Walden Pond

Foundations

Reminders for a Sunday Evening

Goals for 2021

Second year doing an annual review! Came back to last year’s throughout 2020 and what a year it was. Did a similar process as last year, going through the calendar and photos, along with other notes. My goals for 2021:

• Patience
• Meditate more, Drink less
• Strength and Cardio
• BikeTheBayArea 2021
• Learn Guitar
• Open Mic Comedy

Goals for 2020

I came across this medium post by Steve Schlafman and was inspired to do an annual life review for the first time. I went through my calendar and all the photos I took over the last year noting important moments. Reflected on what went well and what to improve on in 2020 in a personal google doc. Here are my main takeways to focus on in the year ahead:

• Meditate more, Drink less
• Quality over quantity
• Kitchen Remodel
• Prioritize Friendship
• Improve Analytical Abilities
• New Physical Activities
• Write, Start, Advise, Invest

Daily Dose

• Meditate everyday (Find your meditation, OSHO’s 121 Meditations) including on the cushion, in the small moments of life and while walking.
• Smile others into smiling
• Set your intention for the day
• Be honest (with yourself)
• Value friendship
• Prioritize relentlessly
• Don’t work too much
• Say what you think
• Dream BIG
• YOU DO HAVE TIME, you’re just not making it a high enough priority
• Stand up straight with your shoulders back
• Always pet the puppy

How To Treat Others

• Don’t be a dick
• Be honest (with others)
• Don’t criticize, show respect for other’s opinions
• Be sincere and genuine
• When you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically
• Be sympathetic
• Appeal to the nobler motives
• Be interested in what others have to say
• Listen actively
• Give others a great reputation to live up to

Review Last Week

• What did you enjoy and how can you do more of that this week?
• What did you not enjoy and how can you do less of that this week?

Motivations

• Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence
• Have fun in life and everything you do
• Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for
• Be friends with those who want the best for you
• Do not let your kids do anything that makes you dislike them
• Love the book you’re reading, otherwise skim it
• Be Self Determined focusing on competence (seek to control the outcome and experience mastery), relatedness (interact, be connected to, and experience caring for and from others), and autonomy (be causal agent of one’s own life and act in harmony with one’s integrated self).
• If a big decision is coming up, write your reasoning down to review later.

Reflect On The Noble Eightfold Path

• Right View: Our actions have consequences. Karma is a simple way of saying that the world is connected and each of us has an opportunity to treat other how we want to be treated.
• Right Resolve: You don’t need to become a monk to want less and appreciate more.
• Right Concentration: The goal is not “enlightenment”, instead Samadhi, a state of meditative consciousness where the mind becomes still, totally aware of the present moment.

Have the Courage to be Disliked

• People can change, the world is simple and everyone can be happy.
• The world is not objective, it is subjective and we give it meaning
• Goal of life is to be self-reliant and to live in harmony with society. You must believe you have the ability to be self-reliant and that (most) people are/can be your friends.
• Kant’s inclination is in all of us, we all want to be liked by everyone, but to do so is to swear loyalty to every person you meet, even those whose values that don’t align with your own.
• Freedom is being able to be disliked by other people. Being disliked by others is proof that you are being free by living in accordance with your own principles.
• Contribute to all aspects of your community; the people, animals, plants and objects that you respect and love.
• Being part of a community is not about striving to be liked by others, but instead having concern for others, building horizontal relationships, and encouraging others. These all contribute to a deep sense of “I am of use to someone.” There is no freedom in a feeling of contribution that is gained through the desire for recognition.
• For a human being, the greatest unhappiness is not being able to like oneself.
• Do not treat life as a singular line. Life is a series of dots. If you look through a magnifying glass at a solid line drawn with chalk, you will discover that what you thought was a line is actually a series of small dots. Seemingly linear existence is actually a series of moment dots.
• Suppose you are going on a journey to Egypt. Would you try to arrive at the Great Pyramid of Giza as efficiently and quickly as possible, and then head straight back home by the shortest route? One would not call that a “journey.” You should be on a journey the moment you step outside your home, and all the moments on the way to your destination should be a journey. Of course, there might be circumstances that prevent you from making it to the pyramid, but that does not mean you didn’t go on a journey. This is “energeial life.”
• What is the meaning of life? Adler said, “Life in general has no meaning. Whatever meaning life has it must be defined by us.”
• Philosophy refers not to “wisdom” itself but to the “love of wisdom,” and it is the very process of learning what one does not know and arriving at wisdom that is important. #KeepLearning

Food Is Life

• I believe a plant-based diet is the best way to give your body what it needs with less of what it doesn’t including animal fat, sugar and processed food.
• I also believe “better not perfect” is the best way to interact with the world.
• Fasting research is just beginning and I believe we will better understand its benefits (along with the microbiome) over the next decade.

Quotes

• “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness” — Einstein, as he hit fame.
• “Do you have something to do, someone to love, something to give, and something to look forward to?” — Dan Buettner
• “The harder you work at being happy, the less likely you are to be happy” — Adam Grant
• “Beware the barrenness of a busy life” — Socrates. I love this quote as it speaks to the idea of not letting your todo list run your life. Regularly reevaluate what’s important and understand that sometimes doing nothing is something unto itself.
• “If you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.” — Steve Jobs
• “I believe that the key to success lies in knowing how to both strive for a lot and fail well. By failing well, I mean being able to experience painful failures that provide big learnings without failing badly enough to get knocked out of the game…Pain + Reflection = Progress.” — Ray Dalio
• “You can have anything you want, but not everything you want. Maturity is the ability to reject good alternatives in order to pursue even better ones.” — Ray Dalio
• “The greatest thing that we can do is to help somebody know that they’re loved and capable of loving.” — Mr Rodgers
• “Goal of parenting is to constantly increase responsibilities and decision making while reducing limits and boundaries.” — Barbara Coloroso
• “Create things of beauty and significance. Relish the world and those who inhabit it, and help others do the same” — Paul Petrick
• “Only two things make anyone change anything — the pain of the present, or the promise of the future.” — Unknown
• “The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• “I don’t want my career to be defined by how much work I did, but what I did.” — Olivia Wilde

History Of This Post

Over the last decade I have amassed a collection of physical post-it notes, digital reminders, quotes and other lessons on how I want to live my life. Some people call these “values”, which Naval Ravikant defines as his “non-negotiables”, others like Ray Dailio call these “Principles”. For me, I think of them as Foundations. These are the teachings and ideas from which I build from, and without them, nothing else matters.

Starting a family taught me how short life is and I decided to take a more active role in prioritizing my time as family comes first and as my career becomes more challenging, I continually have less and less free time.

In 2015, I attempted to condense these various life lessons into a single poster that I would look at once a day. In 2016, I revised it a bit and tried to make it easier to read. In 2017, I simplified it even further by making it my phone’s lock screen, which, let’s be honest, is probably the best way to make sure you read something once a day.

After 3 years of trying to distill these down into a single image, I have decided to instead write these out in detail in a way that is more meaningful, easier to share, and explain to both myself and others why something is listed.

Instead of trying to review these everyday, I now read this post every Monday as I prepare for the week ahead.

2015

2016

2017