ULFBERHT

@Shroomdoctor I work in manufacturing, and lean methodology is a big deal in my field. A subset of lean philosophy is kaizen, which translates from Japanese to something resembling "continuous improvement". I use a kaizen paradigm to gently ingratiate myself toward change over time, and I can gradually see myself becoming more disciplined. Not perfectly, and not all at once, but little by little. How gradually? Read the book "2 Second Lean" by Paul Akers. He gets his employees together every day and mandates a suggestion from every single one of them that could cut two seconds off of their production time, save two steps, or eliminate a small amount of material waste in some way. Over the years, his company has become so efficient, productive, and profitable that they haven't raised their prices - not even a little bit. Here's the point: get an overall strategy together about what kind of improvement you're looking for, break it down into micro-steps, and drill those micro-steps every day until they become habit. Repeat. I use an access database to keep track of the habits I'm working on and reference them to calendar days. I do the same with my workouts. (See attached) Also, take a look at my strategy. Having a strategy that's working toward a goal is a must. For me, that's getting an education, lifting weights, advancing my spirituality, etc. (See attached) How micro should your steps be? That's up to you. Maybe instead of studying for 30 minutes, you start with 15. Make it manageable, measurable, and commit to improvement over time. If strategy doesn't work or if you can't commit to a certain habit, try a different plan of attack that might get you to the same thing.

I think I had a mini-insight this afternoon. I was out and about with my wife, running some errands, when I caught myself thinking about the future, and how good it'll be and how happy I'll be when I finally do "x", and achieve "y", and experience "z". In that moment I realized that, in a way, my entire life is RIGHT NOW, and that being happy in the future doesn't make any sense if everything is, in fact, RIGHT NOW. I don't exactly know how to articulate it, because I'm not saying we shouldn't strive or work toward something or be ambitious. It was just a sense that I was wasting my time and making myself uncomfortable waiting for any other moment than RIGHT NOW to be exactly the kind of person I want to be and do exactly the kinds of things I want to do. If everything is right now, how does that change how I live my life right now? It makes me feel like I really want to get to work and start being the best version of myself right fucking now. Has anyone else experienced something like this? How can we fully live in the present? Is that even possible?

@Leo Gura I figured. Thanks.

I've sat down, set a timer, and tried to concentrate for over 60 days in a row now. Yay for me building good habits! The problem is I haven't even had one taste of access concentration yet. I've mainly been trying to focus on a mantra, but in sessions where even that seems too difficult, I've tried to focus simply on my breath. I won't give up my hard-won habit, but I'm frustrated with my lack of progress. Tips? Tricks? Advice? Encouragement? I've watched Leo's video in the past, but the details are not fresh in my mind. I will be returning to it.

Thank you both for answering. I feel like I know the answer already, but I'll ask anyway: how much is my lack of concentration a function of the object i'm focusing on? That is, can I not concentrate because I haven't chosen an object that works for me, or is my concentration just shitty right now, regardless of what I'm trying to focus on? I feel like it's the latter, but I'll avoid wasting my time on a technique that isn't good for me if I can. @Leo Gura

This article about the argument for shorter work hours and more individual control over free time raises some interesting ideas about work culture in America and how cultural attitudes are assumed across time. Reading it, I realized I have a kind of love-hate relationship with the work culture in my country. If I'm speaking honestly, I'd love to spend most of my time like a Sunday morning; reading, studying, reflecting, sitting quietly, and sipping my coffee. But on the other hand, it feels good in a way to hit it hard Monday morning, work through lunch, and maybe go into the office on Saturday morning to get some extra work done. I feel like American attitudes about work are closely linked to attitudes about self-worth and social contribution. I noticed in myself agreeing with some of the arguments in the essay, but at the end, I still don't feel like shorter work hours are a good idea. Something about it still feels lazy. What do you think?

Dump his ass.

I work as a technician using CAD/CAM software in a woodworking manufacturing business. In the past months and years, I've proven my value and skill in the business and have worked my way up to become something of a manager. It's a small business, maybe twenty employees, but even though everyone knows everyone and we're all friendly, the guys come to me for answers when the head honcho isn't around and look to me for answers. Recently, I've been given more responsibility for oversight over the whole business. I've wanted this responsibility, but damn has it gotten heavy. This week we've had several equipment failures, we're behind on several of jobs, and I've made two big mistakes in the past two days due a programming error in code that I wrote, which has now cost us a big chunk of time and money. What I'd like to know is, how responsible am I for everything going on at work, and in my life generally, right now? I feel like I intellectually understand that I should accept 100% responsibility for my life. I understand that it's a stronger position from which to solve problems. However, I don't really believe it. When things get difficult, I hear my internal dialogue looking for an excuse, someone else to blame, or otherwise some way of escaping culpability. I can tell that although I understand it, I don't really act as if I take 100% responsibility for my life, and that might be a problem. I accept that the programming error was certainly my own, and I'm going to fix it, but what about the equipment failure? What about other people half-assing their work? That all affects me even though I didn't have anything directly to do with it. Or maybe I did. Am I responsible for those things, too? I want to help make this business I am a part of better than it's ever been, but at the same time that I'm looking for other people to blame for these various issues, I can't help but feel that maybe my own orientation, attitude, habits, perspectives, and actions are affecting my reality in more ways than I can immediately see. If that's true, than maybe my own psychology and behavior is the solution to all these problems. Any thoughts?

@exhale excellent point. That's what I'm trying to do.

@Pallero this is good. I need to get on with my evening routine, so I can't finish it tonight, but I will tomorrow. It's funny. In recognizing this responsibility thing, I'm unpacking a lot of other emotional stuff that goes along with it. I confuse responsibility with blame, blame myself and others, and then brow beat myself some more about how I shouldn't blame others and shouldn't blame myself, and then brow beat myself some more about how I need to get my shit together, both emotionally, and professionally, so this nonsense at work stops happening. By the end of the day I feel beat up because, well, I've been beating myself up! Interesting. Beating yourself up doesn't get you anywhere...

Hey All, I've been playing around with binaural beats lately and I'd like to know what brainwave is most associated with meditation. I've done some google searching and have received mixed results, but the general consensus is that theta and alpha waves are probably the way to go. Those of you who are familiar, what has your experience been?

Thanks for the replies everyone! That was a big help. @Leo Gura any resources on EEG that I can search that are of immediate interest? I;d like to investigate that on my own.

Great report. You're an effortless writer, too. Keep that up.

lol. "Who is talking to green?"

You guys who are boo-hooing about some arcane theories regarding female sexual strategy as an excuse for why you can't get a date need to quit your pity party already. For fuck's sake. I'm an ordinary male who's in his mid-twenties, hasn't yet completed his degree, is working a blue collar job, has average physical features, and is definitely not the stereotypical "alpha male" type guy, but somehow has never had a problem getting a girlfriend. Work on yourself, set some goals and achieve them, get some skills, and the women will come. Edit: I realized the pun only after I wrote this, but I stand by it.

I got an Amazon gift card for my birthday and was thinking I'd get a title or two from the book list. FROM THE BOOK LIST, what are one or two books you've liked the most and have gotten the most out of?

Thread conclusion: just spent most of my amazon money. I work as a technician in a manufacturing environment that's set to expand in the next year or so, so i bough a book on lean six sigma methodology to help tighten up our processes and get us more efficient, productive, and profitable than ever before. As for Leo's book list, I got a book from the metaphysics and epistemology section named after a small appendage in the lower half of the body (hint: I'm not talking about a penis). Lol. I'm really excited for that book. I briefly considered one of the other meditation or yoga books, but I've got the Kriya book and the Buddha book, and I've done next to nothing to maximize the kind of information available in those two sources alone, so I'll hold off on books of those type until I do. Plus, in building my life purpose, I've got a lot of bread and butter personal development left to do, so aside from the lower appendage book, I'm gonna keep it "practical" for awhile. I appreciate everyone who took the time to respond.

Yeah I shoulda been more careful not to spoil the book list for people who haven't bought it. My apologies. Great suggestions though. Thanks everyone!

What about Zen? I've always been fascinated with the discipline and austerity of Japanese Zen philosophy, meditative practice, and aesthetic.

@metwinn good suggestion! thank you.

Deep work is a good suggestion. I have mastery. Mastery was good.

Yes, I bought the book list several years ago. Just wanted to see what people were liking the most.

Lol my inner calling led me here, to ask this question.

Another bread and butter PD post here... I've been gaining a little momentum lately. I've been doing daily affirmations and visualizations, studying every day (which is simultaneously moving me toward my life purpose), I've built a daily meditation habit (although I'm not seeing a ton of results), working hard at my day job, chipping away at household projects, exercising regularly, and making time for some reading outside of school. Over all I could use some improvement, but I'm at least moving and working, and that's good. My question is: how many goals should we be trying to achieve at any given time? I've got a laundry list of habits I'd like to implement and goals I'd like to hit. My intuition is that by not sharpening my focus or finding a way to knock out many of these things at once, I'm not being as effective as I could be and spreading myself too thin. In "How to fail at everything and still win big" Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, details in what has become one of my favorite self-help books ever, that goals are for losers and systems are for winners. The idea being that if you implement systems instead of chase goals, you achieve victory every time you work your system, as opposed to being in a perpetual state of defeat until you reach your goal. That idea is attractive to me. However, in the same book, Adams concedes that he's used visualization and affirmation of singular goals to achieve them and that there is some overlap between the systems model and the goals model. Overall it's left me a little uncertain about how to proceed. So, for those of you who've got a nice track record of racking up some big victories, how did you do it? Did you work on several things at once or did you focus on one thing? How many goals is too many?

Will do. Thanks @Leo Gura