The intention to benefit

Start each day with the intention to benefit others. The intention to be a tool of kindness.

Image by Will Simpson

In lojong practice, the idea is to act with the intention of benevolence. A few heroic or virtuous gestures or taking on some righteous cause won’t do. This intention should color the way you do the simplest things. "Your gestures, speech, thoughts, and emotions should all be expressions of one intention: the powerful intention of benefiting sentient beings.”

The goal is to have a quality of presentness, openness, that colors everything you do.

Hope you have an awesome day!

Credits — The 59 Lojong Slogans - Atisha's mind-training techniques. Commentary by Judy Lief Tricycle Magazine 2010

This journal is meant as a reminder to my future self. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Zettelkasten

“The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity.” - Josh Waitzkin

Image by Will Simpson

 What is Zettelkasten and how did I get here?

As a reader I am aware of the importance and difficulty of remembering and recalling what I’ve read. For the longest time, too long really, I’ve comforted myself with the notion from Ralph Waldo Emerson “I cannot remember the books I have read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” In a way this is true but I know I can do better. To that end I’ve been reading about reading (meta reading) and came across Sönke Ahrens book "How to Take Smart Notes” which introduced me to Niklas Luhmann and his method of taking notes while reading, from lectures, and spontaneous ideas.

Zettelkasten is Niklas Luhmann’s formalized method if formalized is the right term. He was a prolific writer from Germany and has a small army of followers, mostly German, who evangelize his methods. 

It has 4 parts:

1. specific system

2. card numbering rules

3. internal linking

4. comprehensive keyword index

The Zettelkasten system seems to organically create linkages between ideas captured from various different books and ideas as one works with the Zettelkasten over time. I’ve come to realize that this is what knowledge work is. 

If at all interested I can recommend Sönke Ahrens book "How to Take Smart Notes” and for a further explanation of the system and zettelkasten.de to connect with a community of practitioners with tools and suggestions and examples and youtube lessons. 

This has been a game changer for me so far.

Hope you have an awesome day!

This journal is meant as a reminder to my future self. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Success/Defeat

Image by Will Simpson

Success and happiness are largely the result of practicing good habits.

Don’t grab defeat from the hands of success. Just when your about to succeed don’t let defeat butt in.

It is surprising how little it takes to defeat success in life.

Hope you have an awesome day!

Credit - Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande 

This journal is meant as a reminder to my future self. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Keep a single intention

What would it take for me to show up with a world class attitude every day? 

Mindfulness, curiosity, health, fitness, have a drive to help.

What would it take for me to master constructive communication? 

Face fears, practice, study, have a drive to help.

What would it take for me to follow up consistently? 

Start small and build, monitor, have a drive to help.

The path to standing out may never be clearer.

Having the drive to help.

Image by Will Simpson

Hope you have an awesome day!

This journal is meant as a reminder to my future self. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

4 great vows

Image by Will Simpson

4 great vows

          Help where I can

          Don’t be distracted

          Go to bed every night having learned something

          Strive to be better than before

Simple. Within my circle of influence. 
Just start, there is no dress rehearsal.
Try, try, try.

Hope you have an awesome day!

This journal is meant as a reminder to my future self. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Sky mind

Mind like sky - expansive, open, non judgmental. Easy in concept, hard to practice. Not hard really just not the default mode. Our usual default mode is to focus on ourselves, what is happening ‘to’ and ‘with’ us. This mind like sky is a mode where there is no particular focus. Just a resting in the field of consciousness. Not a focusing on one thing or another but instead a noticing that things one after another just appear and if not held onto, rethought about, played with, they sampling unravel and disappear making room for the next sensation, feeling, sound, or thought.

May you have a moment or two where you can let your mind be like the sky.

Hope you have an awesome day!

Credits — Sam Harris

This journal is meant as a reminder to my future self. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.

Don’t put a head on top of your head

One head is enough.

Focusing on the faults of others and even our own faults is not helpful for others and perniciously plays into our own ego-grasping. An antidote to this is to encouragement and support strengths, theirs and ours. 

Our inner voice, the constant narrative that we are playing, is not helpful. It is mean and wants its way. It is childish and greedy. It is not helpful to let it have its way. If we treated others like our inner monologue treated us, we’d be ostracized in our community. This part of our narrative is mal-adapted to a rich, happy life. It kept us scared when it was evolutionarily prudent to but in our current social situations it is troublesome.

Hope you have an awesome day!

Credits — The 59 Lojong Slogans - Atisha's mind-training techniques. Commentary by Judy Lief Tricycle Magazine 2010

This journal is meant as a reminder to my future self. A reminder to him to operate in the world with love and compassion and some tips put together in a moment of clarity to help him when he is less clear and caught up in stuff the he can’t control.  Continue the conversation anytime: will@kestrelcreek.com.