This is obviously due to a lack of self-discipline on my part, and I’m working on it.

Which brings us to June.

I’m unhappy about losing my early riser habit and the resulting drop in productivity. With that in mind, in June I’m going to try something I’m calling “No Wasted Days”.

What’s that mean?

I’m going to try to get something done every day in June. I’m going to try to make every day worthwhile. Whether that’s working on my thesis, or QLE, or exercising, or learning new music, I want to put my time to good use on a daily basis.

At the end of each day, I want to be able to able to say, “Today I did something that will help me get to where I want to be.”

Even though this habit seems vague, it’s something I feel I need to focus on right now. I’m about to undergo a major lifestyle change, which I’ll discuss in more detail next week, and it’s going to require that I bring my A-game. Shit’s about to get real, as they say.

Thank you so much for reading, have an exceptional weekend, and I’ll see you guys Monday.

Love,
Andrew

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A Good Writer

A good writer is an effective communicator. He must be able to take abstract ideas and transform them into words that can be understood and appreciated by his audience. He must have mastery over the rules of writing and know when to break them.

A good writer is a relentless observer. He must be mindful of himself and his surroundings so that he may see what others do not. He must look outward, as well as inward, to realize what needs to be written.

A good writer is a courageous thinker. He must be willing to look within himself and his world to discover hidden ideas. He must be curious and brave enough to confront ideas that may challenge himself and his audience, and he must be able to present these ideas with confidence and depth of thought.

A good writer writes, even when it’s hard.

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Breathe to Be Free

Sometimes, my mind is a terrible place to be.

Yesterday, I spent most of my brain power thinking about one thing. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. For hours. Even while I was doing other things, it kept creeping back in. I was trapped in my own head by my own thoughts.

I didn’t want to be thinking about it because thinking wasn’t going to do me any good. I was thinking about something out of my control, which is fruitless, and which I’m usually pretty good at not doing. Usually.

But, as is the way of things, the harder I tried not to think about it, the more the thoughts took root in my brain.

Don’t think of pink elephants.

See?

It wasn’t until I went to yoga that I was able to free myself from this thought process. Allow me to explain.

Yoga is all about breath. In some ways, the breath is the most difficult part. Sure, the poses are hard, but trying to keep your mind focused on the moment — rather than on the thousands of worries waiting for you outside the studio — is another challenge altogether. While sweat is pouring down your face, and your muscles are burning gloriously, and your mind is darting from one thing to the next, maintaining that inhale… exhale… is really freaking hard.

But that’s the point.

Yoga teaches us how to be calm when we’re uncomfortable. It’s an invaluable skill, particularly when not doing yoga.

And so it was only when I started to focus on the breath that I was able to break free from my mental captors.

If you’re focusing on the breath, you’re in the moment. The breath is what’s happening right now. If you focus on the inhale… and exhale… you’re not worrying about what happened today, yesterday, what’s going to happen tomorrow or when you leave the studio, even if it’s just for a moment.

And that’s comforting. Because if you really focus on the breath — the way the air feels as it gets pulled in through your nose and fills up your lungs, and the way it feels as it leaves the body, taking with it everything you don’t need — you are reminded you’re alive. And that’s a very good thing.

My thoughts come back, of course. But rather than fight them, I merely observe them. I don’t try to force them out. I watch and let them pass by while I breathe.

Sometimes it takes a lot of breathing.

When the mind is loud and crowded, it can be a terrible place to be. But if we learn to quiet it, and empty from it all unnecessary thoughts, our sense of calm can be reclaimed.

Inhale… and exhale.

And practice.

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Get It Checked Out. You'll Feel Better.

When I was little, I was a bit of a hypochondriac. This was in part due to the fact that my parents allowed me to buy a book called The World’s Deadliest Animals, or something to that effect.

This book featured not only illustrations of some of the scariest animals on Earth, but also detailed explanations of the symptoms one would experience during a fatal encounter.

I was particularly terrified of the funnel-web spider, whose bite first causes aches and pains, and you start to sweat. Then, according to my research, you turn blue and froth at the mouth before dying a mere two hours later.

This information was, of course, very damaging to my childhood psyche, as I assumed any ache or pain was the beginning of the end.

Fortunately, I’ve managed to outgrow my propensity for self-diagnosis, although it does manage to creep up from time to time.

Most recently, I had a dime-sized bump under my left arm that had suddenly become irritated and sore after weeks without complaint.

It took me a week to call my doctor and have him take a look at it, but the effect it had on me during that time was severely debilitating. With each day it didn’t go away on its own, my imagination would cause me to grow more and more paranoid. Sometimes I’d be able to convince myself it wasn’t a big deal, but the voice in the back of my head would always come back sooner or later, asking what if it is a big deal?! My mood eventually became completely depressed. The worry was always there, like a splinter in my mind. Any time I found myself in a good mood, it would sneak up and dash it from me.

A week later, my doctor told me it was an infected hair follicle and could likely be treated with antibiotics. All that worrying for nothing.

The point is, sometimes our imaginations get the best of us, which disrupts our inner peace. Sometimes, it’s best to trust an expert, rather than allow your mind to conjure up any number of worst case scenarios.

If there’s an easy solution to your worry, don’t put it off. Make the call. Then, it’ll be over, and you’ll have peace of mind.

Life is too short to live in fear.

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It's Summertime

Life feels easier in the summertime.

It’s more fun to get out of bed when the sun is shining and the air is warm.

Driving to work doesn’t feel as dreadful on a beautiful day.

We can step outside without having to worry about protecting ourselves from cold temperatures and inclement weather.

No matter what’s going on in my head or in my life, it all seems so inconsequential under an infinite blue sky.

When it’s summertime, the whole world just seems more friendly.

It’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world.
American Beauty

Truer words have not been spoken.

I hope this Memorial Day weekend finds you filled with inner peace.

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Like a Slow Fire Burn

You are what you listen to.

In many ways, my iTunes library is an extension of my identity. This music defines me. These artists represent my values. These songs represent memories and scenes from my life.

My music is who I am.

I bought an iPod Nano the other day for workout purposes, and so I was perusing my iTunes library trying to decide which songs to put on it.

The problem with going through your library song-by-song is that you unavoidably come across its deep, dark secrets. The songs you no longer listen to because of the memories associated with them.

There’s one particular song I always scroll past because it reminds me of a girl I was in love with. Back then, I wasn’t familiar with the artist, but it was one of her favorites, and this particular song was the one I enjoyed the most.

It’s a song I never would have known existed if that relationship had never happened.

And now that the relationship is over, and the song is still here in my library, I find myself in a difficult position. Even looking at the song in my iTunes brings back painful memories. Or perhaps they’re good memories. Or perhaps they were good at the time, and the pain stems from their being lost.

In any case, on this particular day, something persuaded me to listen to that song.

It hurt.

But at the same time, it was a therapeutic pain. As soon as the song started playing, memories came flooding back. Images. Faces. Feelings. All of which were wonderful at the time, and all of which now hurt like hell.

But for some sick reason, I forced myself to sit through that song. And as I endured that chorus and let those memories punch me in the gut over and over again, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to cry over what I lost or smile about what I had.

The funny thing is, I played it again. And again, and again, and again.

And every time I played it, I felt a little bit better. And I felt a little less like crying and a little more like smiling. Because just because I lost it doesn’t mean it’s gone. The memories are mine, and they’re still here. The fact that they hurt only confirms that it was real. And that makes me smile.

It is a good song.

Life remains amazing.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

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So Long, Lifehacker

Last week, I wrote a thing about too many inputs. One of the concerns was RSS, an area where I sometimes feel I’m just swiping “read” to process to zero as quickly as possible.

The key to RSS is being mindful of your subscriptions and only allowing those that are truly valuable to occupy your feed reader. If you’re finding more irrelevance than value, it’s time to unsubscribe.

The Culprit

One of the feeds I struggle with most is Lifehacker.

I have a love-hate relationship with Lifehacker. The site contains both a lot of great information and a lot of useless information.

Lifehacker is a high volume feed. I’d estimate they post between fifty and a hundred times a day. This frequency makes for a difficult subscribing decision.

I want to be more productive, and I want all those tips and tricks, and I want to astound people with my wealth of brilliant geek knowledge.

But do I need to know that you can use mayonnaise to clean crayon off your walls?

Or that you can use a banana peel to relieve itching from poison ivy and mosquito bites?

Or how to use a jelly pocket for a better drip-free PB&J?

Maybe I’m just biased against food hacks, but I now see where Merlin is coming from. It’s gotten to the point where whenever I see new Lifehacker posts in Reeder, I know I can just swipe, swipe, swipe them as read and knock fifteen or twenty off my unread count.

I’ve struggled to come up with a solution, because a few times a day there actually is something worth reading on Lifehacker. I’ve followed the site via RSS for years, and I’ve been following it on Twitter since I first signed up for an account.

The Lifehacker Twitter tweets every single post, so following in both places is extraneous. It comes down to the lesser of two evils: do I continue to swipe, swipe, swipe in Reeder to maintain a clean Twitter feed, or do I continue to flick past endless Lifehacker tweets to make RSS significantly more manageable?

The Twitter feed allows me to be more selective in which articles I choose to read. If a headline catches my interest, I can bookmark it or send it to Instapaper. Otherwise, I just keep scrolling. Compare this to RSS, wherein every item must be processed one way or another.

Or…

The Solution

I think it’s time for Lifehacker to go the way of Facebook for me. The percentage of relevant posts has gotten much too small, and when it comes to tech news, I prefer to read dedicated sites or real people anyway.

I’ve unsubscribed from Lifehacker on RSS and Twitter. I did, however, add it to my News list on Twitter. I only check my lists every other day or so, which allows me to keep a relaxed eye on the site while freeing myself from its information firehose.

I think Lifehacker is best treated as a database. It contains a wealth of useful information, but most of it isn’t useful either A: to me, or B: right now. Rather, if I ever find myself thinking, “Jeez, I’ve got all this mayonnaise and my walls are covered in crayon”, I’ll go look up a solution on Lifehacker.

Reading Lifehacker on a daily basis is like reading an encyclopedia from cover to cover: nonsensical. It’s more practical and efficient to look up something specific when I need it, instead of wasting my time reading about things that don’t apply to me.

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My Mostly Irrelevant Thoughts on The Talk Show

The Internet has been in an uproar ever since The Talk Show moved from 5by5 to the Mule Radio Syndicate.

Over the weekend, Gabe of Macdrifter wrote a response about the response to the change:

People take their opinion too seriously and like to inflate their own value. How can anyone without personal connections to and personal knowledge of the network switch have any opinion? Further, who gives a shit. It’s a podcast that isn’t ending, just switching networks. No one shut down 5by5. No one changed anything that materially impacts my life. I had to resubscribe to a podcast on a different feed. Big deal.

Dan Benjamin, John Gruber’s co-host on 5by5, released a statement Monday morning explaining the situation. He’s a class act.

Gabe’s response is valid. No, my life is not literally impacted by a podcast changing networks. I’m still sitting here at my desk, regardless. Nothing’s changed.

But the reason I and thousands of other listeners are feeling impacted is emotional attachment. This is what Gabe’s response misses and what Dan’s statement gets exactly right.

Like Dan, I started listening to podcasts when I had a forty-five minute commute to a job I couldn’t stand. I had been listening to NPR, but it was getting on my nerves, and I didn’t care about 90% of what I was hearing. That’s the beauty of podcasts: you can listen to thoughtful conversations on the topics that you love. 5by5 has been the source of so much learning, entertainment, and comfort for me since I started listening almost two years ago. Like Dan says, I feel like I’ve gotten to know the hosts over time, and they’ve become like my buddies. They don’t know who I am, but I spend time with them whenever I’m in the car, and subsequently I feel like they’re my friends.

The Talk Show’s switch to a different network feels like a favorite band breaking up. Something I’ve come to know, love, and rely on in some small capacity is over.

Yes, shame on me for developing an emotional attachment to a podcast, but what can you do?

Oh, well.

5by5 will continue. The Talk Show will continue, albeit in a different form. And really, we won’t be any worse for the wear. Other than Dan’s statement, we have no personal insight into what caused the switch, and so it’s not worth fretting over. We still have a 120 episodes of The Talk Show that can be revisited any time, and now we have a new incarnation of the show to look forward to.

Rands:

Take the time to understand change before you fear change.

Unless John makes a statement, we can’t fully understand this change. If you ask me, that means we need not fear it. We shall persevere.

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