Okay, I really like the message, the visual style is distinctive, and you’re improving every day, but I have one point of (hopefully constructive) criticism: The audio is “echoey,” so it’s quite hard to hear you without turning the sound on my machine way up; this could be my hardware, I don’t know how others are experiencing things.
Yes, I’m aware that the sound is horrible. I have a fantastic mic, but it doesn’t work with my camera. For other projects, I’ve used a microport, but I don’t own one, and can’t afford to rent one each time I do a recording.
I’m looking for a good solution, but haven’t found it yet.
Does anyone know of a good but reasonably cheap mic I could use for this that has XLR output for the camera?
In order for this technique to work, do you have to do something every day or is it sufficient to do something, say, 5 times a week? For example, I enjoy writing but I hardly post anything to my blog so my goal is to “post frequently”. I figure I would start with 5 posts a week and take it from there. Thanks.
I’m watching the videos from number one. Yesterday, I followed your advice and took a walk through the local park. The footpath, at a normal pace, takes you through the park almost to the spot of half an hour. I’m 31, and most of my twenties I wanted to be a writer (early twenties) then focused specifically on writing verse at age 25. My best work features nature and natural themes, but the mode was more at finding truth and expressing it in an abstract way, so it did not really make me more productive on a daily basis.
However, yesterday I did keep the question in mind as to personal beliefs that are false, and about half way through the walk, while I was looking up into the much larger trees than normally about the midwestern usa, I had an insight about the trees as living beings. They are always ready for each day, and always doing their best, even if broken in places, lurched over, and so on. It made me think of your words that ‘being in the moment’ without hesitation or distraction as to the thoughts & assessments of others. Trees seem to be the premier existence of this quality.
It turns out that I have a lot of strange and otherwise counterproductive ideas. A few months ago I read on a blog called Coding Horror that the best way to learn anything is to simply focus on it at least a bit every day, and from there I was able to take my part-time hobbyist code work to a paying job, by doing things such as leaving the editor and terminal open in another workspace, instead of shutting all of it down just to check on facebook or twitter, etc. It’s helped a lot.
But even now, my current project nearing completion, where at first I was putting in 40+ hours a week, I am now working around 20 hours, and it’s due to some fear out of false belief. It seems that my main false belief is that _ I cannot know when I’ve done my best _
Other false beliefs are more in the vein of mild delusion, maybe that I’ve got regrets such that I “should have been making this progress ten years ago” and that somehow it doesn’t matter what I do now, maybe that I will be transported to “a better version of me” that has made all the right decisions from adolescence.
At the most accessible core, tho, is the former, false belief that I am “aiming in the dark” even when I’m experiencing unprecedented personal productivity, that _ I will always require external support _ to validate my progress within my own sphere of influence, namely programming. It will be great of you to comment on how I might counter these false beliefs.
* * *
About the current video, I am going to schedule a walk in the park for every day, visualize myself making distinct progress in the programming task at hand for five minutes before even looking at the open terminal and editor.
Thanks for your comment. It’s easy to have regrets when you grow and change your beliefs. One way to counter that is to remember that we’re always doing the best we can, given our current beliefs and other resources. So if you were to go back and do it over, with the same beliefs and other resources, you’d do the exact same thing all over again.
Another way to counter regrets is simply to remember that the only thing that ever matters is the moment right now. The past is irelevant. It’s over.
Wanting validation from others is very natural. When we’re just born, we’re completely dependent on love and nurturing from our parents. As we get older, the physical dependency wanes, but usually there’s still a strong emotional need for love. That becomes a need for approval, acceptance, and love from the people around us – our spouse, our friends, our colleagues, our peers, our boss, our customers, and so on.
Quite often, this need has deep roots, so it’s not something that is healed overnight, but it’s something we can work on by consciously recognizing when the need for approval is in control, and just notice and observe that it’s happening, while at the same time gently reminding ourselves of what we know to be true, namely that we’re both okay and lovable exactly as we are, we don’t need to do or be or create anything to be okay.
Does that make sense?
//Lars
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Okay, I really like the message, the visual style is distinctive, and you’re improving every day, but I have one point of (hopefully constructive) criticism: The audio is “echoey,” so it’s quite hard to hear you without turning the sound on my machine way up; this could be my hardware, I don’t know how others are experiencing things.
Grant,
Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.
Yes, I’m aware that the sound is horrible. I have a fantastic mic, but it doesn’t work with my camera. For other projects, I’ve used a microport, but I don’t own one, and can’t afford to rent one each time I do a recording.
I’m looking for a good solution, but haven’t found it yet.
Does anyone know of a good but reasonably cheap mic I could use for this that has XLR output for the camera?
In order for this technique to work, do you have to do something every day or is it sufficient to do something, say, 5 times a week? For example, I enjoy writing but I hardly post anything to my blog so my goal is to “post frequently”. I figure I would start with 5 posts a week and take it from there. Thanks.
- Simon
5 times a week is fine. Every day is better, but life tends to interrupt our well-laid plans.
The point is to build momentum and to allow your brain to establish the neurological connections that form habit.
Hi Lars,
I’m watching the videos from number one. Yesterday, I followed your advice and took a walk through the local park. The footpath, at a normal pace, takes you through the park almost to the spot of half an hour. I’m 31, and most of my twenties I wanted to be a writer (early twenties) then focused specifically on writing verse at age 25. My best work features nature and natural themes, but the mode was more at finding truth and expressing it in an abstract way, so it did not really make me more productive on a daily basis.
However, yesterday I did keep the question in mind as to personal beliefs that are false, and about half way through the walk, while I was looking up into the much larger trees than normally about the midwestern usa, I had an insight about the trees as living beings. They are always ready for each day, and always doing their best, even if broken in places, lurched over, and so on. It made me think of your words that ‘being in the moment’ without hesitation or distraction as to the thoughts & assessments of others. Trees seem to be the premier existence of this quality.
It turns out that I have a lot of strange and otherwise counterproductive ideas. A few months ago I read on a blog called Coding Horror that the best way to learn anything is to simply focus on it at least a bit every day, and from there I was able to take my part-time hobbyist code work to a paying job, by doing things such as leaving the editor and terminal open in another workspace, instead of shutting all of it down just to check on facebook or twitter, etc. It’s helped a lot.
But even now, my current project nearing completion, where at first I was putting in 40+ hours a week, I am now working around 20 hours, and it’s due to some fear out of false belief. It seems that my main false belief is that _ I cannot know when I’ve done my best _
Other false beliefs are more in the vein of mild delusion, maybe that I’ve got regrets such that I “should have been making this progress ten years ago” and that somehow it doesn’t matter what I do now, maybe that I will be transported to “a better version of me” that has made all the right decisions from adolescence.
At the most accessible core, tho, is the former, false belief that I am “aiming in the dark” even when I’m experiencing unprecedented personal productivity, that _ I will always require external support _ to validate my progress within my own sphere of influence, namely programming. It will be great of you to comment on how I might counter these false beliefs.
* * *
About the current video, I am going to schedule a walk in the park for every day, visualize myself making distinct progress in the programming task at hand for five minutes before even looking at the open terminal and editor.
Thanks,
Jesse
Jesse,
Thanks for your comment. It’s easy to have regrets when you grow and change your beliefs. One way to counter that is to remember that we’re always doing the best we can, given our current beliefs and other resources. So if you were to go back and do it over, with the same beliefs and other resources, you’d do the exact same thing all over again.
Another way to counter regrets is simply to remember that the only thing that ever matters is the moment right now. The past is irelevant. It’s over.
Wanting validation from others is very natural. When we’re just born, we’re completely dependent on love and nurturing from our parents. As we get older, the physical dependency wanes, but usually there’s still a strong emotional need for love. That becomes a need for approval, acceptance, and love from the people around us – our spouse, our friends, our colleagues, our peers, our boss, our customers, and so on.
Quite often, this need has deep roots, so it’s not something that is healed overnight, but it’s something we can work on by consciously recognizing when the need for approval is in control, and just notice and observe that it’s happening, while at the same time gently reminding ourselves of what we know to be true, namely that we’re both okay and lovable exactly as we are, we don’t need to do or be or create anything to be okay.
Does that make sense?
//Lars