createrati coffee: Recent Episodes
createrati
Benjamin Graham, the author of the acclaimed book “The Intelligent Investor” said that he hoped every day to do “something foolish, something creative and something generous." When I first tried this, I did the obvious or superficial — watch funny videos, draw, and give money. Lately, after reading books like The Big Leap and Working With The Law, I think I had it all wrong. Perhaps something foolish is putting on humility — the willingness to learn new things and change our minds and habits, even stuff we’re already good at, so that we can do better. Creative is doing something with what we’ve learned. Then generous is to do something for someone else by sharing our gifts or what we’ve learned, without expecting anything in return. So today, foolish for me was studying ink painting and getting comfortable with becoming a beginner again, creative is writing about this insight, and when I publish it and share it with the world, I think that counts as the generous part. Big or small, It’s all about getting it out there, right?
“There are no evil people; there are perfectly good people who are off the track, but they do not need condemnation or punishment; they only need to get upon the rails again.” —Wallace D Wattles.
It’s a great reminder that shifting perspectives is so important. So I thought about how I can apply it to everyday life.
Last weekend, a guy next to me started sneezing. I felt a wave of annoyance. Then a funny thought came to me:
What if we replaced the word annoying with sneezing? Instead of saying, That guy is annoying…we can say, that guy is sneezing.
Because then we’d bless him, feel compassionate towards him because he couldn’t stop sneezing, wish him good health and be grateful for our own good health. Or, maybe next time a brand annoys us, instead of ranting about it, maybe we can just bless them, feel compassionate that they’ve gone off track. We can be grateful for the lesson, to find ways to improve ourselves, or to offer them helpful feedback, especially when they ask.
There’s one meeting I never miss each day: my 20-minute meditation. It helps me on those times when I feel like something’s off, when I lash out, or get stuck in negative thinking. Meditation helps me check back in. It’s a meeting with myself. Or, a meeting with my brains. Left brain says: “Something doesn’t feel right, I’m scared, and it hurts.” Right brain says: “It’s okay, I’m here, I’ll never leave you, and I love you. So tell me, where does it hurt?” Maybe you could also imagine a loved one that said these words to you. If you’ve never heard it from anyone, here’s a chance to say it to yourself. And it can be done with just one breath, which I plan to sprinkle in my day. Inhale with mindfulness o, exhale with self-compassion. It doesn’t have to take long at all. And we can do it anywhere, anytime. Everyone talks about self-love, but sometimes we’re not clear how to put it into action. So I thought I’d share one of the many ways until you find your own. We have all we need within ourselves to feel loved, instead of seeking it elsewhere. When we take time to love ourselves and listen to ourselves, we have more capacity to love and care for others. To realise that we have all we need within ourselves to feel loved. When we love ourselves and listen to ourselves, we have more capacity to love and care for others.
In his book: How I Failed at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams talks about this one key skill that many of us overlook.