So I think from biological principle, what we seek is a sense of progress growth abundance. I think the tricky thing too is… A lot of this is kind of like a mental thing. What I mean is, our sense of progress and growth is often subjective, incurred based off of thoughts on our mind, past experiences, perceptions, and framing?
changing up your perception
So one thing you could do is change up your perception about things. What that means is, your sense of growth is often predicated on subjective measures. If you switch up how you judge yourself, then, there’s a greater sense of growth.
Every day is a new day, every day is day one?
Each and every day is new – Heraclitus
To always adopt this Zen like line of thinking is perhaps quite advantageous. Jeff Bezos said every day is day one.
I think naturalist it probably is not natural for humans to start each and every single day without anchoring yourself to the past. However if you look at kids, I think they are better at treating each and every single day as an exciting new day, without concern of the past the future, they really truly do cherish the present moment.
I think also what gets and keeps us human beings going is the sense of hoping optimism for the future. The general idea that the future will be a little bit more prosperous, well off, and abundant.
Certainly thinking optimistically is a huge benefit, but isn’t it perhaps more strategic to think of abundance in the present moment right now?
gratitude
Sometimes I’m a little bit on the fence about the gratitude practice. In some ways, gratitude towards life in a general sense is one of the greatest ways to live. The artist paints his joy and his respect for life on his easel, and also, the life affirming philosopher does the same thing with his or her thoughts.
Certainly to promote life is a virtue, in terms of getting married having kids, spreading love joy and abundance with others, also perhaps it is useful to think about life as a generalistic thing, to apply the idea of gratitude towards life in a general sense.
gratitude for your body
Perhaps the greatest measure of all things is your body your human body. If you are unwell unfit, sleeping two hours a night, I think it is physiologically impossible to feel happy joyful or optimistic about things. And this is the greatest challenge, how can a truly great entrepreneur remain joyful, gay, happy, retain his or her mental clarity, Zen, sleep 8 to 12 hours a night, exercise much every single day, lift weights, feast on beef liver, not feel any sort of dread, anxiety or stress or fear…?
the gay monster
better to be a gay monster than a sentimental bore – galiani
To choose happiness Joy optimism, joy, gaiety in the midst of even the most dark in troublesome things, with a grim smirk, dark humor is perhaps a virtue?
weightlifting is your Nirvana
Certainly a modern day times you are not at the front lines of a Spartan phalanx , and almost none of our physical virtues carryover into socio economic ones. Like generally speaking, being insanely fit and strong and beautiful doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to earn more income. In fact, it is kind of the opposite… To deny your body of natural things like water sunlight, walking movement, being in the great outdoors, eating while sleeping well, not medicating yourself, in order to just make yourself more productive and efficient like a machine, are all the antithesis of modern day society.
Perhaps the critical thought I have is, is this simply a byproduct of capitalism or is it simply something else?
the Tao of capital
Assuming that you’re not the slave of your job your company your capital… Capitalism could be the most beautiful thing in terms of liberating yourself with your own individual freedom and liberty. The ancient Spartans and most philosophers believed that truly, freedom, freedom of your mind body and soul were the greatest virtues. Not necessarily how much you could invent or contribute to economic progress.
economic progress for the sake of what
This is the really hard thing to think about… It is not more capital for the sake of capital… But, capital as it means to an end or toward something else… Like for example, Elon Musk is funneling and channeling all of his capital in order to get us to Mars and beyond, he’s not just building this company for the sake of building companies.
grand life task or mission?
I think for myself… Perhaps my grand life task is, to devote my intelligence my brain my body my soul towards uncovering new philosophical insights and discoveries about the body soul, life in general? To innovate and to experiment and to come up with practical tactical and strategic things which can help other others as they have helped myself?
ERIC