If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the course of half a century it’s that how we use our time, intellect and energy greatly impacts our ability to get what we want out of life. Spending inordinate amounts of time on low value activities is basically a waste of time because it’s a misuse of our resources of time, intellect and energy. Low value activities include common distractions such as watching the news, scrolling through social media updates and binge watching TV shows. Of course we will always make some time for these activities but often people get too absorbed in them because they are easy, and give us the feeling of doing something without actually having to challenge ourselves. To put it another way I believe that most people spend way too much time, intellect and energy on things that won’t help them to make a major difference in their lives. How often in our lives have we heard the phrase, “What difference does it make?” Indeed. When doing just about anything we should be asking ourselves that question!

Continue reading “The One Thing” →

Recently I was having a conversation with a friend who’s been working on launching a website for what seems like forever. We’ve talked numerous times about the site and he has serious ambitions for what he’ll be able to achieve with the site. In fact, we’ve talked about it so many times over the past couple of years that I’m constantly asking him exactly when the site will be launched. Every time we talk his answer to that question is essentially the same. It’ll be launched once he can get just one or two more features exactly how he wants them. His idea is a wonderful one and I truly support what he wants to do but I also do believe that his insistence that every aspect of the site work perfectly as he envisions it is severely hurting his chances of ever getting the venture off the ground. With each feature added there are always multiple complications, many issues to be resolved, and since he’s working with outside help to build the site this often means months of additional effort. As a result, his idea remains just an idea and he’s not able to get the valuable feedback that he would gain if the idea was already unveiled to the world. 

Continue reading “Perfection Is Costly” →

Peace and happiness are paramount to leading a fulfilling life, and often we seek to find both of these things outside of us. We may seek out peace and happiness via work, relationships, exercise, substances, hobbies, travel and more. In fact, we often do. The truth that I keep coming back to is that while the aforementioned exploits are vehicles that may facilitate peace and happiness ultimately the feelings must arise from within. Because as much as meals, drinks, workouts, dates, flights and other diversions can help to keep good feelings on track they still only take up a fraction of our time. Feeling good and happy in the remaining time is often a challenge for active people.

Continue reading “You Won’t Find It Outside Of You” →

The easiest thing to do when everyone is hot about something (which people always are) is to join in and show your support. As a result you get hot too. Which means you voluntarily relinquish your peacefulness in favor of the needs of others. As they say, misery loves company! While joining the fray often seems like the thing to do it’s also what everyone who is not at peace wants from you. I assure you that their motives are not pure and that the results of your joining in will be costly in terms of your emotional well being.

Continue reading “Peace Amidst Turmoil” →

I have found that one of the quickest ways to level things out and promote inner peace is to do something that I love to do. Of course, first I have to know what I love to do and thankfully I do! Some things I love to do include:

• going to live music shows,
• having a good workout,
• drinking a hot cup of coffee,
• walking in a park on a nice day, and
• walking the streets capturing photos and video.

Continue reading “Know What You Love And Do It” →

If you want to achieve inner peace you must be able to answer these two questions.

1. What kind of person do I want to be?
2. What kind of life do I want to have?

Without the answers to these questions we have no aim and thus we are aimless. When we’re aimless we have no direction and having direction is something that supports inner peace because direction also creates the possibility of certainty. When we have certainty we can have inner peace. Conversely, uncertainty is the enemy of inner peace. A life without direction is a life of uncertainty and a life where inner peace is difficult to achieve for any sustained period of time.

Continue reading “Life’s Most Important Questions” →

Here is an important question. Is it possible to achieve inner peace in a world that is now dominated by social media? At the present time Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the top three social platforms in the United States with billions of people around the world taking part. In fact, in the U.S. it’s hard to find an adult that’s not on at least one of those platforms although many are on multiple platforms. In addition many people are also on multiple online dating platforms that are basically niche social platforms.

One hallmark of social networks is the tendency for information to be pushed to you at any given time. So much information is being shared on these sites that there can be a constant flow of information pushed to your smart phone, email, computer and tablet. In short, you can’t miss any update. So much information coming at you makes it difficult to ignore what’s happening out there on the internet. It can be like someone knocking at your door or calling you on the phone multiple times every hour of the day. In today’s social media world intrusion and distraction are the norm.

Continue reading “Inner Peace In A Social Media World” →

Every so often we get out of balance and a reset is necessary. The need for a reset manifests itself in many different forms which include: blowing up in anger, abusing alcohol or drugs, depression, overspending money and abusing yourself or others. Often in these times people get the urge to judge themselves, but that doesn’t help the situation. We all fall down and the quicker we get up the better.

The way that you recover from life imbalances is you take actions that are proven to rebalance (reset) your being such that you feel a meaningful level of inner peace. The key to all of these actions is that they involve you and you alone! You are responsible for your inner peace and only you can restore yourself to a comfortable level of inner peace. I will expand on these ideas in other posts but for now please consider the following remedies.

Continue reading “Resetting Yourself” →

One person who absolutely fascinates me from a philosophical perspective who isn’t known as a philosophical person is Warren Buffett. Mr. Buffett is known for being a legendary investor and the richest man in the world (at times). The abundance that Mr. Buffett has created and the success that he has had in business is something that triggers my great interest in how he thinks and what drives him forward every day. I’ve seen a number of interviews Mr. Buffett has given and it’s clear that he does not think nor is he motivated like the average person.

Regardless of the fact that Mr. Buffett is worth tens of billions of dollars he still lives in the same house in Omaha, Nebraska that he’s lived in for decades. Mr. Buffet drives used cars that his daughter helps him to purchase. He stops at McDonald’s on the way to his company’s (Berkshire Hathaway) office each morning and pays cash (exact change!) for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. These types of habits boggle the mind given the resources Warren Buffett has access to. He could be living in the finest penthouse in the sky in New York, with chefs cooking all his meals daily and with a chauffeured car to take him wherever he wants to go. But he doesn’t and the reason why makes perfect sense.

Continue reading “The Buffett Philosophy” →

As I have previously written about (here) knowing that I’m heading in the direction of my hopes and dreams is a critical factor in whether or not I have internal peace (peace of mind) in my life. I believe that the same is true for all people. When we don’t have hopes and dreams (a purpose) in life we are adrift. Without a purpose we live from day to day and do not have any real reason (beyond basic survival instincts) to make one choice or another. Notice how when people mean to do something a certain way it is said that we do it on purpose. When we are on purpose we do things deliberately. We think things through. What’s the best choice to achieve our goal? When we don’t care we do what’s simplest or most convenient. That sort of approach to anything leads to quite chaotic results!

Given how important a purpose is then knowing your purposes in life is very important. Notice that purposes is plural! Maybe you’ll have a single purpose over the course of your life, but I highly doubt it! I believe that it’s common (and very healthy) that people have a variety of different purposes in life. They don’t have to exist at the same time but there will likely be times in your life that you are pursuing two or more purposes. This is a problem if you either have so many purposes that you can’t achieve any of them or if you have purposes that are the polar opposite of each other. Yeah, I’ve been in both situations and you probably have been too. Your purpose in life can only be healthy if it’s something that is ultimately achievable. Achieving sobriety, for example, while attending weekly Friday happy hours is impossible!

Continue reading “Getting To Know Your Life Purposes” →