Mental Tools

Continual Questioning

by khatzumoto

In a lot of personal development literature, they say that asking good questions helps us get good answers. Here are some you can ask yourself continually: Belief What if I were Japanese? What if I had been born and raised in Japan? What if I were Jared in The Pretender and I had to fool people into…

by khatzumoto

“I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.” ~ Muhammad Ali “It’s not who you are that holds you back: it’s who you think you’re not.” ~ Anonymous “What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is…

by khatzumoto

“It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little. Do what you can.” ~ Sydney Smith When I first came to Japan, I hated how people wouldn’t take a stand. In the West, you’re taught that you have to have an opinion and it has to be a…

by khatzumoto

Tired? Busy? Overwhelmed? Can’t do 100%? Then do 50%. There’s nothing wrong with a half-a**ed job. Do half an a** now, half-an a** later, and pretty soon you have a nice, round a**. J-Lo would be proud. What’s that? You can’t do 50%? Then do 50% of that. Still too much? Cut in half again.…

by khatzumoto

I spent my early childhood in a semi-rural environment, up in a place high above sea level. We enjoyed twelve months a year of autumn, rolling green pastures. There were cornfields, cows, horses, sheep, goats, dogs and, yes, leopards. It was beautiful. The kind of place that would have made enterprising English people 100 years…

by khatzumoto

The essence of learning Japanese is in the almost meaninglessly small things you do. When you find something so small, so apparently meaningless that you think “that couldn’t possibly help”, but it’s something that puts you in more contact with Japanese, then that, my friend, is your sweet spot. Because you have found something that…