keep on plodding

I quite like the sound of a one syllable word, a connecting word, and a two syllable word.

Cloak and Dagger. Ike and Tina. Gin and tonic. Pen and paper. Talk on Corners. Jen and Brandy. Life of Brian.

And I have absolutely no idea why. If you do, please post! =)

Random link: Cellar Door on Wikipedia

Everybody hurts themselves sometimes, whether we realise it or not. Possibly the most common way, is how we can destroy ourselves with how we perceive our flaws. And the most unfortunate part of finding and identifying our weaknesses, is that it gives a small illusion of power. That we're taking control, finding out what's wrong, then fixing the chinks. Just like smoothing over the nicks in a car's paint job, once started, there's no stopping until it's perfect.

When we look for our weaknesses…we may feel somewhere between somewhat satisfed to utterly self destructed. If that is all we feel, why bother doing it? Why don't we do the reverse - that is, find strengths and make them stronger instead?

I grabbed a bit of paper and wrote down everything positive I could remember people have ever said about me. I chose not to write down anything I thought of myself personally; only the words of other people were written down. So even though I thought myself to be ugly, people have only ever said that I was cute, so down that went. It was quite addictive. I stopped myself from going into my email archives to find random nice things my friends had said about me, which would surely have taken all week.

And I felt great. I've been tempted to keep the paper on me for others to see and write on, but for now I've kept it only as another personal motivator in my wallet.

There is an individual, who I will not name in any way, that I despise. This person has caused great pain and anguish to a number of people very close to me, and the thought that I am somehow connected to this fool is disheartening.

For a time, it was one of my greatest fears, that in spite of all my efforts, I would somehow turn into a copy of this person.

But today, I realised that this was completely impossible. Simply because this individual had little ability to blame his problems on himself, thereby hurting others with his fury, while I had a "problem" of almost always blaming myself for my problems. This "problem" of mine, is in fact, my greatest weapon in preventing myself from ever turning into that abomination, and is something I now consider to be one of my most precious character traits.

I found myself wondering one day...is uni life for me more like a computer game, or a race?

As someone who once was on the road to becoming a hardcore, even professional gamer, I saw many similarities between uni life and computer games. Most people simply dive into computer games without thinking a whole lot, and just have fun while performing at a mediocre level, and the same can be said for uni. Uni is great fun, you meet lots of young, gorgeous and intelligent people who like the same things you do, and come out with a degree to boot.

But for hardcore gamers, a game is a discipline. They learn to understand the game, the rules, the mechanics, and practice them diligently so that they come out ahead of other people playing the same game. For me, uni has many similarities. Plenty of high scoring uni students do well because they've learned how to learn.

And I then compared it to a race. Cars, running, horseriding, whatever. How it was important in a race to find a perfect line, or a perfect pace, to make the absolute most of the muscle or horsepower you had to bear to get ahead of the other racers.

Instead of arguing with myself which of the two uni was more like, I decided to simply combine the two. Uni for me right now, is like a Racing Game. (More on that in future posts ;) )



How is this useful? For some decision making, this has proven to be very valuable to me. I recently pondered what career I would most love to do in the future. I laid out the things that I could never get bored doing, the things I would stay up late for, get up early for and risk ACT public transport for. This came down to: learning how to use computers to do everything, and teaching. Up until now, I thought that I would be in a career in IT, writing or designing software for some big firm making big money. And this idea is still compelling. But I also love teaching. Kids and adults alike, I love to be loved for my skills in teaching people to be their best in anything.

So instead of deciding between a career in IT or teaching, I decided to mash them together. I'd like to teach IT. And I feel really really good.



Let it be stressed that mashing is not the same as doing both things individually! I would most definitely not advocate deciding between a new TV or a new sound system, and just buying both. I simply advise that when an argument comes along or a decision needs to be made, think about how both sides can be mashed together in addition to thinking about each exclusively.

"And yet," says the Tortoise, "I'll run with you for a wager."

"Done," says the Hare, and then they asked the Fox to be the judge.

They started together, and the Tortoise kept jogging on still, till he came to the end of the course.

The Hare laid himself down midway and took a nap; "for," says he, "I can catch up with the Tortoise when I please."

But it seems he overslept himself, for when he came to wake, though he scudded away as fast as possible, the Tortoise had got to the post before him and won the wager.

Slow and Steady wins the race.

• When setting out to do something, like an assignment, do so at the easiest pace possible such that you're not really exerting myself. Just as changing gears often while driving isn't fuel economic or even good for the gearbox, you should also avoid studying in bursts when you can't afford to waste the energy. Finding this pace takes practice, so if you have a spare hour, take the opportunity to get familiar with it.
  
• Take a break every hour or so for about 10 minutes. This doesn't mean browsing to a new page with the latest goss or firing up Counter Strike. This means things like having a stretch, grabbing a cookie, anything that puts you back in the real world. We don't want to be tightly focused, we want to be absorbing the fruits of our labour. Again, it's up to you to find out how long you can work before you lose efficiency, and have to rest.
  
• Don't let yourself be interrupted. Yes, you probably do have time for the interruption. But no, you can't afford to lose rhythm once you've got it going.
  

• Work diligently and comfortably without interruption.
• Every hour, break away from work and get a grip of reality.
• When you start up again, look over what you were doing before.
  

I was looking around my room today, tidying it up, and made a quick observation: almost everything in my room is arranged such that only a few objects were on top of one other object. Arrangements in that manner looked neat even if the objects themselves weren't "beautiful". Such things as:

• My bed. Has a blanket and a pillow on it, with nothing on top of those. Looks cosy and neat =) But as soon as I throw something more on the blanket or pillow, it's not so cosy!
  
• My desk. Has my laptop, monitor, keyboard and pen cup on it. As soon as anything gets put on top of any of those, its messy!
  
• My home theatre unit. See the picture. If I added anything to the arrangement, it would spoil.
  

• A big mash of CDs in their jewel cases. With yet another layer of CDs on top of them. Ugh.
  
• Books without a bookshelf
• A pile of pens and other stationery on my desk
• Layers of alphabetised DVDs. Alphabetised, but still layers of chaotic ugliness.
  

Probably sillly of me to expect any of you to follow my method when I have not tested it myself. I've tried this method for a few days, and it has had some interesting effects...

As I expected it revealed flaws in my study method. My ability to speed read, my typing speed, my concentration, all weaknesses that became revealed.

But in addition...I found Sprinting highly seductive. In the first 16 minutes I built up dread of sprinting. Once I was there, moving quickly, I didn't feel like stopping. Then in only 4 minutes it was over. I pined for the next block of 4 minutes, which couldn't come soon enough. I prepared myself far better for the sprint with each cycle, and sprinted ever faster each time.



I love this. Stay tuned for either further evaluation of this method or a big post on striding.

I've teased you guys enough with theory, so let's do something real.

Recall that productive sprinting is about revealing weakness thus encourageing growth. So, consider a task you know to be weak at, or wish to improve on. I have chosen "Do Assignment" for my task.

Now, find a timer of some kind. A stopwatch/egg timer will do, but ideally download a timer program that plays music. I'm using this one at the moment.

Next, if you chose the timer software, pick a song. A song that you love, and really gets you going. Something that makes you mad, something that makes you happy, whatever motivates you, ideally, YOUR FAVOURITE SONG.

Take note of the song's duration. Set the timer for about double that. I intentionally chose a 4 minute song so I could have an 8 minute timer.



Stop. Time for a bit of Endurance building theory. I was told long ago that to really build endurance, I should walk in intervals of one minute, jog a minute, then sprint for thirty seconds. These times aren't too important, but the ratios and the theory most definitely are. When we walk for that minute, we are resting, and totally care free. The way rest should be. This is Strolling. It's not Sitting, because a tiny bit of us is moving towards a goal. The less you think of the goal the better, but keep moving.

Minute's up. Time to start jogging. Recall that in Striding, energy expenditure is extremely low. Do not put energy into the jog, just make sure it's not a walk. We jog to prepare us for the sprint, which is where the growth is. When we jog like this, just about the only thing we're thinking of is that sprint in 60 seconds, but we're still moving slowly enough to say hi to passers by.

60 seconds up. BOLT. For a full 30 seconds, we are in hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell.

30 seconds over. Mind is clear, save for a trickle of thought on that 60 second timer. And so we repeat.



This is what you guys will be doing, metaphorically speaking. For my "Do Assignment" task, my cycles will be:

Stroll - Don't even think about studying. Go read about dinosaurs or get lost in wikipedia or something. Then set the timer.

Stride - Gather information. Open lecture notes, go over Introductions and Summaries, preparing myself for study and thinking a lot about it but not actually doing study. Build up huge anticipation. If this is not the first cycle, I'll review stuff I did in previous cycles.

Sprint - Timer dings. WRITE. Until the music ends.

And repeat.



Give it a try. Just one cycle at least. Just one.

Then more. make the cycles longer. And add more cycles. Watch how fast you grow.



ADDENDUM: I notice that this may not be so good for reading/study, which should generally be done in silence. That's fine, just use a short buzzer sound or none at all for the timer.

A lot of people tell me that they spend a lot of their lives Sprinting. From my understanding, this implies that they are not Sprinters at all, but Striders. Allow me to go over the definitions of both in detail.

Striding - This implies a determined pace towards a goal. Energy expenditure while striding is relatively low, and of all Paces, has the best energy/distance travelled ratio.

Sprinting - In sight of a goal, at the expense of everything, we fearlessly (or fearfully) run towards a goal. We see nothing but the goal. Imagine a person standing atop a building looking at the top of another, shorter building. The shortest, most fearless/desperate route is just jump across the gap onto the shorter building. True sprinting requires complete fearlessness to let go of everything that holds us back and give absolutely everything to achieve an end. True sprinters are rare and command the highest respect from me.

I recently did something in the interest of becoming a true sprinter. I have one best friend, who I love dearly. But, many times, when I had set out to study for a day, I ran into her and got nothing done. I loved the time, as you should while Sitting/Strolling, but I made no progress along the paths I originally set out to tread. So, I decided I had to devote myself entirely to progress along my paths without her.

This did not go as planned. Long story short, in tears I fled home two days ago when she did not return my calls in response to (what I thought, and still think to be) a hurtful message she gave me. I called some of my other friends who were quick to drive to my house and rescue me from a night of moping solitude. This did not go as planned either, as almost immediately after we left my driveway, we got into a car accident. To add insult to injury, I found that the name of my friend's car insurance company sounds the same as my friend's name who hurt me in the first place. Their slogan being "Lucky you're with her-name!" But we're getting off topic.

If people say they Sprint all day...they're not quite right. You CAN'T sprint all day. A person who says so is just Striding very long and fast. Think about marathon runners. To them, the energy spent on each stride is virtually insignificant. Eventually it feels like hell, but it's still Striding. To a Sprinter, the more energy spent on each leg, so much the better. You can't sprint for more than a couple of minutes at absolute most physically. You can sprint a few minutes longer mentally. Perhaps 10 for a typical student. Some psychotic people may be able to sprint much longer. After this you're likely to either take a break or continue at a Strider's or Stroller's pace. If you watch yourself, or someone else who seems to be sprinting, keep watching. They shouldn't be able to keep that pace up.

Make sure you guys understand the difference. They will be important in my next post, coming shortly. See if you can think of one example of Striding, and one of Sprinting, before you read it.

"A learned man once went to a Zen teacher to inquire about Zen. As the Zen teacher explained, the learned man would frequently interrupt him with remarks like, "Oh, yes, we have that too..." and so on. Finally the Zen teacher stopped talking and began to serve tea to the learned man. He poured the cup full, and the kept pouring until the cup overflowed.

"Enough!" the learned man once more interrupted. "No more can go into the cup!"

"Indeed, I see," answered the Zen teacher. "If you do not first empty the cup, how can you taste my cup of tea?"

I've come to realise many things. One is the distinction between showing, and imposing.

I've shown my ideas to many people. All with different but valid opinions, which I can then use in furthering my journey. The problem came when too many people simply agreed with me, and when someone finally came who did not agree with my ideas, I changed from showing to imposing. And like the story, by not emptying myself of my own idea, I could not receive the opinion of the person I was showing mine to.

For a long time I've scorned people who imposed their ideas upon me. I believed it better to let people find their own answers, and I've known about this story of the Zen Master and the Scholar for years. So it was rather saddening when I realised today that I fell victim to this mistake that I swore for years I would not make. Even more sad, is that I made this mistake as I was literally drinking tea with a friend.

Having made the mistake though, I understand the lesson on another level. It reinforced my belief that it's hard to really know something until we experience or use it ourselves.

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."

1. Break the goal into smaller bits to hack away at. For instance, before you "Make a legendary computer game", ask for opinions on your idea. Before you "Build the kids a treehouse", go buy some hammers and nails.
2. Take baby steps. It's not moving, so if you're moving even a snail's pace, you will reach it. Wanna run a marathon, but can't run 100m? Well, run 50m for starters, then take baby steps. Slow and steady wins this race.
3. Make a habit. The body needs motivation to do things that are new. But it doesn't need motivation to do things out of habit. Use your initial motivation to addict yourself to taking those baby steps. You should feel sick if you go a day without taking them.
   

• Too much to do, but need a rest? Rest for 6 seconds.

In my introductory post, I briefly explained the idea of Pacing through life at different speeds. I'll try to evaluate these in greater detail.

Blue represents reflection and awareness. Orange represents progress and disclosure. When we sit still, we are able to fully reflect on what we know, what we have done, as well as look around and enjoy the scenery. As we move faster (from left to right on the graph), we lose that ability in lieu of progress towards some destination. Move fully to the right, and we are no longer aware of things around us, and no longer able to have revelations, but we make progress at great speed. Think about the last time you tried as hard as you could. You couldn't see the scenery around you. You forgot your beautiful friends, the things you had, all you could see was some goal, some trophy you chased down. Like Tim Ferriss learning a skill that takes a lifetime in only 5 days - everything in your entire being was looking at that goal.

Life for many people means moving at all of these speeds at some point. Note that these movement Paces are purely metaphorical. A person who is physically running may be Strolling in the sense that they are enjoying the scenery and having quiet time to themselves to think. Likewise, a person that is physically sitting may be Sprinting towards a goal, such as completing an assignment before deadline, which probably tests their writing skills and ability to stay awake.

How is this concept useful, you ask? Stay tuned for more posts.

Who am I, why am I here, and why should you read what I have to say?

First answer, I am a 21yo uni student. As many other students know, going to school is a learning experience that extends far beyond the scope of the degree you are given at the end. Uni has transformed me more than I could ever imagine, and I want to write it all down as it happens so that others may benefit from my experience. The greatest thing I have gained from uni, is my latest revelation, summarised in my blog's name, and is what I want to share with the world.

Life is a journey. We go at different Paces, and the most important ones are grouped roughly into these four: Sitting, Strolling, Striding or Sprinting. Each of these Paces has value, and each of us values some Pace or Paces more than others. At one extreme, a student cramming for finals is a person who is Sprinting towards his goal. At the other, a monk meditating on the meaning of "Mu" is sitting. More specifically, we Sprint to approach a goal. In sitting, we rest, and absorb the beauty of the world and reflect on what we know.

That's cool right? But how does that apply to you? Well, everyone who is alive is journeying through life in some way. If we find our preferred pace, we can better understand why we don't get along so well with people, better understand the best way to approach life and hence better ourselves. Also, if we compare life to something as common and simple like travel, we see representations of Paces everywhere around us, which reminds us of what we know and encourages us to learn more.