The current moment

Naval@naval·May 28

The current moment is always filtered through the current thought.

Ed Latimore@EdLatimore ·13h

An interesting implication of Heisenberg Uncertainty:

You're never aware of the true present moment.

The closest you can get is your interpretation of an infinitesimally brief moment that is already that has already passed.

Do the thing

 

Chris Williamson

@ChrisWillx

I’ve been thinking about overthinking recently. Probably overthinking about overthinking to be honest. And I came across a tweet: “This is your annual reminder that you don’t need to resolve your issues, you don’t need to deal with your emotional baggage, you don’t need to process your trauma, you don’t need to confront your past, you don’t need to figure yourself out, you can just go ahead and do the thing.” —

@ESYudkowsky

We believe we need to prepare much more in imagination than reality. We can kid ourselves into believing that until we’ve got our head in the right place, we can’t move forward in the way we want to. We can’t leave that job or start that project or ask that person out who we fancy prior to ridding ourselves of the things we believe are holding us back. But life isn’t waiting for you. At all. Time will continue to tick along while you wait and try to create the optimal environment to finally make a move. Perfectionism is procrastination masquerading as quality control. Think about it this way. Guy 1 spends all day at work thinking about how he needs to go to the gym later on. The last time he went to the gym it was a bit uncomfortable. And he’s tired. And the gym was actually kind of mean and made him feel hurt. But he knows he needs to go. So he debates in his head all day. Should I go, shouldn’t I go? Am I ready, am I not ready? Eventually, using what feels like a superhuman effort, he finally drags himself to the gym and gets a session in. Guy 2 also needs to go to the gym. He also got a bit messed up last time he went. But he doesn’t think about it at all during the day, he knows he should go when work finishes, so he waits for work to finish. Then when the time comes, he grabs his bag and goes to the gym. The end result of both people is the same – they achieve the goal they wanted of going to the gym. But one has suffered and wasted 8 hours of precious life being distracted, and used a metric ton of willpower to achieve it because of fears and past traumas. Presuming that we need motivation or preparation to do things is often untrue. You don’t need motivation to do the thing. You just need to do the thing.

What matters

 

Navalism

@NavalismHQ

"You’re going to die one day, and none of this is going to matter. So enjoy yourself. Do something positive. Project some love. Make someone happy. Laugh a little bit. Appreciate the moment. And do your work."

@naval

No accurate data

 

Scott Adams

@ScottAdamsSays

·

22h

There is no such thing as accurate data. There is only data you believe is accurate.

10 differences between amateurs and professionals:

 

Sahil Bloom

@SahilBloom

7h • 11 tweets • 3 min read •  Read on X

10 differences between amateurs and professionals:

1. Amateurs make it look effortful, Professionals make it look effortless.

Effortless, elegant performances are the result of a large volume of effortful, gritty practice. Small things become big things.

(thread) 

2. Amateurs love the prize, Professionals love the process.

You’ll never make it if the view at the summit is the only thing motivating you to climb. The hunt has to be just as exciting as the meal at the end.

Professionals truly fall in love with the process. 

3. Amateurs blame others, Professionals are accountable.

The Amateur looks outward: Bad luck, unfair circumstances, a cheating opponent.

The Professional looks inward: Lack of preparation, gaps in routine, uneven intensity.

Accountability breeds progress. 

4. Amateurs fear being wrong, Professionals enjoy it.

Professionals have retrained their minds to embrace new information that forces a change in viewpoint. They view each "software update" as an improvement upon the old.

Open mindsets rule the world. 

5. Amateurs enter with 100 mediocre moves, Professionals enter with 1 perfect move.

Professionals know their unique edge—they play *their* game.

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." - Bruce Lee 

6. Amateurs are flashy, Professionals are relentless.

Many people are able to produce bursts of energy—few are able to produce consistent, steady flows, day-in day-out.

The former is flashy, but the latter is relentless. Never bet against the person who just keeps showing up. 

7. Amateurs seek recognition, Professionals seek legacy.

Amateurs do it for the pat on the back—the approval, the words of affirmation, the champagne.

Professionals do it for something bigger—they don't need approval. They're building something that lasts long after they're gone. 

8. Amateurs let the day come to them, Professionals have a routine.

The greatest performers in any craft share one thing in common: They have a routine and they stick to it.

Greatness is simply the result of tiny daily actions done well—over and over and over again. 

9. Amateurs play the table, Professionals set the table.

Professionals play games they are uniquely well-suited to win.

They set the table in a way that favors their edge and then make their opponent play on it.

If they don't like the way the table is set, they flip it over. 

10. Amateurs hope for good breaks, Professionals create them.

Amateurs enter the arena with their fingers crossed. Professionals enter the arena with a plan.

They realize that most of what we call luck is the macro result of 1,000s of micro actions. Professionals create more luck. 

Those are 10 differences I have observed between amateurs and professionals.

What would you add to the list?

If you enjoyed this thread, share it with your friends and follow me @SahilBloom for more!

Unroll available on Thread Reader

• • •

Thinking is difficult, so most people judge

 

Carl Jung once said: "Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge."

Tim Denning

@Tim_Denning

9h • 21 tweets • 5 min read •  Read on X

Carl Jung once said:

"Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge."

Here are 11 things I learned from him:

1. “Where your fear is, there is your task”

This is why the work-life balance & self-care movements help people become losers.

Discomfort is where the opportunity is

Find what you fear & look it in the eyes

...otherwise you become mediocre and the rewards are terrible. 

How to apply it:

• Figure out what you fear
• Set challenges to face the fear

As you face more fears, your confidence increases 

2. "The world will ask you who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you."

- The default path is a nightmare

- It leads people to live on auto-pilot and get told what to do

That’s why school, college & corporations can’t wait to tell you what you should do. 

How to apply it:

• Figure out what you're going to do with your life

• Experiment

• Talk to people outside of your bubble

• Learn from failures and rejection instead of gurus & empty advice

Do the thing you can’t stop thinking about, despite how it feels. 

3. “The word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”

- Darkness is a superpower

- Rock bottom is where you find your potential

- Dark times lead to amazing comebacks 

How to apply it:

• Ask yourself why
• Let yourself be sad sometimes
• Balance sad times with happy times
• When you feel sad, think of the happy times 

4. “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become”

Psychologists told me I had mental illness. I embraced it.

Until I realized if I was not in control of my thoughts, there was nowhere to go.

Carl Jung + Tony Robbins helped me gain control again 

How to apply it:

- All situations that happen to you come with a choice.

- Is this event going to empower you or destroy you? You get to decide.

Choose an empowering alternative. 

5. “The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed”

• Most never fail which is why they never truly live.

• They watch other people live the life they should be living

Defeating failure makes you unstoppable

How to apply it:

- Think back to times you’ve failed or been rejected

- Let these events give you the confidence you can overcome hard things.

- If you overcame that tragic event, what other challenges might you be able to overcome?

Answer: anything 

6. “The 1st half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego, the 2nd half is going inward & letting go of it”

Once you let go of your ego reality looks different

How you spend time/energy transforms

Suddenly your

• life
• job
• network
• content consumption

...change 

How to apply it:

- Ditch ego-driven tasks & pursuits right now

- Let the second part of your life start early, so you can experience true meaning 

7. "You are what you do, not what you say you'll do"

Tomorrow doesn’t exist

What makes you think you’re too special for cancer?

I wasn’t

“Yesterday you said tomorrow”

Actions show people who you are. Everything else is a distraction that makes you a liar

Liars = broke 

How to apply it:

• Look at your to-do list. Delete 90% of it.

• Then act today on what’s left.

• Create a sense of urgency.

• Live as if tomorrow doesn’t exist. 

8. “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life & you will call it fate”

Carl Jung went so deep into the mind that some say he lost his mind

At 38, Carl started to see visions & hear voices

This period of his life produced his greatest wisdom 

The unconscious mind doesn’t allow you to interrogate it

It’s where auto-pilot behavior/thinking occurs

We now know that we can have power over our unconscious mind through:

-Meditation
-Visualization
-Positive self-talk
-Positive thinking
-NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) 

How to apply it:

• Spend less time on your phone scrolling
• Take back your life
• Dare to meditate or study NLP 

9. “No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”

Darkness is the way.

- Failure
- Divorce
- Rejection
- Miscarriage
- Bankruptcy
- Getting fired

...are the best things that can happen to you 

How to apply it:

• Experiment
• Take risks
• Don't be a victim
• Expect things to go wrong 

To become a great thinker like Carl Jung, write.