Author: We can Paint the Sunrise

We Are Time

Dear Me,

We don’t have time, we are time. And there’s no meaningful way to think of a person’s existence except as a sequence of moments of time. Time is not something that we can possess or control, and yet this is the assumption; an unspoken premise of almost all our thinking about the future, all of our planning and goal-setting and worrying. So it’s a constant source of anxiety and agitation because our expectations are forever running up against the stubborn reality – the time isn’t in our possession and can’t be brought under our control

–Oliver Burkeman, his book “Four Thousand Weeks”

Boundaries are Conventions

Dear Me,

Sometimes when I think of my inability to act on something, an inability rationalized out of caution, or out of being unrealistic and unreasonable, I remind myself that boundaries are constructions of society. These boundaries are our own conventions. I remind myself that we have been taught to see the world this way, which is not how the world necessarily is or should be.

a quote from a book by David Mitchell, later made into the movie, “Cloud Atlas,” touches on this idea when it is said:

I understand now that boundaries between noise and sound are Conventions. All boundaries are Conventions waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention if only one can first conceive of doing so.“

to transcend such self-imposed limitations, one must first conceive of the possibility: the possibility of something else, of something more, or of the opposite being true. One must entertain the idea that what one has been led to believe as truth may not be true after all. Or at least, while its truth is a possibility, even a probability, the opposite, or another option, may also be possible, if only one can first conceive of it being so.

so I ask, what conventions are holding you back?

  • Dear Me Original Thought

The Will to Win

Dear Me,

If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it

If only desire of it
Makes you quite mad enough
Never to tire of it,
Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it

If life seems all empty and useless without it
And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,

If gladly you’ll sweat for it,
Fret for it,
Plan for it,
Lose all your terror of God or man for it,

If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want.
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,

If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,
Nor sickness nor pain
Of body or brain
Can turn you away from the thing that you want,

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!

–Berton Braley

To Be or To Do

Dear Me,

“choice put in front of us comes down to purpose. What is your purpose? What are you here to do? Because purpose helps you answer the question “To be or to do?“ quite easily. If your purpose is something larger than you—to accomplish something, to prove something to yourself—then suddenly everything becomes both easier and more difficult. Easier in the sense that you know now what it is you need to do and what is important to you. The other “choices” wash away, as they aren’t really choices at all. They’re distractions. It’s about the doing, not the recognition. Easier in the sense that you don’t need to compromise. Harder because each opportunity—no matter how gratifying or rewarding—must be evaluated along strict guidelines: Does this help me do what I have set out to do? In this course, it is not “Who do I want to be in life?” but “What is it that I want to accomplish in life?” Setting aside selfish interest, it asks: What calling does it serve? What principles govern my choices? Do I want to be like everyone else or do I want to do something different? In other words, it’s harder because everything can seem like a compromise. Although it’s never too late, the earlier you ask yourself these questions the better.”

  • Ryan Holiday in his book “Ego is the Enemy”

Seek Challenge

Dear Me,

I recently read something along the line of: Harder times create strong people, strong people create easier times, easier times create weaker people, and weaker people create hard times. From this I have concluded: seek out challenge. Build your skills. As your experience grows, and your skills build, things become easier. But seek out challenge still. Live at the edge of comfort, where it mingles with challenge. This allows you to hone your skills, keep them sharp. Never let them dull and rust and fade away.

  • Dear Me Original Thought