by Owen | Feb 10, 2020 | 2019-2020, Weekend Reflections
What I’m Reading: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
Similar to my favorite What Makes Sammy Run, (I seem oddly drawn to novels form the 40s and 50s), or Netflix’s The Politician, this book follows the life of Duddy Kravitz, who, in his misguided ambition, will do anything he can to “be somebody.” Inspired by his grandfather’s warning: “A man without land is a nobody,” Kravitz swindles, lies and cheats his way through his family and friends on his quest to buy up lakefront property to develop into a resort. I’m sure you can guess as to how it goes, but the beauty of this book is its personability. Unlike a lot of stories of this nature, Richler lets you see the journey as a whole, taking you into Kravitz’s mind with every rash decision. In the end, it becomes incredibly clear how someone (and many do) could come to believe in this kind of life. If other books from this era have seemed un-approachable, I would recommend you to take a look here, the story and its message punch through no matter the context.
What I’m Struggling With: Work/Play Balance
I’m terrible at balancing work and play. While in practice, I can jump back and forth; rarely, my mind is ever able to switch so quickly. Chances are if I’m in work mode, it’s all I can think about when I’m at play and vice versa. The result is that I’m rarely ever able to focus on what’s at hand. While some schedule changes have helped (such as the “chunking” I discussed last week), it really does come down to a sense of presence and ease, something I am working towards every day.
What I’m Cultivating: An Annual Reading List
One of the things I’ve come to love about my reading practice is stumbling on the one book that somehow wraps up and captures the ideals or lessons of a hundred. As my library grows (faster than I can read it), I want to be able to hold onto those books as they come along. So with this in mind, I’m going to start drafting an annual reading list, ten or so books for me to read every year that encapsulate the most important lessons I’ve learned along the way. I’m sure this list will change as time goes on, but at the very least, its an interesting exercise in keeping lessons at the forefront of your practice. When I finally get the bookshelf up on the running, I’ll be sure to include these top-reads on the list as well.
by Owen | Feb 5, 2020 | Impromptu, Practices
Don’t be satisfied with study. In today’s world of home business, divisive politics, and intellectualism, we all want to show off our knowledge or be the smartest in the room. We need to be able to quote the best articles or newest studies, spout trade news or educate the office on the book we are reading. So we spend all our time studying, researching, learning. We are so well-versed that we can drop a meaningful quote with the drop of a hat or go toe to toe with the first left or right-leaning amateur politician on our feeds.
But how often does this study change our lives? How often does that quote we retweeted affect our actions? The turnover is pretty small.
It takes more than memorizing facts or reading studies to create change. We must internalize what we read. Comprehend it as it relates to our lives. And once we’ve truly understood what we’ve learned. We must put it to use.
Why spend the time to learn or read if it isn’t going to benefit you or those you hope to serve? All of the knowledge in the world is useless if we can’t use it to help others and help ourselves.
The smartest person in the room is the one putting those smarts to use, learning, and changing — maybe without a word. The study is only part one. Practice and progress come after.
by Owen | Feb 3, 2020 | Impromptu
Self-improvement is less setting off down a path than swinging on a pendulum.
We start at the extreme. We spend too much time on Netflix, or our anger is out of control. A lot, or none at all. We don’t know what the best version of ourselves looks like, but we know it’s not here.
So we head in the opposite direction. Our pendulum swings across, and in the momentum and excitement of improvement, we go too far. Now we work all day or don’t stand up for ourselves.
The other extreme we learn is no better. So then, it must be somewhere in between — a balance.
Seeing the spectrum in full, we swing our pendulum back where we came — aiming somewhere in between. Nevertheless, we overshoot the mark, but this time feels a little closer.
Back and forth like this, we go. Learning and triangulating as we go. With each swing, the extremes soften — some work, some play. We learn what it means to be in balance, and the goal becomes more distinct and closer with each pass.
Our pendulum may swing back and forth like this for months, years, or even our whole lives. It may never stop turning.
Some days we will feel closer than ever, and the next we may be up at the edges once again. But, as long as we believe we can swing back down, as long as we keep riding and keep searching, we will keep improving. Closer and closer to balance.
by Owen | Feb 3, 2020 | 2019-2020, Weekend Reflections
What I’m Reading: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
It took multiple approaches for me to finally get through this one. The novel focuses on the life of Binx Bolling, a near 30-year-old stockbroker living in New Orleans. As with most classic novels of the time, our character is confronting his drab world and conducting a “search,” presumably we think for deep philosophical answers. Unlike most books of this genre, however, there are no quests, dramatic episodes. Just the chronicles of Binx’s normal life, meaningless days at the office, and almost too-normal relationships with family and flings. At first, it was this extreme normality that pushed me away from the book. But, it turned out to be its charm. Of all of the novels I have read, it is perhaps the most reasonable in its philosophy, and therefore, the one we might be able to learn from most.
What I‘m Experimenting With: Chunking
As opposed to “sprinkling,” “chunking” is a method of dividing up your time into large chunks typically multiple hours or a whole day, wholly focused on one activity or project. Between, classes, career, creative projects and personal time, I was struggling to focus on anything at one and jumped from thing to thing throughout the day. The consequence was that I really wasn’t making a lot of headway and I always had too much going on at once. Given, that I am only now in classes two days a week. I decided to double down on those days, doing any and all work related to college in my free time. It was an amazing change. By finishing any and all mandatory class work on those days, I have given myself the freedom to focus on my creative projects or personal time on the other five. The risk, of course, is that two days is not enough. But, even giving myself that edge and freedom of mind have been extremely useful.
A Quote I’m Thinking About:
“The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.”
– Walker Percy, The Moviegoer
