What a time to be alive. 2020 y’all. Cheers to you as we enter the last month of what has been quite the volatile year. A year of major growth for me. Hopefully for you too. Thanks for reading as always.
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⬇️ #thinkingthings, #followerthings, and #otherthings ⬇️
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🤔🤔 #thinkingthings
🟥 >>> The Multi-tasking Monkey Mind
Being 100% present is a very difficult thing to achieve. Like. actually. being. present. while. focusing. on. just. one. thing. Good luck.
Just try brushing your teeth and only thinking about the task at hand. Very difficult to achieve. Before you are even consciously aware of it, you’ll be off thinking about dinner tomorrow or what you could have done better at work today or that thank you note you forgot to write your in-laws for hosting Zoom Thanksgiving.
We’ve all had this experience. The wandering mind and inner-self critic.
This is called the monkey mind. Your mind on autopilot, constantly occupied with past and future thoughts and images, often very repetitive, often negative. (FWIW, meditation is a practice that teaches one how to calm down their mind and while building the discipline to keep the monkey mind in check.)
Similarly, multi-tasking is symptom of the monkey mind. When engaged in several tasks at the same time, your mind enters the “monkey mind mode” quite easily and without you even noticing. No matter which form it has, it’s very distracting and seems uncontrollable.
For many of us, this symptom is more heightened than ever before these days. All the notifications and 24/7 remote work schedule (it can’t just be me out there with the ‘always on’ schedule in this remote work world!) can make it difficult to get anything done.
If you find yourself battling the monkey mind more often than you’d like or find yourself just looking to optimize your productivity, I recommend checking out the post below by James Clear on how to build habits for the long term.
Hint hint…. multi-tasking isn’t the way :)
Many people, myself included, have multiple areas of life they would like to improve. The problem is, even if we are committed to working hard on our goals, our natural tendency is to revert back to our old habits at some point. Making a permanent lifestyle change is really difficult.
Research has shown that you are 2x to 3x more likely to stick with your habits if you make a specific plan for when, where, and how you will perform the behavior. For example, in one study scientists asked people to fill out this sentence: “During the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of vigorous exercise on [DAY] at [TIME OF DAY] at/in [PLACE].”
However (and this is crucial to understand) follow-up research has discovered implementation intentions only work when you focus on one thing at a time. In fact, researchers found that people who tried to accomplish multiple goals were less committed and less likely to succeed than those who focused on a single goal.
When you begin practicing a new habit it requires a lot of conscious effort to remember to do it. After awhile, however, the pattern of behavior becomes easier. Eventually, your new habit becomes a normal routine and the process is more or less mindless and automatic.
Researchers have a fancy term for this process called “automaticity.” Automaticity is the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which allows the pattern to become automatic and habitual.
RECAP FOR YOU
You are 2x to 3x more likely to follow through with a habit if you make a specific plan for when, where, and how you are going to implement it. This is known as an implementation intention.
You should focus entirely on one thing. Research has found that implementation intentions do not work if you try to improve multiple habits at the same time.
Research has shown that any given habit becomes more automatic with more practice. On average, it takes at least two months for new habits to become automatic behaviors.
The counterintuitive insight from all of this research is that the best way to change your entire life is by not changing your entire life. Instead, it is best to focus on one specific habit, work on it until you master it, and make it an automatic part of your daily life. Then, repeat the process for the next habit.
🟥 >>> The Hardest Thing: Being vs. Doing
Following up the above with a little more ‘self betterment’ food for thought. Does that give you any indication as to where my mind might be these days? Ha.
Its all about cutting through the noise for me lately and driving forward in a way that is positive sum - building toward the goals I have set for myself and my inner circle. Thinking in months/years, not days/weeks. Everything else is just noise.
We’ve talked a lot around here before about this year and how its been a year of silver linings and reset. A year of getting back in touch with the simple things in life. A year of just being. Getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.
I thought Loic’s take on how the ego drives our decision making was elegantly put. Why do we always have to do as a society, why can’t we just be?
Profound questions that I can’t answer but its something I ponder quite often. How to get out of the hamster wheel to just be and enjoy life for what it is. This is no doubt something we all could do more of.
I hope Loic’s short essay encourages you to look within and think a little more about what your inner motivations are… enjoy:
I have been following an online training with Eckhart Tolle and he says there are times to “just be” and not “do”.
All my life until recently I have been focused (or even caught) in the “doing” because that is how our modern society conditions us since we were children.
Be first and better at school. Get the best diplomas. Make money. Succeed. Be known for what you achieved. Buy a home. Two homes. Get into the most exclusive places (business or personal). Be the best at what you do and do it bigger. Repeat and get better at it. Bigger.
When you have achieved that then go help change the World. Make that also bigger and tell everyone how you do it.
Getting out of this hamster wheel that never ends is tough since we’re programmed for it all our life.
Helping the world is a wonderful goal but not if it’s ego driven.
My most important step seems to work inside now. Discover being and my deepest fears, motivations and desires. Then observe them and find the roots.
Why am I doing this or attracted to that? Instead of jumping in the next doing I try to reflect on it and just “be”. I fail often like a meditation. Two hours a day is very long. I want to stop and I don’t. I want to check how much time left and I don’t. I want to relax my straight spine and I don’t. Same goes with life. When the Internet was born for me in 1993 I felt the irresistible call to take part in what I saw as a world changing force for the better.
Today it is obvious that not all of it was for the better of humanity as we have seen in the last U.S. elections for example. I feel the same irresistible force now that attracts me to consciousness and understanding what’s inside of me. This is why I am so focused on trying different spiritual practices until I find the one that resonate and helps me the most. I am convinced this is the most important for me right now.
Go inside.
It’s hilarious that I write here about going inside. Why not just stop communicating entirely as well? Is it my ego that makes me share? Is it my need for recognition but this time “spiritual”?
🟥 >>>> One Cool Thing
(found this article via my friend, Devon Dolan’s newsletter -> go give it a subscribe)
I love it when positive (esp non-digital) benefits come as a result of our deep media/digital addiction as a society these days. If you haven’t seen the Queen’s Gambit on Netflix, I highly recommend. One of the stand out shows of the year IMO. Great writing. Great acting. Knockout.
Aside from being a great series, its also spurred chess sales more than 600%. What do you think this says about our society at large right now?
Just a data point or something more….? I think the latter 🤔
Also pretty cool (and scary) that this type of stuff is so trackable now - search engine trends are such a real indicator (unlike political polls ha) on society’s mindset at large. Hedge funds call this ‘alt data’ and feed their algorithmic trading models with it. Valuable information.
In the three weeks after “The Queen’s Gambit” premiered, unit sales of chess sets jumped 87% in the U.S. and chess book sales rose an eye-popping 603%, according to research firm NPD Group. The spike comes after years of flat or negative growth in those categories, NPD said.
Prior to the premiere of “The Queen’s Gambit,” week-over-week chess set sales in the U.S. had been relatively flat for 13 weeks — and soared after the limited series hit Netflix, according to U.S. Retail Tracking Service data from NPD.
“The idea that a streaming television series can have an impact on product sales is not a new one, but we are finally able to view it through the data,” said Juli Lennett, NPD Group toys industry adviser. “The sales of chess books and chess sets, which had previously been flat or declining for years, turned sharply upward as the popular new series gained viewers.”
📲🧑🏽🤝🧑🏻 #followerthings
^lol crypto humor but also go buy BTC
^real talk
^2020 power move
^+++ a special plug for yours truly, I’ve been getting into these things called “tweet storms”. What a world.
📚⏯️🎤 #otherthings
I am starting an online community built on the curiosity pillars of this newsletter.
Why? Well because, in the spirit of bursting echo chambers, we have hundreds of readers from all over the world and I think its time we get to know one another a little more intimately and foster some connectivity sparks.
I am looking to continue to progress the experience that comes with reading #thebalance. My hope is that this is another way to add additional value into your life.
SO….
🚨🚨 I will be launching a community group chat on WhatsApp in the coming month whereby connections will be facilitated, knowledge will be shared, and digital meetups will be had.
…. hit reply and respond with a ‘✋’ if you are interested!
(for those that have already responded, I will be in touch soon!!)
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Stay safe out there. Peace and love to all y’all.
Curiously,
-Block
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About me:
My friends call me Block. I am the CSO & Cofounder at Alkemi.Network, a company building capital markets plumbing for the internet economy. This newsletter is my passion project.
I am endlessly curious and blissfully dissatisfied. I love new ideas, obsessed with all things technology, and am always seeking to broaden my perspective while striving for balance, of course.
I am a futurist, investor, entrepreneur, builder, advisor, life long learner, hockey player, traveler, podcast addict, hip-hop head, e-newsletter junkie, event planner, and comedic-short producer. Follow me on Twitter here and Instagram here.
“Find a question that makes the world interesting.” - Paul Graham