Dear Me,

Re-listening to an old Jim Rohn video the other day I found myself captivated by a particular point in the video. I was taken by the phrase “Keep trying Until.” The example given was a baby learning to walk and how we dont give up on this baby at a particular point in time of that baby’s existence, or up to a certain amount of hours put in, or after a number if techniques have been exhausted. We simply don’t give up. We keep trying until that baby learns to walk. We keep trying until.

This has me curious of the etymology of the world Until. It turns out the word Until is created with two words from two languages that essentially mean the same thing. Un comes from the Norse word Und, which means “up to” or ” as far as.” The word Til comes from the Old English word Till meaning “to” or “up to”. So the word is a redundant phrase meaning “up to up to” or ” as far as to.” Essentially the word is answering its own question. How far do we go? Up to the point we are up to where we want to be; up to up to; Until.

Dear Me,

You can just do things.

Just do it anyway.

Do it tired.

Do it sad.

Do it lonely.

Do it without a role model.

Because, if you are waiting

For someone to come along

And give you that helping hand,

Sometimes you are going to be waiting

To long.

–Chris Williamson

Dear Me,

There is a formula to progress and success. It pretty much reads: Try. Fail. Examine. Refine. Try Again. Fail Again (but having gained inches, even feet, of progress). And so, Examine. Refine. Try Again. Repeat.

The point is that we never give up. We get back up. We try again. But every time we try again, we don’t just do the same thing, we don’t just do things the same way. The very definition of insanity, as Einstein would state, “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” No. We examine where we went wrong. We examine how we could do better. We examine with curiosity, and without judgement. And from that we make changes, corrections, and apply. So go on. Fail.

–Dear Me Original Thought

Dear Me,

When the stress seems overwhelming, remember to breath. More specifically, remember the Physiological sigh.

Dear Me,

Dear Me,

“You are not something that is the result of the big bang; on the end of the process. You are still the process. You are the big bang, the original force of the universe, coming on as whoever you are.”

– Alan Watts

Dear Me,

Buckminster Fuller has said that change is never made by fighting the existing reality. In order for real, true, and lasting change to occur, we need to build ourselves a new model that make the existing model obsolete. What I essentially take from this is that if I want my life to change, if I want it to be different, and different for the better compared to what it is currently is, I need to focus on how those difference I am in hard-working pursuit of, make these easily acquired comforts of today pale in comparison. I need to convince myself that the efforts required of change beat out the comforts of complacency; that the possibilities of tomorrow are a greater reward than the realities of today.

– Dear Me Original Thought

Dear Me,

This world is one of consumerism. It has been re-shape. Its obstacles, its depths and heights, have been re-arranged in order to ease the individuals that live within it into consumerism and complacency. We have been re-shaped to think that we can exchange money for happiness, buy safety, purchase our health. This could not be further from the truth. We need to stop consuming, and we need to start creating. We need to create happiness, build an environment that makes us feel safe, and act purposefully in health.

– Original Dear Me Thought

Dear Me,

” …and this letting go is of course going to be uncomfortable…normally, in our school systems, you don’t find the subject ‘how to let go.’ You find the subject ‘how to get more.’”

Dear Me,