I didn’t tell my daughter to go make her bed.
She watched me make mine, and then she made hers.
Author: brainsbri
I wrote a book once
It’s sitting on my computer right now. 199 pages. 40-something thousand words.
It was brilliant. Publishers would love it. Who needs a following before writing a book? I sure don’t.
Turns out my thoughts were misguided. Oh well. Back to work.
Breaking down the work
I don’t clean a single room in my house and move on to the next. I clean a little bit in each room incrementally until the whole house is clean.
Six Sigma Black Belts would have a conniption if they traced my steps. But that’s how I work.
Do what works for you.
Belonging
I fit in everywhere.
And yet I belong nowhere.
A trip down under
I went on a crocodile tour on the Adelaide river in Australia a few years ago.
Our guide was a true local. Judging by the calluses on his feet, he never wore a pair of shoes in his life.
He had a few interesting insights:
Humans are really fuel inefficient
We’ll consume substantial calories in preparation for a 10K race, and then eat again immediately afterwards to replenish what we burned off.
Meanwhile a 1-ton croc could survive on a few chickens for 6-8 weeks.
Only the strong survive
He explained how the crocs we see before us are the result of millions of years of evolution weeding out the weak. The crocs before us were the true 1% of their species. A single male croc every few kilometers of riverbank. Only the very top of the pyramid survives.
Care to feel weak? Put yourself one meter away from a crocodile with only a thin metal grate in between.
Alright, I just finished my workout. Time for a protein shake.
A sense of purpose
Everything has a purpose. Everything has a place.
All else is waste.
Even or Odd?
Anyone else have a preference? I prefer even numbers.
For example, the last three smartphones I owned were a Galaxy S4, a Galaxy S6, and a Pixel 2.
I just bought a Pixel 5, and I don’t know how to handle it…
Bridge the Gap
I have big dreams.
I wrote today.
Somehow my present-day writing will connect to those future dreams. I have no idea what occurs in the middle, but that’s part of the fun.
Keep at it. Put in the work.
Bridge the gap between your future dreams and your current reality – one step at a time.
The opportunity in chaos
Chaos can be quite messy.
But within it there is always opportunity.
Resource allocation
The amount of resources expended to convince us to buy things is astounding.
See the world
You don’t have to go far. The next town over counts, and it won’t cost much.
Break the monotonous routine and experience something different.
Then do it again.
The most important question
Ask “Why?” today.
Ask it again tomorrow.
Ask it always.
The subject of your inquiry is irrelevant. You’re creating a habit.
Learn to understand your surroundings, and ask questions when you don’t.
The omnipresence of doubt
Doubt will always be there to ruin your best intentions.
I’m experiencing it now. Two weeks into reviving this site and I have no idea what I’m doing!
I’m okay with that though. I carry on!
What was I thinking? – Baking
I put a cake in the oven last week and immediately decided to put the oven mitts away. No big deal, except that instead of opening the drawer next to the stove where they belong, I opened the oven instead and tried to put them there.
Fortunately, the cake finished baking without issue and it came time to turn the stove timer off.
For this task I decided to open the microwave.
What was I thinking?
Life choices
Torn between immersing myself in the tech craze…
…and secluding myself in a remote cabin in the woods.
Decisions, decisions!
Stop and smell the roses
If a new song catches my attention, I play it on repeat the entire day. I won’t listen to anything else. That musician has my ears for the day and in my mind I dissect what I hear.
If something pleases you, devote time to appreciate and understand it. Immerse yourself in it. Truly know it.
We’re so anxious to get on to the next thing that we cannot develop more than a superficial understanding of the world around us.
Stop. Smell the roses. Dive deeper.
Bringing checkers to a chess match
“You brought checkers to a chess match.”
Me, in a fictitious scenario
This line seems like it would be the perfect nerdy mic drop.
The implication, in my mind, is that the individual on the receiving end thinks so differently from me that they don’t even understand what ‘game’ we’re playing. They’re so lost they can’t keep up.
Of course, my underlying message isn’t as effective as I originally thought because we all truly do think differently. The proper response, however, is to bridge those gaps with clear communication. We must become effective translators instead of criticizing others because of our differences.
Commonality always exists. Find it.
Let’s examine chess and checkers. My thoughts thus far paint a picture of two completely different games, one being superior than the other.
However, they are both two-player games played on the same board. They have the same objective. They both have kings. They both require a strategy.
Neither game is superior. Similarly, your unique thinking style isn’t any better or worse than others. Instead of isolating or demoralizing others on the grounds of alleged inferiority, find the common thread and build on it.
As for my line, it sounds great in a dream – but I hope I never use it.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds
What asks for nothing in return after providing you with the food you can’t go ~30 days without, the water you can’t go ~3 days without, and the air you can’t go ~5 minutes without?
Figure out what it is, and start taking care of it.
Why I write
I’m writing for me because I enjoy the writing process.
I’m writing publicly in the hope that you can benefit.
brainsbri 