June Journal Excerpts: Part 1

I used to treat far too many decisions as though they were life or death. As though one choice would lead me to heaven, and the other to hell. More often than not, I think things would have worked out just fine regardless of which choice I had ended up making.

It’s so easy to criticize. To imagine that if you were put in the other’s place, you would have acted more intelligently or honorably.

I used to be addicted to planning. My life has gotten better since I made a conscious effort to stop doing it as much. I think there’s a place for planning, but it’s definitely something that can be easily overdone.

For the vast majority of human evolution, we processed a minuscule fraction of the amount of information that we process today. It seems likely that our current levels of informational consumption might be well above those which are best for our long term wellbeing.

It’s a lot easier to be vegan if you spend your time in the produce section instead of the meat section. If you spend all you time playing defense, thinking about what not to eat, what not to say, and what not to do, you’ll go nuts.

Would you rather know many facts or have many skills?

People use the phrases “have to do” and “had to do” far too often. “You have to do Y.” “I had to do X.” Most of the time when these statements are used, the more accurate phrases would be, “I want you to do X,” or “I think that you should do Y.” Or, “Well everyone says that you have to do Y, and I’m just going with what they say.”

One of the best skills a person can have is the ability to drive home their points by using questions instead of statements.

The more you learn and grow, the less you are troubled by petty things.

Perhaps the difference between dreams and our waking experience of reality is one of degree as opposed to kind.

Throw yourself into the storm. There’s a chance that it will kill you. But there is also a chance that it will instead kill those things within you that make living unbearable.