Think beyond your ego

Philosophy / /

When Theodore Roosevelt faced a problem, he would look at the painting of Abraham Lincoln on his office wall and ask himself, If Lincoln were in this situation, what would he do? Stepping outside himself, he gained clarity.

But this can seem daunting. How are we supposed to know what someone as wise as Abraham Lincoln, or Cyrus the Great, or Marcus Aurelius would do in situations similar to ours? First, we can read great books. We can immerse ourselves in the lives and thoughts of some of the best leaders and thinkers who have ever lived.

Second, we can be humble. We can stop thinking with our egos. We can allow a higher intelligence to act through us. But most of the time, says yogi Sadhguru, we don’t do this. “Instead of trying to tap into this all-powerful intelligence that pulsates within each of us, we opt to use our logical intellect, which is useful in certain situations, but essentially limited.”

In The Authentic Swing, bestselling author Steven Pressfield found himself stumped by a question similar to Roosevelt’s: How can I write the thoughts and actions of a fictional character who’s smarter and wiser than me? He realized he had to think beyond his ego. He had to be “tapped into a source whose wisdom far exceeds our own. All we have to do is trust it.”

Don’t be a donkey

Life / /

A few years ago, I was chronically distracted. I won’t bore you with the details, but I remember having a list of all the things I wanted to do—earn my degree, start a blog, change careers, change myself, buy a house—and feeling completely overwhelmed because I thought I had to do all of them immediately. I was focusing on everything, so I wasn’t progressing in anything.

Then I read the advice Derek Sivers said he would give his 30-year-old self: Don’t be a donkey. I realized I didn’t have to (and couldn’t possibly) do everything at once. All I had to do was focus on one thing at a time.

In Tools of Titans he explains,

“Don’t be a donkey . . . I meet a lot of 30-year-olds who are trying to pursue many different directions at once, but not making progress in any, right? They get frustrated that the world wants them to pick one thing, because they want to do them all: ‘Why do I have to choose? I don’t know what to choose!’ But the problem is, if you’re thinking short-term, then [you act as though] if you don’t do them all this week, they won’t happen. The solution is to think long-term. To realize that you can do one of these things for a few years, and then do another one for a few years, and then another . . . don’t be a donkey. You can do everything you want to do. You just need foresight and patience.”

10 things I learned, found interesting, or used this month

Monthly Top 10 / /

1. We don’t procrastinate indiscriminately. Read my super short blog about this here.

2. How to guarantee you have a good day: do good, unselfish things.

3. Put each day up for review: “Anger, [or any vice], will abate and become more temperate if it knows that it must come before a judge every day.” -Seneca

4. More doubt and curiosity, less rigidity and certainty. “Cling to certainty, if it makes you feel better. Just be aware that what you’re clinging to is the opposite of life.” -Neil Strauss

5. It’s all temporary, no need to stress. “It would take an idiot to feel self-importance or distress,” Marcus Aurelius said. “Or any indignation, either. As if the things that irritate us lasted.”

6. The world paradoxically expands when you narrow your focus.

7. Reading and thinking are useless without application. This sounds obvious, but for someone like me who loves to read, I need a reminder that reading is for life, not the other way around. A reminder to take the best ideas from what I’ve read and use them—not mull them over endlessly in my head.

8. Have a schedule when you’re not busy. When you have a schedule for when you’re not busy, you don’t waste your free time trying to figure out what to do. Or worse, waste it on easy defaults like checking social media.

9. Develop pathological empathy for your audience. As Ann Handley talks about in Everybody Writes, you must have pathological empathy for your audience and users. Time is our most valuable non-renewable resource. We should be highly aware—pathologically empathetic—of our user’s time and attention. (An idea I use in my newsletters).

10. Keep your mind clear. In warfare, one side would overwhelm the other with information—trivial, anything—because it caused confusion. When we watch one TikTik video after another, view one status after another, read one headline after another…our minds become confused. Clear thinking goes out the window.

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