Daily Stoic(s)

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Wednesday - The Mind Is All Yours

The body is out of my control. What I can control is my thoughts. It’s something I’ve really worked on over the last year.

Thursday - A Productive Use For Contempt

Be objective about what is really behind a picture or image. For athletes and movie stars with beach bodies it requires a lot of work to get there. It requires a lot of sacrifices that I’m not willing to make. It helps keep me in check when I look at myself in the mirror or want to be at a certain place. It requires a lot of work and time. The people who are better than me in golf have either done it for a long time, do it on a regular basis, or practice often. If I want to get to that level I will need patience and effort.

Yesterday - There’s Nothing Wrong With Being Wrong

I’ve often used this philosophy to get better. I will be outspoken about something with the idea that if I’m wrong I learn a valuable lesson. It’s happened throughout my life and career. I’ve thought one thing, only to have it be wrong.

Today - Things Happen In Training

I did not have a good round of golf today. It was on a course I hadn’t played in a while. It got frustrating but I still came home and wrote in my green book on what I learned today. I want to continue to get better and each outing is an opportunity to learn something new. I can take those lessons to the next round I play.

The Marks Of A Rational Person

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Look inward; examine myself critically; and make my own decision without bias or popular notions. The last one is hard to do because I have biases and popular notions. I feel like I try to rail against popular notions but that can be a popular notion in itself.

Don't Let Your Attention Slide

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Attention is a valuable tool particularly in today’s world. Lots of things fight for attention. There is no such thing as multi-tasking. It’s a lie. There is only full attention or partial attention to many things. I’ve worked to focus on only one thing at a time because I find it the most efficient and productive.

Daily Stoic(s)

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Wednesday - Observe Cause And Effect

I feel like I spent a lot of time last year reframing thoughts. Trying to discovery where those thoughts were coming from. I’ve made progress and yet there’s still a lot more to go. Right now work is particularly stressful and requires a lot of thought and patience.

Thursday - No Harm, No Foul

On the ride home I was listening to a podcast and they were talking about parenting. Their perspective was quite different from my spouses and I. It’s all about interpretation of what the kids are trying to say. Unfortunately, we’re also conditioned by how we were brought up and that has led to both good and bad habits. I’m working to rewire some of those bad habits.

Friday - Opinions Are Like…

I’m the hardest critic of myself. I often feel I am not doing enough at home and at work. I feel like I could be doing things better. I actually just got out of the shower after meditating and came to that realization. One of my things was to try and not be so hard on myself. Things just are sometimes. I need to forgive myself more and do better next time.

Yesterday - Our Sphere Of Impulses

I must be willing to learn from everyone and anyone in life. This is something I’ve had to get over my life. Often I felt like I knew what I was about to be taught, only to discover I learned something new. SANS 401 is a good example of that. It’s basic security practices. Three years into my security career I was being told to go take the course. I thought I wouldn’t learn much. Instead I learned quite a bit. It filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. Since then I’ve tried to take away something from even the worst trainings or interactions.

Today - Real Good Is Simple

Wisdom, self-control, justice, and courage are what we should strive for. With those we won’t have any remorse for pursuing. Self-control is something I’m currently spending a lot of time on. I’ve gotten a lot of bad habits and I feel like sometimes I have too much self-control and at some point it boils over into an extreme lack of self-control. It goes back to me holding myself to a higher standard and trying to find that balance.

Pay Your Taxes

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

Paying taxes doesn’t bother me. The misuse of do. Working in the federal and state government I’ve seen a lot of misuse. It’s what we got and we can only hope improves over time. I think paying taxes now is much better than a 1000 years ago. There will always be corruption but I think we have it pretty good in this day and age where on of our main complaints is just paying the taxes.