A Singular Self

Suppose you know what you want to do with your days. Maybe you already did. Now think again. How might you be sure, that what you think or know is what you really want? What really satisfies you? You might be thinking, that since there is no strong counter evidence, it must be true. Maybe you have worked and thought long and hard about your purpose and are feeling confident, that effort equals probably truth. It may also very well be that you don't care at all about that question right now. Beliefs can be strong in my experience. For a time now I have been sure, that my purpose in life is to help people open up ideas, so that they may live a happier and more fulfilled life. I have used this belief as a tool to guide my actions and thoughts. At least I think I have. The strange thing is, that since I have created this tool for myself everything has been an opportunity to try this out. There exists a law of the instrument , that is suitable to remember: "Give a small boy...

The Enviable Working Life In so far as I envy my partner's working life, it's because she works part time and the attitude of her work seems rather laid back to me. What's even more important, she is creating long term value. The focus is not on making quickly more money, but on making more people educated and happy. At least that’s what I perceive. In my line of work we sometimes focus on that too, but we mainly focus on quick money - quick as in a few years not a few decades. I envy my partner's working life because she delves more in the oceans of humanities. Whereas I delve in the oceans of electronics. It could of course also be that I need to navigate uncharted waters. Everyone will eventually get tired floating the same seas over and over again, don’t they? So what can I do to incorporate more of the things I like about my partner's working life into mine? What can anybody do, who would like to do, have or be more of what someone else is doing, havin...

The third week of the year 2016 is about to end. For me the fourth decade of my life is about to truly begin. For the first time ever, I have created a plan of how I would like to see my year evolve. It took me some 16 hours to go through last year’s journals, calendar events, corners of the memory castle and draft the plan. That's less than 0.2% of the whole year - not a particularly big investment, but a particularly impactful one. I have started almost all of my years usually with some fantasies or dreams about what I would like my future life or the world to look like, but never before have I clearly described how I envision the path to those dreams to be. A Singular Self recognizes fears and deals with them before they paralyze for good or it's too late. The fear I have about my career "going wrong" is that I'll get stuck on the wrong path and won't be able to change. What's even more frustrating, is that I'm unsure about the path - I...

School's On Every season a new cycle begins and with that, soon a lot of people will be unhappy. Like myself many years back, they will feel, that this is not it. The study of field they chose or the way it is taught does not satisfy. What's even worse, a lot of the people, who will feel unhappiness or in other words an unknown burden lingering on their heart (or shoulders for some) - don't even know what the better alternative would be. When I finished high school I knew I had to continue my formal education and apply for the university. "Had". My high school prepped us for that, and so did my parents and grandparents. "You need to have a formal higher education if you're going to achieve anything in life," was in essence what they portrayed. I mean I'm not saying that formal education is unnecessary or wrong. I'm saying that at least after high school it should be time for young people to be able to make up their own minds...

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”  [1] In the book "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" Shunryu Suzuki talks about the practice of Zen and how it relates to one's true self and the natural way to live. He said that in order to practice true zazen one should not practice with the aim of gaining something special. "It is our human nature to be active and the nature of every existence. As long as we are alive, we are always doing something. But as long as you think, “I am doing this,” or “I have to do this,” or “I must attain something special,” you are actually not doing anything.” [2] This is quite similar to the more modern approach of Zen-Buddhism called mindfulness and connects also very well to stoicism . Which got me thinking, that indeed thinking IS thinking and doing IS doing. So do we in everyday reality actually confuse these processes? Is it so, that we often don't move in the desired directi...

Unbelievable how hard it is to change myself. Trying to build habits that resonate in my mind with what I want and need should be easy, right? I see the need for improvement - the why , I know how I should approach it and I have the solutions on paper - the what . But every conceivable old habit is working against acquiring new ones. I haven't written for a long while now. Although I honestly believe that putting finger on keyboard helps me to expand on my ideas. The good thing though is, that in the meanwhile I've found my "Why" - the purpose, cause or belief why I do what I do. I've put into words the meaning of my being and trying to work with it as much as possible; like using a tool. Here it is - my purpose in life: To help people open up their ideas so that they may live a happier and more fulfilled life. ... a big step towards my singular self. Months ago, to be precise on the 4th of March , I joined a writing challenge. I failed it, becau...

In order to protect myself from confirmation bias , I decided to put my beliefs about happiness under test. First I deconstructed them into smaller hypotheses. It's important to note, that the definition of happiness is not yet clear for me (nor for anyone as I actually understand) . My hypotheses aren't so much about the hedonistic tradition of happiness, where the focus is on seeking pleasant and avoiding unpleasant experiences. At this point I rather hold the eudaimonic meaning in mind, where happiness is centered on living life in a full and deeply satisfying way. My five hypotheses: All people want to be happy. If a person wants to become happy, they must first understand and accept the situation they're in right now. If a person wants to become happy and has accepted the situation they're in, they next have to discover, what their Why? (purpose, cause of belief) is. If a person has discovered their Why?, then dreams grow out of it. If a person ...