Happy Sunday!
Sometime in June 2018, I was leaning hunched over against my desk, watching a Jordan Peterson lecture on my iPhone 6. He said, “Responsibility, man, that’s where the meaning of life is.”
I sat back into my worn-in pleather office chair, gazing off into nowhere, thinking, “Could it really be that simple?” I scribbled the quote on a cue card as I etched it into my mind.
Five years later, five years older, sitting on a different pleather office chair, I’m not asking the question anymore. I don’t have to.
The older I get, and the more I experience, the more I accept responsibility as truth. I’ve created the circumstances of my life through the choices I’ve made. To blame someone else for what I’m experiencing won’t change anything. Only by taking responsibility for the life I am living can I begin to change the circumstances of it.
I’ve done this in small ways and big ways.
I’ve found more information when I feel a lack of control. I’ve accepted the anxiety that comes with considering what I DO want instead of ruminating on all the things I don’t. I’ve committed to a path by investing skin in the game.
I realize all I can do is take responsibility for today. Just this, right now.
Three Lessons Learned in June:
- Your choices compound daily. Start with good choices.
- No one is going to give you anything without asking.
- To speak your truth, no matter how it’s received, is to love yourself.
Journeying through June:
💡 I enjoyed a number of quality conversations this month. Conversations about life and love and other intricate aspects of existence. I feel grateful for those conversations. They realign me to what I believe and remind me that we’re all just trying to figure things out.
👻 Premium Ghostwriting Academy — This is my skin in the game. The money I paid to enrol in this program eliminates most other possibilities. I’ve committed to this path, and I will see where it takes me. It felt like the right thing at the right time. It presents a tangible risk, and I think risk is what I was missing.
🏘️ After accommodating way too many showings at the apartment we’re currently living in, I reached out to the Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service (RTDRS) of Alberta for more information. In one prompt email, they provided a key missing piece of information relevant to our situation. We conveyed the information to our property management company and asked for adjustments to be made. The adjustments were made.
The situation reminded me of 2 things: 1) More information, especially from real people, is always helpful. 2) If you don’t ask, the answer is no.
☀️ I escaped the city for a few days, travelling to my family’s cabin at Wabamun Lake. The best part about it was the mental break. I learned a day in the sun with nothing to think about is a syphon for stress. The longer you sit, the stronger the flow.
Three Valuable Things To Share 🌎
📺 Arnold’s Story—A Classic Hero’s Journey
Documentary: Arnold (Netflix)
I love, love, love a classic tale of the Hero’s Journey. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s story is the epitome of the Hero’s Journey. From the call to adventure to meeting the mentor to seizing the sword, he did it all. Not once, but over and over again.
“Always be useful and don’t just waste time on yourself” — Gustav Schwarzenegger
🖊️ Becca Schuh on Waitressing, Writing, and Reality
Article: Bad Waitress by Becca Schuh
This girl gets it. I’ve worked in the restaurant industry for 10 years to finance my creative endeavours. It’s a balancing act that is difficult to maintain. The work takes a toll on your spirit. But it also connects you to a reality that too many intellectuals neglect.
“I suspect it’s easier to teach a waitress to be a writer than an intellectual to be a waiter.” — Becca Schuh
“I do think being a waitress has done one great thing with respect to writing: it has made me understand deeply and fundamentally how many writers are full of shit. It has altered my view of privilege and money and the ways that people complain that mask the fact that in their world, they would never have to do a job that equates to basic manual labor, because their intelligence is worth more than waiting on others.” — Becca Schuh
📝 40 Dazzling Mind-Expanding Concepts
Thread: 40 Concepts to Expand Your Mind by @g_s_bhogal (Twitter)
More mental concepts to deepen your understanding of the world around and within you. I find it fascinating how many things have been noticed and studied but remain unknown to most people.
Three that left an impression on me:
- 9. Rothbard’s Law: If a talent comes naturally to someone, they assume it’s nothing special, and instead try to improve at what seems difficult to them. As a result, people often specialize in things they’re bad at.
- 11. Solomon’s Paradox: We’re better at solving other people’s problems than our own, because detachment yields objectivity. But Kross et al (2014) found viewing oneself in the 3rd person yields the same detachment, so when trying to help yourself, imagine you’re helping a friend.
- 29. Gurwinder’s Theory of Bespoke Bullshit: Many don’t have an opinion until they’re asked for it, at which point they cobble together a viewpoint from whim & half-remembered hearsay, before deciding that this 2-minute-old makeshift opinion will be their new hill to die on.
I’ll leave you with a quote 🤔
“If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”
— Thomas Edison
If you enjoyed the newsletter, send it to someone else that will too.
Until next time, remember to live and let go,
Scotty
P.S. Full of fun facts
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