Another challenging week. I continue to meditate on the concept of growth in transitions. This concept directly parallels BJJ, in that most of the submissions and attacks come from the transition. The transition is when stability is lacking the most. That appears to be the direct consequence of lacking stability – a transition ie change. While I continue to get pushed in my role as an administrator, I get frustrated because I’m resisting that label. I don’t view myself as a manager and it’s a label I generally don’t want. I continue to believe that my life mission is to grow into the greatest educator/teacher of wellbeing in the world. I’m not sure how my development as an administrator will push me on my mission. I think, like all things it will become obvious with time.
Source: Antifragile – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Lesson: Humanity thrives with stressors
Stealing the words of Jocko there is a dichotomy that comes from stress. As humans we have a desire for stability. Our models of the financial markets love stability. We as people love comfort. As we seek comfort, our desire is to avoid stress/stressors. We should strive to balance work and rest. We often want the end result (comfort) without having to stress ourselves and do the necessary work to necessitate rest. Seeking comfort alone is like hugging a cactus. The harder we squeeze the more it hurts us. The parallel is working out. When we stop working out we get out of shape. Getting in shape is the result of the repeated practice of exercising. Even if we exercise our whole lives, when we stop, we get out of shape. This same concept can be applied to anything. Technical skills, our thinking patterns, and our physical conditioning deteriorate without the necessary practice of facing stressors. I once heard a quote that explained why we lift. Our lives have become so soft, that we need to create an artificial stressor (lifting) to remain alive. I believe this was on a podcast that involved a conversation with Jim Wendler and maybe Matt Rhodes? Given the recent stressors of COVID19 and the BLM movement in light of racial injustice, I can only think that we will come out better in the end. We were created with the innate ability to adapt to stressors.
Source: Knowledge Project #85 – Bethany McLean
Lesson: We are all creating a narrative with imperfect information
Ms. McLean is an investigative journalist who has previously written articles on Elon Musk and Enron. There were a lot concepts I found valuable. We all have our biases. We struggle with how much weight to apply to each fact. Everything is a matter of perspective. When we have financial ties to a matter it can cloud our judgement and create conflicts of interest. If we are in pursuit of objectivity we can insure against that by eliminating secondary gain from the narrative we are presenting. We learn by questioning smart people. That our means of communication heavily influences how we need to craft our narrative. There are constraints around all forms of communication. In electing to use the written word we may be neglecting the impact of tone. The interpretation of written word will vary based on the past experiences of the reader. I personally found this podcast to be enjoyable.
Source: John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Lesson: The way to truth is by living the path. Another translation would be Tao.
Reflection: I haven’t been hit by a single bible verse this hard in a long time. The concept of “the way” or “the path” is a bridge between eastern and western thought. What is the truth? What is the life? I keep playing with the concept of what is God? Paul Chek uses the semantics that God is 0 (zero), he is everything and nothing at the same time. It is the realization that God is the all encompassing. It is challenging, and maybe impossible, to define or imagine the infinite. In briefly looking the Greek word “Hodos” was used in the statement. Hodos meaning the way or the path. The way is the path. The path is our lives. The path is the course of conduct. This course of conduct was exemplified by Jesus the Christ. A divine/enlightened man who represents the concepts of forgiveness, grace, joy and mercy. In examining his laws Matthew 22:37-39 1. Love God with all your heart, mind and soul and 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. I often wonder if there needs to be any other mission in our lives. To love god means to find peace with this life. Accepting the perfection of creation. Another attempt at wording is “find acceptance of the beauty in the global concept of our consciousness.” Be at peace with where you are and who you are. We are how we are meant to be. Pastor DJ Kim had a quote, “Once you’ve tasted God, life is never the same.”
Seeking Progress 