Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

• Accomplishments require action with intent

  Date: 2010.01.04 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

  I took a roughly two-week vacation this holiday season. It was my first real vacation since starting my job back in May, and the first time that I ran out of reasons to push off reflecting on how my life has changed since leaving college and, perhaps more significantly, leaving AIESEC.

  While I have a number of reasons to be happy with my year, my self-evaluation was mixed, largely because of one reason: I found myself falling back into an old, familiar trap. I’ve been fighting it for much of my life and only started overcoming regularly in the last few years; it is a problem I share with a large swath of the world. It is, quite simply, that I am far too likely to take things as they come.

  The pitfalls of going with the flow

  The value of being able to adjust to whatever comes your way is critical and should not be underestimated. Many of the best experiences I had while traveling came about as a result of letting things happen spontaneously—from getting treated to an intense Russian sauna experience in Ust-Kamenogorsk to a bizarre trip from Munich to Barcelona via Barcellona, Italy (don’t ask).

  However, the same attitude that works well for day-to-day decisions can be disastrous for major life decisions. In these cases, going with the flow is the equivalent of taking the path of least resistance: the path that does not challenge you to develop yourself, or, worse, can lead you thoroughly astray. It can happen in any facet of life: the job you get, the college you go to, the hobbies you take up. And while for most people with a middle class upbringing this path leads to the inescapable gloom of mediocrity, for many people across the world the “path of least resistance” leads to poverty, drug addiction and crime.

  Acting with intent

  If going with the flow can become the antithesis of personal growth, acting with intent is the catalyst that makes it happen. When a person acts with intent, they are aligning their actions towards a specific purpose.

  Actions with intent are generally goal-driven, but even more than that, they are deliberate: the critical element is in making a conscious decision—“I have decided to do this, for the following reasons.” This type of action is the outcome of a process that—despite its simplicity—I have always found hard to put into practice.

  Changing my approach

  Driven by the desire to make improvements, I’ve spent much of the holiday reading about various frameworks for goal setting and methods for productivity improvements. To my chagrin I found that none of these felt quite right to me: I could not see myself following through on any of the more intense ones, and the more basic ones struck me as things I wouldn’t think about often enough.

  Instead, and partially inspired by a post by a good friend of mine, Justin Hsu, I’ve concluded that the way to keep myself accountable is to boil my goals down into a single question: Am I acting with intent?

  This isn’t a “theme” for the year; it’s much too vague and too broad for that. Rather, it is an ongoing sanity test for me, as I make decisions and choose to do (or not do) certain things throughout the year.

  I’m still working through applying the aforementioned process to setting my own goals, and I’ll share it as I do. But the entire way, I’ll be asking myself that same question.

• Make a wish

  Date: 2009.06.19 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

  If you have no wish, how can it possibly come true?

  —Seth Godin, Ruby Slippers

• Little things

  Date: 2009.03.23 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

  Today I found out that an email I forwarded after giving it about 30 seconds of thought was one of the reasons that contributed to a friend applying for a year-long super cool leadership position in AIESEC Southern Cone.

  Yet another reminder of the power of tiny actions that ripple out and have surprising effects. I don’t for one second take full, or even majority, credit for her decision. I just know that I’m proud to have played a role, however small.

  It makes me think: what can each of us do with just 5-10 minutes a day that can truly make a difference? If we could always change someone’s life with a few minutes of thought and a few minutes of action, what would we choose to do? And how do we make our few minutes count for as much as possible?

• I am an AIESECer

  Date: 2009.01.06 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

  

• Zip codes (in honor of graduation)

  Date: 2008.12.13 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

  A few weeks ago I came across a fun little tool to map out zip codes around the nation, and, being bored, decided to go through and pick out some zip codes I thought were interesting. In honor of my graduation today, and in place of deep, insightful reflection on such vague questions like “how I feel,” I decided to post that whole list here, along with some fun facts at the end.

  Sequential

  • 12345 – Schenectady, NY
  • 23456 – Virginia Beach, VA
  • 45678 – Scottown, OH
  • 43210 – Columbus, OH
  • 76543 – Killeen, TX

  Same

  • 22222 – Arlington, VA
  • 44444 – Newton Falls, OH
  • 55555 – Young America, MN (Actually, Young America has Zip codes 55550-55559.)

  Two alternating numbers (non-exhaustive)

  • 01010 – Brimfield, MA (Those crazy puritans and their crazy city names…)
  • 02020 – Brant Rock, MA
  • 04040 – Harrison, ME
  • 05050 – Mc Indoe Falls, VT
  • 06060 – North Granby, CT
  • 07070 – Rutherford, NJ
  • 08080 – Sewell, NJ
  • 10101 – New York, NY
  • 12121 – Melrose, NY
  • 13131 – Parish, NY
  • 14141 – Springville, NY
  • 16161 – Wheatland, PA
  • 19191 – Philadelphia, PA
  • 21212 – Baltimore, MD
  • 23232 – Richmond, VA
  • 25252 – Le Roy, WV
  • 28282 – Charlotte, NC
  • 29292 – Columbia, SC
  • 30303 – Atlanta, GA
  • 31313 – Hinesville, GA
  • 32323 – Lanark Village, FL
  • 37373 – Sale Creek, TN
  • 40404 – Berea, KY (Home of the File Not Found error!)
  • 43434 – Harbor View, OH
  • 45454 – Dayton, OH
  • 53535 – Edmund, WI
  • 54545 – Manitosh Waters, WI
  • 56565 – Nashua, MN
  • 60606 – Chicago, IL
  • 62626 – Carlinville, IL
  • 63636 – Des Arc, MO
  • 64646 – Humphreys, MO
  • 65656 – Galena, MO
  • 70707 – Gonzales, LA
  • 72727 – Elkins, AR
  • 73737 – Fairview, OK
  • 74747 – Kemp, OK
  • 75757 – Bullard, TX
  • 78787 – Austin, TX
  • 80808 – Calhan, CO
  • 94949 – Novato, CA
  • 95959 – Nevada City, CA

  Random Facts

  • Many of the zip codes in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. are 3333x, where x is 0, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.
  • All the zip codes starting with 666 are in Kansas, for the most part in the Topeka area.
  • 69169 – Wallace, NE.
  • Beamont, TX is the luckiest city in the nation (?): It holds all zip codes starting with 777.
  • No one has 31337.

• Mental bandwidth

  Date: 2008.04.01 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

  About a year ago I made an effort to read a book about the operations of the mind and the relationship between the human brain and the concept of mind. I wasn’t able to force myself to finish the book, however, because the questions the book sought to answer struck me as patently ridiculous. One of the many reasons that I am not a philosopher is that I find debates over things like the mind-body problem ultimately unimportant, and most explorations of them self-indulgent and baseless.

  I greatly prefer a more practical approach to thinking about the mind: I don’t really want to contemplate how it works as long as it does. But there is one (in my opinion) common-sensical concept that I do use extensively: that of ‘mental bandwidth,’ generally in the context that I don’t have enough of it available for something.

  Essentially, I find that the amount of things I can keep in my mind or consider has a finite limit, and so the things I contemplate on a regular basis are limited to the few things that I prioritize as the most important. The limit obviously decreases significantly when I am overloaded with work or other things (as I often am back home) — things like getting my assigned tasks at work accomplished, or finishing projects for school. But the mental bandwidth does not strictly vary with my free time, as some things might use up a lot of mental bandwidth while using up trivial amounts of physical time.

  Since I’ve been here in Almaty I’ve discovered that without the stresses of daily life in Atlanta, I suddenly feel like I have significantly more of this bandwidth available. This leaves me free to contemplate the things that previously were too low on the priority list, like changing bad habits, or indeed relationships.

  Relationships, in fact, are perhaps the best example of this mental bandwidth concept, as they require a lot of bandwidth to be viable. Whenever I even considered relationships back in Atlanta my general feeling was one of stress, guilt and frustration brought on by the fact that I knew I wasn’t able to put enough of myself into anything. Here, I’ve unexpectedly found myself with what I might consider a much… healthier range of emotions towards the idea. Ironic, considering getting into a relationship during a six-month stint in Kazakhstan probably makes very little sense. But hey — que sera, sera.

• Relative Expenditures

  Date: 2008.02.11 | Category: Life | Response: Comments

  Last night, I spent nearly $15 on dinner with a group of friends. The food was delicious but it seems like the expenditure is remarkably large considering that it was probably less than healthy and all it did for me was fill me up. From the perspective of having an impact, what did I gain from spending that money?

  I’m not saying this from the perspective of being a cheapskate; rather, it made me muse about the things I have consciously avoided spending money on that could make a lasting improvement in my daily life. If I added up my monthly expenses for going out to eat, I could buy maybe 10-15 pairs of “nice” socks. So why am I still putting up with ones that are uncomfortable and, in some cases, developing holes?

  Likewise, my laptop battery life has been disgustingly bad lately. An eBay search showed that I could buy a third-party battery for roughly $40. The utility of better battery life for me is significant; I feel like run into battery life-related annoyances several times a week. For the cost of two and a half dinners, I could remove a regular annoyance.

  And yet when it comes down to daily actions, it’s always a lot easier for me to convince myself to spend money on dinner than on a new laptop battery. I would make a terrible economist.

  Meanwhile, I’ve finally ordered that new laptop battery after all.