Giants
You don't have time to figure everything out on your own.
The Cultured Warrior #063 | You don't have time to figure everything out on your own.
On the shoulders of giants... Bruce Lee said something about "taking what is useful... and making it your own" (1); but apropos to this newsletter I'll leave it to James Hetfield and the boys:
"Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters"
This week's subtitle is stolen from Jordan Peterson (2), but I digress...
Never before has it been more of a crime to think for yourself (3). Â The CDC's most recent guidance (4) to assess your own risk would have gotten you de-platformed, fired from your job, and the president of your country wishing you "death and severe illness" (5) a year ago.
More on that in a moment...
It's Week 5 of the endurance program I'm doing. Â The instructions were to (try to) increase volume, but "if you do not feel confident increasing it... make sure that your hesitation results from the accumulating volume taking its toll and not from a psychological failure."
What do these have in common? Â Of course, I've only got more questions than answers...
Are you folding because you gave into the bullying? Â Or, is it a "tactical retreat" to reassess and keep moving?
How much reassurance do you need that you need no reassurance at all? Â To love yourself? Â To better yourself? Â To tell someone you love them, or to f* off?
What gives you the right to abuse yourself anymore than anyone else (thanks again Jordan)?
I spoke with a client this week about who he surrounds himself with and gives the privilege of "filling his ears, his mind, and his heart?"  Thus, occupying his thoughts, energy, and the most scarce resource – time.
"With great power comes great responsibility" (7), but I dissent. Â With great freedom comes great responsibility. Â With great control comes great power. Â A cursory review of the history of the Middle East or Eastern Europe tells us how that story goes.
Which giants are you standing on? Â If you're the tallest pile of s* in the room, well, you get the idea. Â Wake up. Â It's later than you think. Â Start paying attention to who and what you take from and what they give to you.
Like reading the funding sources and conflict of interest disclosures in scientific literature; count the scars and wrinkles on a person's face. Â They tell stories. Â Ask about them and learn something.
"So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No nothing else matters"
~ Metallica, Nothing Else Matters
