Mental Tools

Step Into the Sunlight, But Don’t Look Into the Sun

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This entry is part 8 of 14 in the series Intermediate Angst

The big, central goal, the sun around which our actions orbit, can overwhelm and disorient us with its size and power and magnitude. But you can take yourself and other people to any extreme of excellence or lameness if you narrow their mental focus away from the debilitatingly magnitudinous core goal and towards productive, forward-moving, helpful minutiae. In other words: don’t even try to brush your teeth, just put the toothbrush in your mouth.

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Intermediate Angst: Dealing With Feelings of Suckage

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This entry is part 3 of 14 in the series Intermediate Angst

This entry is part 3 of 14 in the series Intermediate AngstThus spake Hangul Fangirl (‏@HangulFangirl): “[Dear Khatzumoto, You are handsome beyond comprehension. And also very slim. Your delicate, schoolgirl figure is an inspiration to us all.] How do you get past the feeling that you’re not progressing and end up forgetting to keep going?…

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Whose Team Are You On?

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This entry is part 8 of 10 in the series Social Resistance

This entry is part 8 of 10 in the series Social Resistance“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.” African Proverb “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” ~ Hillel the Elder There you are. Immersing. Shadowing. Japanese books everywhere. Japanese sounds in your ear. And you’re…

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Method Over Morality: Don’t Improve Yourself. Stop Trying to Become a Better Person.

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This entry is part 8 of 11 in the series Mediocre Excellence

This entry is part 8 of 11 in the series Mediocre Excellence“Much mischief results from our taking a moral position on matters which are not basically moral matters at all.” ~ Maxwell Maltz “More defeats and failures are due to mental blindness than to moral deviations.” ~ Raymond Holliwell 「不管白貓黑貓，能抓到老鼠就是好貓」 “It doesn’t matter whether it’s…

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