- Reading: Raising Resilience: How to Help Our Children Thrive in Times of Uncertainty, On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything, Trading in the Zone, Holly, The Vegetarian
- Exercising: Full-body compound lifting three times per week (personal best)
- Creating: Wood Christmas Tree, wealth, trading business, financial plan
- Studying: Emotional fluidity (parenting and trading)
- Listening: Blues in the Background, Exodus
- Writing: Life is like a box of fruits
- Playing: Aram, daily chess puzzles
- Watching: Culinary Class Wars, Nobody Wants This, Arcane
Author: Enjoy the Process
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November 26, 2024
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Life is like a box of fruits. Enjoy them promptly in each season.
Or else they will rot and you will throw it away.
I have recently been on a journey of seeking enjoyment. Ironically, my mantra is enjoy the process. However, I’m not sure if I had fully understood how to enjoy the process. In the beginning, enjoyment was a mentality, which is certainly a big factor. Over time and especially this past year, I have discovered how I can enjoy life more and it has been quite the process.
It is difficult to enjoy
Three years ago, I reflected on why it is difficult to enjoy the process. I think the reflections still hold true today.
- We take moments of life for granted
- We tend to focus on results and achievements
- We avoid difficulty and challenges
This could not be more true in the domain of parenting. I was constantly taking moments with my daughter for granted. I was over focused on my professional goals. I avoided the difficulty and challenge of how I can be a better parent.
One year ago, my second daughter was born. My first was five years old and we faced new family dynamics and tough questions. In the thick of this season, I did not want to make the same mistakes and thus embarked on a journey of learning about how I can enjoy parenting and ultimately life.
Stop trying to be happy
What kick started this journey was an article, “Stop trying to be happy. Instead, have more fun.” The article discusses organizational psychologist and behavioral scientist Mike Rucker’s PLAY model. It is an acronym for pleasure, living, agonizing, and yielding.
Low Challenge High Challenge High Fun Pleasure Living Low Fun Yielding Agonizing PLAY Model This tool helps identify what activities you enjoy based on fun and challenge level. It takes intentional effort to reflect and bucket what activities in our lives give us joy. The near enemy of fun activities are yielding ones – endless scrolling on social media, Netflix binges, YouTube rabbit holes, playing unfulfilling games, mindless drinking.
It is easy to resort to these activities especially after a long day because we want to numb our body and mind. I found myself yielding more and more to these activities especially when I felt guilty or ashamed of my actions and behaviors as a husband and father. This is a whole other topic related to our identity and how and where we find value in ourselves. The lie I would tell myself was I did not deserve to have fun or be joyful. While I rationally knew that this sentiment was not true, the sting of messing up and allure of being hard on myself would sometimes take over.
I knew I could not sustainably live in a state of existence. I knew I did not want to take life for granted. Thus I worked on discovering what activities I enjoy. Rucker suggests,
Identify elements that you can manipulate,
including your environment,
the people you’re with and
the activities you’re engaged in.
In regards to parenting, it is hard to change the environment and the people. Thus, the focus has been on what activities I can enjoy more. Playing with my daughter used to feel like a drag, but shifting the attitude to how we can both enjoy our time together has drastically improved my enjoyment and our relationship. The mundane daily tasks of cooking, cleaning, and eating became more enjoyable. By taking a brief moment to ask, “How can I enjoy this?” has certainly made life more fun.
Finding joy is the most vulnerable human emotion.
Brene Brown, Atlas of the HeartBe present to enjoy life
This may be the most important condition of enjoyment. It is perhaps the biggest lesson and application I have learned.
In January 2023, after ongoing conflicts and unresolved tension with my wife, we had a pivotal moment in our marriage. It was when I learned and applied how to “number my days.” The lesson stemmed from the verse, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) I believe from that moment on, I began to gain wisdom about being present.
I had an epiphany moment when I was struck with the phrase,
I’m not sure what exactly triggered this idea. Perhaps it was after the short summer season of eating strawberries and tomatoes from our yard. Perhaps it was the fleeting moments with my five year old who started Kindergarten. Regardless, it was another lesson about numbering our days. This lesson helped water the seed of enjoying the fruits of life in each season.
When I started to be more intentional about enjoyment, I felt like I reached a cusp in life, where I was being present to enjoy the smallest moments, which radically shifts those moments from passive existence to active enjoyment.
Being present to enjoy the smallest moments, radically shifts those moments from passive existence to active enjoyment.
I began to discover the art of presence, simplicity, and enjoyment. Simple tasks such as sweeping the front of the house with a broom, shifted from a meaningless chore into enjoying taking care of my house and home that safely held my family. Cleaning and organizing clothes or the garage shifts into an activity that sparks joy and gratitude for all the material things in life. It also helps to declutter and let go of things that are no longer useful. Being present helps me to richly enjoy time with my second daughter, instead of saying I will miss this stage of life. Being present and numbering our days helped my family fully enjoy the first summer break we had together before big transitions in each of our lives. I am truly enjoying the fruit of this season and not letting any of it go to waste.
Get perspective with the end in mind
The most recent teaching about numbering our days came in the form of an age chart. I remember hearing about how 95% of the time with your kids is gone by the time they are 18. It was a surprising statistic, but it really hit home when I made an age chart.
Justin Whitmel Earley, Habits of the Household I was used to doing the habit of “begin with the end in mind” for myself.1 However, creating an age chart really put into perspective the end in regards to my family. Granted everyone stays healthy and lives long lives, the quality time we have with one another is so fleeting. The exercise was a literal numbering of our days.
Gaining this perspective did not suddenly give me powers to be supernaturally patient, loving, kind, or happy. The daily struggles and toils are still real. When my daughter got hand-foot-mouth disease twice and Roseola all within a few weeks, the pain and struggle made the days feel like it would never end. When my older daughter is super cranky and disrespects us, we still get very frustrated and angry. The wisdom I gained manifests in the brief, quiet moments of life. I remember how numbered our days are and then I can realign my focus from being grumpy and pissed off, to genuinely enjoying the process.
Enjoyment is the best metric of efficiency
Joe Hudson, an executive coach and father, says the most influential factor to success in business and parenting is enjoyment. He describes enjoyment is not only what you enjoy doing, but how you can enjoy what you do more. Asking yourself, “How can I enjoy this 5% more” can yield hundredfold in every facet of life.
I am experiencing new levels of joy in regards to parenting, marriage, work, and personal endeavors. I also learned about foreboding joy, i.e. when we are afraid to lean into good news and moments because we expect the worst to happen. Sadly, 95% of parents experience foreboding joy with their children. I have certainly been in this boat before. It really takes away from life. “When we push away joy, we squander the goodness that we need to build resilience, strength, and courage.”2
I know life will throw more challenges my way. I know parenting will be hard. I’ll fight with my wife again. The world will have its intractable amount of issues. But I am learning despite all of that, I can still enjoy the process.
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You search for connection
True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.
Belonging Verse Fitting In
Belonging Fitting In Authentic Other pleasing Being accepted for you Being accepted for being like everyone else Being somewhere you want to be and they want you Being somewhere you want to be, but they don’t care Because your self-esteem is an assessment of who you are and what you’ve accomplished compared to your values and your goals, even with high self-esteem you can still feel insecure if you’re self-critical.
Connection
- When you feel seen, heard, and valued
Disconnection
- Occurs when there is social rejection, exclusion, or isolation
- It can further lead to
- Insecurity
- Types: domain, relation, general
- Self-security: open and nonjudgmental acceptance of one’s own weakness
- Invisibility
- Types: interpersonal, group, and representational
- Loneliness
- Different than being alone
- Interdependence > independence
- It is a sign we need social connection (e.g. when you’re hungry you need food)
- Insecurity
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You’re with others
Compassion
- The daily practice of recognizing and accepting our shared humanity so that we treat ourselves and other with loving-kindness, and we take action in the face of suffering
- Pity is the near enemy and distancing or cruelty the far enemy
Empathy
- Cognitive empathy: perspective taking or mentalizing
- Affective empathy: experience sharing, emotional attunement with another experience
- The best empathy is to understand what someone is feeling, not having to feel it for them.
- You need to move away from walking in someone else’s shoes
The most effective approach to meaningful connection combines compassion with cognitive empathy.
Sympathy
- Near enemy of empathy
- Leads to disconnection and feeling sorry for the other
- Creates compassion fatigue
- Emotional exhaustion or burnout happens when you focus on your own personal distress, which is an inability to respond empathetically to the person in need
- You need boundaries to be able to love yourself and others well.
- Be clear about what is okay and what is not okay.
Comparative suffering
- Fear and scarcity trigger comparison
- Example of rank suffering
- You’re worried about your teenager becoming disconnected and isolated during quarantine when thousands of people in India are dying?
- What we fail to understand is that the family in India doesn’t benefit more if you conserve your concern only for them and withhold it from your child who is also suffering.
- Piss and moan with perspective
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You’re hurting
Anguish
- Shock and incredulity
- Grief and powerlessness
Hope
- Is not an emotion; it is a cognitive process
- Function of struggle and discomfort
- How to practice hope
- Set realistic goals
- Figure out how to achieve and find alternative paths with setbacks
- Agency (believe in self)
Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child.
- Developing resilience to cultivate a hope practice
- Personalization: Remember to think about the larger issues and context; don’t get caught up with self-blame and criticism
- Permanence: Practice thinking about the temporary nature of most setbacks as part of how we look at adversity on a daily basis; Ask yourself, “Will this be a big issue five minutes, hours, days, years from now?”\
- Pervasiveness: Find the areas of your life that are still good so you don’t fall into the trap believing that whatever you’re up against stained every single thing in your life
Hopelessness
- Strong emotion of when,
- You do not know what you want
- You cannot figure out how to achieve your goals
- You do not believe in yourself
- Best to combat by practicing hope and avoid leading to suicidal tendencies
Despair
- Hopelessness about entire life and future
- You feel like tomorrow will be just like today
Sadness
- Sadness is important in your life and should be felt
- It can lead to being more motivated, sensitive to social norms, and being generous
- Sadness is not depression or grief
- Linked to feeling moved, being connected and to be human (e.g., a sad movie can make you feel moved and creates enjoyment)
Grief
- Occurs when there is a loss, longing, or feeling lost
- When challenged by a loss in your life, you will reaffirm or reconstruct a world of meaning
- Different types of grief
- Acute
- Integrated (adaptation)
- Complicated
- Disenfranchised
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Your heart is open
Love
Lovelessness
Heartbroken
Flooding
Hurt
Trust
Betrayal
- The most devastating organizational betrayal is cover-ups
- Occurs when it is more important to protect that reputation of that system (i.e. corporation, nonprofit, university, government, church, sports program, school, or family) and those in power than it is to protect the basic human dignity of individuals and communities
- It is rare to heal from betrayal, but it can be done with significant courage, vulnerability, accountability, amends, and action
Self-trust
Self-betrayal
Defensiveness
- “At its core, defensiveness is a way to protect your ego and fragile self-esteem.”
- You can combat this with grounded confidence
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You fall short
Shame
- Intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that you are flawed and therefore unworthy of love, belonging, and connection
- Shame thrives in silence, secrecy, judgment.
- The antidote is empathy and believing you are not alone
- Self-compassion helps, consists of self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness
- Shame is the root of unethical behaviours in culture
How to build shame resilience
Recognize shame and understand its triggers Recognize when you’re in the grip of shame, name it, feel your way through it, and figure out what messages and expectations triggered the shame. Don’t pretend it’s not happening and get swept away. Practice critical awareness Reality-check the messages and expectations that are driving your shame. Are they realistic, attainable, what you want to be? Or what you think others need from you? Reaching out Own and share your story. You cannot experience empathy if you’re not connecting. Speaking shame Talk about how you feel and ask for what you need when you feel shame. Perfectionism
- Shame is the birthplace of perfectionism
- Perfectionism is a “self-destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, live perfectly, work perfectly, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.”
- Perfectionism is not self-improvement. Perfectionism is, at its core, about trying to earn approval and acceptance.
- Perfectionists were raised being praised for achievement and performance (e.g. good grades, manners, nice appearance, sports prowess, rule following, people pleasing).
- The danger lies in adopting the belief that you are what you accomplish and how well you accomplish it
Healthy striving is self-focused—How can I improve?
Perfectionism is other-focused—What will they think?
Guilt
- Guilt focuses on the behaviour, not your self (i.e., you did something bad verse you are bad)
- Can be a positive because can lead you to do something to set things right
- Negatively correlated with addiction, violence, aggression, depression unlike shame
- Remorse is a subset of guilt; acknowledge we have harmed another, feel bad about it, and want to atone for our behaviour
Humiliation
- Unjustly degraded, ridiculed, or shamed by others
- Strong link between mass violence (e.g. school shootings) happening from humiliation as the root cause
Never allow anyone to be humiliated in your presence. – Elie Wiesel
Embarrassment
- Fleeting discomfort during social situations
- Usually minor in nature and usually humor involved
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You compare
Comparison
- Comparison is not an emotion, however it drives your feelings, affects relations, and your self-worth
- You try to simultaneous fit in and stand out
- You are often unaware of social comparison
- Social comparison can happen both up and downward, usually leading to fear, anger, shame, and or sadness
- Comparing is often a creativity killer
- Comparison is inevitable, it happens to all of us. How you respond to comparison is your choice
- Choose connection over comparison
- You can also choose to “focus on your lane”
Admiration
- Social comparison that inspires you to be a better version of yourself
Reverence
- Is a subcategory of admiration
- Reverence leads you to form a connection and a desire to move closer to the object of reverence
- Usually leads to adoration, worship and veneration
- Irreverent, is not having respect for what is official, important, or holy
Envy
- When you want what the other person has
Resentment
- Resentment is “hidden envy”
Jealousy
- Usually involves a third party, that threatens the connection you have with another person, not necessarily what they possess
Shadenfreude
- Sha-din-froy-da, “meaning “harm joy”
- Feeling joy from the suffering of others, usually stems from fear (e.g. Covid vaccine and anti-vaccine narrative)
- Connected to envy, hostile and destructive emotion
Freudenfreude
- Shared joy in the success of others
- Shoy (active interest in asking personal questions) and bragitude (expressing gratitude toward someone for sharing good news) cultivate freudenfreude leading to more meanginful connection
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Things aren’t what they seem
When two feelings are in tension with one another, admitting to the uncertainty leads to greater credibility and grounded confidence.
Cognitive Dissonance
- When you hold two cognitions (such as ideas, attitude, beliefs, or opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent with each other (e.g. cult followers when proven wrong or smokers)
- Choose courage and being curious over comfort
- Helps you to rethink and relearn
Amusement
- Pleasurable, relaxed excitation, usually involves humor
Bittersweet
- Tension of happy and sad
- Different than ambivalence, unsure if you are happy or sad
Nostalgia
Nostalgia is a yearning for the way things used to be in our often idealized and self-protective version of the past.
- Bittersweet: yearning/loss
- Rumination: negative past
- Reflection: adaptive & psychologically healthy
- Worry: future focused
Paradox
- Appearance of contradiction between two related components
- Paradoxes are hard and good for you
Irony
Are you doing something up in humor that actually requires clarity and honesty?
Sarcasm
- Related to irony, can ridicule, tease, and or criticize
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Things are uncertain or too much
Stressed
- Being in the weeds
- Overwhelmed is a subcategory of stressed, when we feel “blown”
Dread
- Response to the high probability of a negative event in the future
Anxiety
- Can be both a state and trait of being in tension with worried thoughts
- Coping Mechanisms
- Worry
- Avoidance
- Excitement
- Linked to anxiety
Fear
- Can be both a state and trait
- Is present focused
- Responses: flight, fight, or freeze
Vulnerability
- Often seen as a weakness, however it is the “greatest measure of courage”
- You typically want to avoid uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure, thus it takes great courage to be willing to lean into vulnerability
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Things don’t go as planned
Boredom
- An uncomfortable and frustrated state of wanting to engage in a satisfying activity, but being unable to
- Boredom can lead to greater creativity and imagination
Disappointment
- Highly correlated with unmet expectations
- There are 2 types of expectations
- Stealth (unexamined and/or unexpressed)
- Examined and expressed
- Greater the expectation, greater the disappointment
Regret
- Usually within our control (e.g. education, career, romance, parenting , self-improvement, leisure)
The idea of ‘no regrets’ doesn’t mean living with courage, it means living without reflection. To live without regret is to believe we have nothing to learn, no amends to make, and no opportunity to be braver with our lives.
Discouraged
- Losing motivation and confidence about future effort
There are too many people in the world today who decide to live disappointed rather than risk feeling disappointment.
Resigned
- Lost motivation and confidence
Frustrated
- Feels out of control, prevents achievement and outcome
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You self-assess
Pride
- Pride is a feeling of pleasure or celebration related to your accomplishments or efforts.
- It is a positive emotion, that has been tainted by religious language.
Hubris
- Hubris is an inflated sense of your own innate ability.
- It is related to the need for dominance than to actual accomplishments.
Humility
- Humility is an openness to new learning combined with a balance and accurate assessment of your contributions, including your strengths, imperfections, and opportunities for growth.
- It is not downplaying yourself or your accomplishment. This is modesty.
- It is not low self-esteem, meekness, or letting people walk over you.
Humility allows us to admit when we are wrong — we realize that getting it right is more important than needing to ‘prove’ that we are right.
- Humility is key to having grounded confidence and healthy relationships.
Intellectual Humility
- Is a willingness to consider information that doesn’t fit with your current thinking.
- You can demonstrate intellectual humility while still being confident and having strong convictions.
- You may hold strong views, but you are open to hearing other point of views.
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You feel wronged
Anger
- Anger is generally an emotion that is not welcomed due to your own discomfort of the emotion.
- “We all have the right and need to feel and own our anger.” However, anger often masks emotions that are more difficult to name and even more difficult to own.
- Anger is a catalyst that can be used to transform into something life-giving. Maintaining any level of rage, anger, or contempt over a long period of time is not sustainable.
- Thus, it is imperative you determine what’s behind your anger.
- Download the free “What’s Behind Anger” poster.
Contempt
- Attacking a person’s sense of self (contrast to criticism which is associated with attacking someone’s character)
When someone is angry at you, you’ve still got traction with them, but when they display contempt, you’ve been dismissed. – Pamela Meyer
- Motivation Attribution Asymmetry
- Assumption that your ideology is based in love, while your opponent’s is based in hate.
- Each side thinks it is driven by benevolence while the other is evil and motivated by hatred.
- Usually leads to contempt, a noxious brew of anger and disgust.
- Having contempt of one’s ideology can lead to contempt of people
Disgust – Dehumanization
- Disgust is an emotion that keeps you safe from the stuff that can make you sick.
- Danger is when you turn disgust into an emotion that is weaponized against people who make you sick, simply because you either disagree with them or they are different from you.
- Moral disgust is even more dangerous because of its dehumanizing implications.
- Once you dehumanize people, it is easier to be violent and cruel to them because the innate part of your brain and heart that says not to hurt people is shut off because you’ve stripped them of their humanity.
- Dehumanization is the greatest threat to humanity.
- Once a target is viewed with disgust, research shows that the judgment seems to be permanent. The perceived reprehensible moral character becomes immutable and unforgivable.
Self-righteousness and righteousness
- Self-righteousness as a “terminal uniqueness”, you think you’re different from everyone else.
- Stop assuming that people who disagree with you don’t care about people or issues as much as you do.
- Moral outrage is self-enhancing and related to self-righteous anger
- Be super conscientious about the moral outrage and instead focus on doing the next right thing.
If there’s anything that looks and feels like a pig rolling in shit these days, it’s performative moral outrage, especially on social media.
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Things are beyond you
Awe
- Awe inspires the wish to let the object of awe shine. You want to stand back and observe.
- Awe leads to greater cooperation, sharing resources, and sacrifice. It brings greater unity.
- It allows you to value others, see yourself clearly, and evoke humility.
Wonder
- Wonder inspires the wish to understand.
- You want to explore and learn. Wonder fosters your curiosity and adventure.
Curiosity
- Curiosity is both a state and a trait. It is both an emotion and cognition.
- You identify a gap in knowledge and commit to close the gap with your heart.
Interest
- Interest is a cognitive state, not an emotion.
- You want to engage with a topic mentally.
Confusion
- Confusion is like “optimal interest”. It is an epistemic emotion.
- Your confusion can lead to deep learning, especially when you are not in comfortable learning environments.
Surprise
- Surprise is the short bridge between the heart and mind.
- The interruption stems from information that does not fit your current understanding and expectations. The unexpected amplifies your emotion.
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Life is Good
Calm
The best way to assess if you are calm is to ask,
“Do I have enough information to freak out? The answer is normally no.
Will freaking out help? The answer is always no.”
Gratitude
Gratitude is “an emotion that reflects your deep appreciation for
- what you value
- what brings meaning to uour life, and
- what makes you feel connected to yourself and others.”
Gratitude is an emotion, but you must practice gratitude to experience its full power.
Methods of practice include journaling, meditation, prayer, art, and gratitude check-ins.
Practicing gratitude leads to a deep capacity for joy.
Foreboding Joy
“Finding joy is the most vulnerable human emotion.”
Foreboding joy is being afraid to allow yourself to experience and feel joy because of your fear of that joy being ruined by an unforeseen disaster.
When you push away joy in this manner, you limit yourself immensely.
Tranquility
“Tranquility is associated with absence of demand and no pressure to do anything.
The four elements of experiencing tranquility
- A sense of getting away
- A feeling of immersion
- Holding attention without effort
- Compatibility with one’s preference
The difference between contentment and tranquility is with contentment you usually have a sense of completing something and with tranquility, “you relish the feeling of doing nothing.”
In other words, dolce far niente, the sweetness of doing nothing. “Americans reward the sweat of doing everything ASAP.”1
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July 10, 2024
- Reading: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Genesis, Listen: Five Simple Tools to Meet Your Everyday Parenting Challenges , Habits of the Household, The Infernal Machine, Flash Boys, Wealth Planning Strategies for Canadians 2023
- Exercising: Full-body compound lifting three times per week (on hold), mobility stretching
- Creating: Emotional map, business plan, financial plan, cocktails
- Building: Trading business, good habits
- Studying: Emotional fluidity
- Listening: Focus music, Genesis
- Writing: Seeking enjoyment, church and community
- Playing: 7 Wonders
- Watching: Masterclass
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2024 Goals & Plans
2024 Goals
- I want my family and I to be active and healthy
- I want to have more energy for myself, family, and community
- I want to have strong emotional fluidity
- I want to live out my personal and family mission
- I want to enjoy life more in the present
- I want to be financially free for myself and family
- I want to be a good and faithful servant
2024 Plans
- I want my family and I to be active and healthy
- I will continue to do compound lifting and zone 2 cardio 2-3x per week
- I will practice healthy night routines and sleep early (9:30-10pm)
- I will encourage my family to practice healthy habits
- I want to have strong emotional fluidity
- I will reflect on my emotional triggers (review journal)
- I will distill and express Atlas of the Heart
- I will read the Listen book on parenting
- I will continue marriage counseling with an open mind and gentle heart
- I want to live out my personal and family mission
- I want to enjoy what I’m currently doing 5% more every day
- I want to find more enjoyable things (revisit PLAY model)
- I will read books I enjoy (e.g. science fiction, nonfiction)
- I will read the Habits of the Household
- I want to be financially free for myself and family
- I will be a professional trader
- I will create a simple and clear financial plan for my assets
- I will read Wealth Planning Strategies for Canadians
- I will manage my crypto assets and finish the cost basis analysis
- I want to be a good and faithful servant
- I will speak and listen to the whole Bible
- I will participate in the mission of God
- I will praise and pray once a week
- I want my family and I to be active and healthy
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Reflections while on the Path to Financial Freedom
10 Steps to Financial Freedom
- Find a reason greater than your current reality
- Harness the power of your daily choices
- Choose your friends carefully
- Master a formula and then learn a new one
- Pay yourself first
- Pay for professional advice
- Be quick to use cash for assets that provide ROI
- Remember that assets buy luxuries
- Learn from investment heroes
- Teach and you will receive dividends
Reflection
In the past, the fantasy of not having to work was not a strong enough why to pursue financial freedom. The dream was whimsical, nothing concrete to commit and persevere towards. However, providing my wife the opportunity to choose to stay home and take care of our second daughter was a strong enough reason than the current reality of her having to go back to work to make income.
The power of why is foundational to any pursuit. It leads the other steps, making them easier. I make the daily choices of sleeping and waking early. I avoid people or situations that do not allow me to fulfill the greater reality. I commit deeply to learning and practicing. I hold off on buying luxuries. However, I balance this aspect against being present and enjoying people and experiences before it is too late and without having any regrets. I have learned that making lots of money is also not a strong enough reason to be disciplined. As an aspiring professional trader, the greater why are reasons such as self-control, patience, self-awareness, and discipline. The byproduct is making money by trading.
6 Lessons of Financial Literacy
- The rich do not work for money
- Teach financial literacy
- Build your own business
- Utilize corporations wrapped around assets
- Invent your own money
- Work to learn, don’t work for money
Reflection
These lessons do not resonate as loudly as the 10 steps. Perhaps the only one that I have experienced and practiced is working to learn. I understand the value of leveraging the available entities for liability and tax reasons. I want to get to the point of not having to work for money. Through my active income of professional trading, my ultimate goal is to have enough liquid capital to provide a moderate return on dividends. Perhaps wrapping the trading business and capital generated around a corporation would be beneficial down the line.
5 Obstacles to Overcome
- Fear
- Cynicism
- Laziness
- Habits
- Arrogance
Reflection
I am very well familiar with these obstacles. Each of the obstacles on their own can derail the greater why. Fear leads the pack because it can prevent one from even starting. The fear of failure inhibits any action. The fear of not being good enough. The fear can share its reach with doubt. I doubt that financial freedom is possible. I doubt that professional trading is a viable way of generating income. In the process of trading, I have a fear of missing out. I fear that I will lose profits. I fear that I will lose my capital. If I am able to overcome my own internal fears, I then must face the external obstacles of cynicism. These external fears are typically expressed as trading is too risky. The cynicism comes off as sharing stories of others who have pursued and failed. For most, pursuing anything outside of the known and familiar path is a risky and dangerous business. Thus, to protect their way of life, cynicism inevitably comes out.
Once you overcome fear and cynicism and are able to start the journey, then you face the other obstacles. It is taxing and requires greater perseverance to endure. It is easy to become lazy, especially by looking busy on the outside when none of the actions contribute to the greater goal. It is easy to become lazy with sticking to systems and practicing discipline. It is boring. Then there is the battle of creating good habits and getting rid of bad ones. The daily habits lead to the greater goal. The daily sacrifices accumulate to returning powerful riches later. And the last and most deadly obstacle is tasting a small bit of success and becoming arrogant. The most detrimental part of my journey was generating a 43% return in one month. There was a whole amount of luck involved and improper risk management. The small voice saying I can do this again and I will become a millionaire in no time was the beginning of the months of demise. Not only did I lose all the gains, but I had 60% loss on initial capital. Arrogance must be checked on a regular basis as much as doing monthly performance reviews.
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May 8, 2024
- Reading: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Daniel, Techlash: Who Makes the Rules in the Digital Gilded Age?
- Exercising: Gym 3x per week (full body compound lifting), Mobility stretching
- Practicing: Trading system, Climbing
- Building: Trading business, portfolio, planter
- Studying: Pioneer Church Planting
- Listening: Jazz, Daniel
- Writing: Dwellling on a Pasture
- Playing: Uno, Aram
- Watching: Fallout, MSI Playoffs, Gen V
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Dwelling on a Pasture
The sheep laid down in green pastures. She was comfortable. She was not hungry. She was safe.
Yet, the sheep wanted more.
When the clouds covered the sun, the sheep was disgruntled she could not lie in warmth.
Despite the abundant amount of food to eat, she was picky and wanted more than green grass.
She looked out beyond her pasture and wondered what else could be out there.
The ox grazed just beyond the pasture down in the valley. The land he dwelled on was hard and tough from all the toil of being worked on.
The ox did not know much else besides the work he had to do. He was grateful for what he had to eat, a mixture of dry, wilted grass and shrubbery.
He was not picky. He could not be. The ox lived a simple life. It did not seem like much, but he was content and found satisfaction in all that he did.
The chickens scuttled and roamed the land freely. They did not care so much about what to eat or how hard to work. They wanted to flutter around freely and so they did.
With their freedom, they explored more dangerous unknowns. Often in their wandering, many got lost. Some, even killed. To the others, this did not matter. So they continued to scurry from here to there, never settling down in one place.
The llama guarded the outskirts of the land. She was always on guard, for she knew the reality of evil and her enemies. She could not rest because her land was always a place of war.
Her children knew of nothing else and were raised to fight and protect the land. The llama could not even dream of what green pastures could possibly be.
Despite the vast different realities of the sheep, ox, chicken, and llama, they dwelled together on the same land.
Relative to each other, it was easy to compare and complain. The differences were too stark to not notice that the grass was greener on the other side.
The animals would never be able to comprehend their coexistence. But the shepherd cares and watches over all of them.