Self-mastery Nº66

Taking a Step Back and Looking at the Bigger Picture

Sep 26, 2021

Progress isn’t linear, and neither is life. If I drew a graph manifesting the highs and lows of this week alone, I’d be seeing exactly that: a vertical zig-zag of dramatic ups and downs. Happiness and Joyful moments intertwined with bouts of anxiety and regret. Move out further, and we see a similar pattern. And it’s not until we move so far out into the years we’ve lived that life’s line starts to compose itself and straighten out.

I’m a firm believer that we become new people almost every day. Or at least, we can if we choose to. Because every day is a new start, and every start is signal to move forward with a past that doesn’t matter.

Taking a step back is how we give ourselves the time to examine what we’ve been doing recently. Especially when we feel lost, hopeless or doubtful. While we don’t find ourselves, we do find errors within which stepping back from our lives helps to rectify.

I’ve thought about this since I was a lonely teen in school. While the time we’re in now might feel tragic or awful and never-ending, look back and realise that soon enough, better times will come, and you’ll wonder what you were worrying about all along. You might, at some point, feel like your life’s line would look like a pirouetting spiral of problems. But look back, and you may see that the dip’s only small, and things aren’t so bad.

It’s a small and simple message this week. Part of self-mastery is being able to step back when you need to and recognising that life’s picture may feature a rain cloud or two, and life might feel like it’s always against you. But truly, you’ll see that, even slowly, you’re still making progress.

And I believe in that, for you.

What I’ve Learned This Week

Choose One Thing

This comes from Ava’s Bookbear Express newsletter, which is one of my favourite weekly reads. It talks about how there are a million great possibilities out in the world, but we only need to commit to one thing. Because as long as you get one meaningful thing right, you’ll be okay in life. The idea also touches on how, yes, we should feel love and passion for that one someone or something. We should have full acceptance towards that person or thing. We should feel instinct and intuition pull us closer, deeper, into what we love doing. It’s easy to feel in this world like you’re not doing enough, but if you find that one thing to stick to, you’re already doing plenty.

What’s on My Mind

My second newsletter is now live, so I’ve been dedicating a lot of time to making sure it’s right. It’s a cosy new home for my ideas and research, a place for me to dive deep into how to master our health. Guess what? it’s called Health Mastery. (What am I, some weird wizard?).

You can check it out here. If it’s something you’d like, drop me an email (or tap the heart button below), and I’ll gift you a free paid subscription. I’ll keep this offer open until the next edition of this newsletter.

Explore

Timeless Quote

Let your mind alone, and see what happens.
— Virgil Thomson

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Brain Food

“With no self-imposed time pressure, I was able to focus on just one thing: showing up every day and writing some code. Some features took an hour to implement, some took several hours spread over days, some even stretched into weeks, but it did not matter because there were no deadlines of any sort.

Looking back, I cannot believe how much I’ve been able to ship over the past 6 years by just following this one rule.”

→ The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday — by Kishore Nallan

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