Colin Wright's Blog, page 18

Self-Care

Like so many things that have gone from artisanal to industrialized, self-care, as a concept, has become a bit diluted and at times misunderstood.

A similar thing happened to cheese during WWII, when—in an attempt to fill the void left by European cheeses that were no longer arriving in suitable quantities in the US (for understandable reasons) and to ensure troops fighting overseas had sufficient dairy product in their rations—the US government made significant investments in a heavily processed type of c...

Productive

There are countless justifiable ways to respond to a less-than-ideal situation.

We can get angry. We can get anxious. We can get sad or vengeful or solution-oriented.

We can clam up or get loud. We can make a sharp, strident offense our defense. We can reinforce our walls and throw rocks from behind the parapet.

None of these options, or any of the others we might choose, consciously or unconsciously, thoughtfully or reflexively, are inherently wrong or right. They’re all different and they achieve different things.

Some of them achie...

Non-Partisan Thinking

The term “partisan” can refer equally to someone who believes in a particular ideology or cause very strongly, or someone who arms themselves and hides out forests, caves, abandoned buildings, or other tactically significant locations to take pot shots at their perceived enemy.

This etymological parallel is no mistake, as ardent support of a cause can lead to the literal or figurative militarization of belief.

Over time, our sincere convictions can become distorted into something we didn’t intend for them...

Perspective Triggers

There’s a sinking feeling in my stomach, my thinking becomes cloudy, my mood slumps, my energy levels deplete.

For some reason or no reason I’m sad, I’m forlorn, I’m unable to focus or lift my spirits. Everything seems to suck, and whether I can connect this feeling to something that happened or not, it doesn’t improve my disposition. Caused or cause-less, this is how I feel.

When I notice I’m experiencing such a slump, I stop what I’m doing, close my eyes, take a few slow, deep breaths, and...

Heterodoxy

Some of the satisfaction we derive from new knowledge stems from that information’s adherence to what we already knew.

The world seems to be a particular way, a new piece of information seems to support that assertion, and we receive a burst of dopamine from the parts of our brain that look for patterns and attempt to understand the world around us.

When new information seems to conflict with what we thought we knew about the world, it’s not uncommon to experience cognitive dissonance: a feel...

Communication Methods

Successful communication is a multi-person effort.

That’s true in the sense that it requires both (or all) people to be engaged, to be interested in the act of communication.

But it’s also true in the sense that we, as individuals, need to be aware of the other people involved and keep their interests, priorities, and perspectives in mind, just as we do for our own.

In practice, this may mean pointing at something uncomfortable, something previously unaddressed, something difficult or cumbers...

Status Quo

I’ve taken the last few months off, in the sense that I’ve set aside most of the work that I typically do on a day-to-day basis so I can focus, instead, on recalibrating my lifestyle.

In practice, that’s meant decompressing after my recent speaking tour by spending time with my parents in Missouri, then leaving for London, where I’m spending the rest of the year with my girlfriend.

There’s still work of the conventional kind to be done, of course, despite this shift.

When I started up my podc...

Tiny Advantages

There was a time when I made a significant portion of my income by designing and building websites for clients.

That collection of skills was once vital to my financial well-being, but today it’s more of a tiny advantage: nice to have, but not fundamental to my ability to pay the bills and buy groceries.

Which isn’t to say it’s worthless; far from it.

Such tiny advantages add up, and take many shapes. Over time, in fact, I would argue that these tiny advantages can make a person more capable...

No Need

What would you do if there was no need for you to do anything?

This isn’t a simple question to answer. It’s also a question that’s increasingly relevant, not because we’ll all be able to stop working any time soon, but because it can help us determine how to spend our time, now, within our current systems and circumstances.

For many people, the answer to the question of how to spend one’s time when one needn’t work is predicated on current, everyday realities. We imagine that we’d do all the...

Reflections

Our lives are reflections of our values.

Said another way: the way we live demonstrates our priorities and beliefs.

That’s the optimal situation, at least. In a lot of cases, for a lot of reasons, this isn’t entirely true. It’s not uncommon to make slapdash decisions in moments of panic or stress. It’s not uncommon to build lives that more accurately reflect those who raised us than us, or that are predicated on our prior beliefs, rather than on beliefs we hold dear, today.

I’ve been reflecti...