DW's Blog

What Time Off Is For

by DW Green — June 3, 2020

Take a day off from work every now and then, but not a day off from learning.

You deserve a vacation. You work hard. You sacrifice. You push yourself. It’s time for a break. Take a car trip, head to the mountains, or to a lake or to a forest or head to the beach—but tuck a book under your arm. Make sure you enjoy your relaxation like a poet—not idly but actively, observing the world around you, taking it all in, better understanding your place in the universe. Take a day off from work every now and then, but not a day off from learning. Maybe your goal is to make enough money so that you can retire early. Good for you! But the purpose of retirement is not to live a life of indolence or to run out the clock, as easy as that might be to do. Rather, it’s to allow for the pursuit of your real calling now that a big distraction is out of the way. To sit around all day and do nothing? To watch endless amounts of television or simply travel from place to place so that you might cross locations off a bucket list. That’s not life. It’s not freedom either.

Read More – You gotta keep ’em

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by DW Green — April 22, 2020

Yet haste is by its very nature vastly more stressful than serene fortitude.

I read this article last week, written by Madisyn Taylor. Initially I thought it may offer some insight regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. But on second thought, it doesn’t, not directly anyway. It’s about pace, haste, evolution, patience and present moment awareness. While we can plan and prepare for all things future, all we really have is the gift of life NOW.“Our lives are guided by natural rhythms that are particular to each of us and cannot be altered by force of will alone. Life itself is a journey made up of processes and events that manifest before us only to be swept away when time marches on. Whether we envision ourselves creating a career, building a family, or developing the self, we instinctively know when the time has come for us to realize our dreams because all that is involved comes together harmoniously. When the time is right, the passage of destiny cannot be blocked. Yet as desperate as we are to touch these beautiful futures we have imagined, we cannot grow if we are not fully present in the evolutionary experience. The present can be challenging, uncomfortable, and tedious, but life unfolds as it will, and the universe will wait patiently as ...

by DW Green — April 15, 2020

Panic was in the air, banks were failing, and people were scared.

In the early days of what would become known as the Great Depression, a new President named Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in and gave his first inaugural address. As the last president to hold office before the Twentieth Amendment was ratified, FDR wasn’t able to take office until March—meaning that the country had been without strong leadership for months. Panic was in the air, banks were failing, and people were scared.You probably heard the “nothing to fear but fear itself” sound bite that FDR gave in that famous speech, but the full line is worth reading because it applies to many difficult things we face in life:

“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

Fear has to be feared because of the miseries it creates. The things we fear pale in comparison to the damage we do to ourselves and others when we unthinkingly scramble to avoid them. An economic depression is bad; a deadly virus is bad; a panic is worse. A tough situation isn’t helped by terror—it only makes things harder. And t...

by DW Green — April 8, 2020

We underestimate our capabilities just as much and just as dangerously as we overestimate other abilities.

Most people resist the idea of a true self-estimate, probably because they fear it might mean downgrading some of their beliefs about who they are and what they’re capable of. As Goethe’s maxim goes, it is a great failing “to see yourself as more than you are.” How could you really be considered self-aware if you refuse to consider your weaknesses?Don’t fear self-assessment because you’re worried you might have to admit some things about yourself. The second half of Goethe’s maxim is important too. He states that it is equally damaging to “value yourself at less than your true worth.” Is it not equally common to be surprised at how well we’re able to handle a previously feared scenario? The way that we’re able to put aside grief for a loved one and care for others—though we always thought we’d be wrecked if something were to happen to our parents or a sibling. The way we’re able to rise to the occasion in a stressful situation or a life-changing opportunity.We underestimate our capabilities just as much and just as dangerously as we overestimate other abilities. Cultivate the ability to judge yourself acc...

by DW Green — April 1, 2020

Passing a trial by fire is empowering.

Most people who have gone through difficult periods in their life come to later wear those experiences as badges of honor. “Those were the days,” they might say, even though they live in much better circumstances. “To be young and hungry again,” another might say wistfully. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” or “I wouldn’t change a thing about it.” As tough as those periods were, they were ultimately formative experiences. They made those people who they are. And it’s happening to us all right now, with COVID-19.There’s another benefit of so-called misfortune. Having experienced and survived it, we walk away with a better understanding of own capacity and inner strength. Passing a trial by fire is empowering because you know that in the future you can survive similar adversity. “What does not kill me makes me stronger,” Nietzsche said. Which is literary true today.If things look like they might take a bad turn or your luck might change, why worry? This might be one of those formative experiences you will be grateful for later.