Practice Session #42

Welcome to my show notes for this week’s session of Practice!

We record these sessions every Sunday. I try to publish the audio on the same day of recording, but once in a while, I may get delayed due to various reasons.

Also, I will usually have the AI-generated transcript and my initial notes published on the same day of recording as well. On Fridays, I’ll (try to) go back through and proof the transcript while I add all of my notes.

I’ll be utilizing this opportunity to clarify and elaborate on points that I may not have conveyed as well as I would’ve liked to. I’ll also provide links to further information and resources.

So, on Friday, I’ll intersperse all my notes with the transcription from the audio below (unless I don’t 🤷).

Intro.

[00:00]

CK: Alrighty. Ready? Here we go.

Heyo! I’m CK, and you’re listening to Practice. I’m your functional systems integrator, and this is my podcast where practice is not just the theme of the show, but the whole purpose behind it. What started out as a practice of podcasting, as well as speaking in general, has evolved into a practice of self-coaching and self-reflection while espousing half-thoughts and providing unsolicited advice.

As always, I’m fortunate to be joined by my Practice partner and partner in life: Pam.

Pam: Hey, that’s me.

CK: Pam is also my pattern awareness manager, and every Sunday we reflect on the past week and my progress with this practice, along with other lifestyle practices, as well as theories and ideas behind the virtues of practice itself.

We’re doing this on the fly, so don’t hold me responsible for what I say here. Make sure to check out my show notes where I’ll provide some fact-checking, self-psychoanalysis and commentary on things I could have done better. You may find this and more information about this project at ForcesOfEqual.com/Practice.

Catch up with the Anomaly and the Linchpin.

[01:20]

We’re recording today on December 12th or December 13th of 2020.

[00:01:28] And this is practice session number 42. And I think I said December 12th, just because I’m used to saying my birthday.

[00:01:39] Pam: you just wanted to extend your birthday.

[00:01:41] CK: Yeah. I can still do that. I think.

[00:01:44] Pam: Birthday weekend as a thing.

[00:01:46] CK: Yep. So my 41st birthday was yesterday on December 12th and we had returned from a little getaway yesterday. And spent the rest of the day at home. Nice and relaxing, a little bit of a changer.

[00:02:06] Maybe we’ll get into it a little bit during their session today. And so let’s get right into the quote for the week. Today’s quote comes from stoic philosopher, Seneca, who I’ve quoted many times before. And this was interesting, cause I didn’t have a quote today. It was my birthday week. So I kind of got a little off track with some things and didn’t have all my typical routines in place and the stuff got away from me a little bit.

[00:02:39] So this one just actually popped up this morning. During my morning routine. And it was kind of perfect for something that I experienced yesterday on my birthday. So this is how the quote goes. Nothing is burdensome if taken lightly and nothing neat arouse one’s irritation so long as one, doesn’t make it bigger than it is by getting irritated. And that comes from Seneca and. I love the quote. I mean, it goes along with the whole stoic philosophy of how your thoughts affect your feelings or how your thoughts affect your mindset obviously, but how you perceive your life, your, the quality of your mind pretty much reflects the quality of your life. So, The first part of the quote says nothing is burdensome. If taken lightly, obviously that’s a mindset. You know, something that happens to you or some sort of experience is the experience or the reality, or how you perceive that reality in itself. And depending on your mindset, it colors how that reality is perceived or how you perceive that reality.

[00:04:07] And so if you have. A mindset that’s colored by irritation and you encounter some sort of irritation or something that typically induces irritation. having a mindset that exacerbates that just leads you on to becoming more irritated. So that irritation is. Cycled through your mindset, but if you had a different mindset and you could look at that irritation in a different way, of course, we’d like to talk about spectral, potentiality and duality and plurality and how the same thing could be many different things at the same time.

[00:04:51] So if you look at the irritation is, uh, maybe like a challenge per se or a learning experience. Then you can immediately turn it from something that affects your negative negatively to something that affects you positively. So, yeah, it just goes along with a lot of other quotes that I recited before and the whole stoic philosophy.

[00:05:13] So I really liked that popped up to me or stood out to me today this morning because of a circumstance that arose yesterday. On my birthday. So I’ll probably get into that. But before I do Pam, do you have any thoughts on that quote,

[00:05:30]Pam: Um, not other than what you, I think you’re going to bring up with the situation that happened yesterday. I think it does fit perfectly. Um, I think, uh, when you were talking about what the quote means, you were saying, you can turn a negative into a positive, and I was thinking about that. You can turn, you can almost turn a negative, not even necessarily into a positive, but into nothing like.

[00:05:57] CK: a neutral.

[00:05:57] Pam: Yeah, you can neutralize it by not responding to it. And so it doesn’t have to be like, Oh, this terrible thing happened. And I made lemonade out of lemons. You can be

[00:06:08] CK: Uh, it’s just a thing that

[00:06:10] Pam: it’s just a thing. Yeah.

[00:06:11] CK: Right. Right.

[00:06:12] Pam: And I don’t have to get mad about it or annoyed by it or react to it at all. Like I can just be okay with something that happened and it doesn’t have to have any impact at all.

[00:06:23] CK: at all. Yeah. Great point. I like that. And that actually goes more into the Taoist philosophy, which I’ve been trying to adopt a little more in my own life.

[00:06:35] So I liked that point for sure. So yeah, this thing, my birthday week or the tail end of my birthday week. Things were a little different over the past week. I didn’t, uh, well, I actually, this past week was very eventful for us. We released our first episode of not bad advice podcast this past Wednesday.

[00:07:03] And it launched without a hitch. I think everything went pretty smoothly. And I was able to finish up what I wanted to finish up and get it out and get a thing, tied it up and everything looking really good. I think in terms of the agile methodology, I, um, I went way past being agile. And I got a little way more strategic, but I don’t know.

[00:07:33] I just, I still have those tendencies and that’s how I’ve been working for decades. So it’s going to be, it’s going to take me a while to get totally agile. And I don’t know if I want to maybe I’ll I do want to a little more in terms of getting stuff published or launched, but yeah, I am. Uh, I really enjoy the agile process and the concept, and it’s definitely helping me getting, get this stuff out.

[00:08:04] And it’s interesting because I had everything ready on. Probably by Monday. I really had everything ready to go. And like I mentioned, last week, I actually had. Something ready last week, but I just wasn’t really comfortable releasing that to the public. And so by Monday I was. Working on some stuff and tweaking some other, other things.

[00:08:32] And it was, I was making really good progress and I was even happier with what I had and I would have been fine with releasing that what I had on Monday, but then come Tuesday. I was, my mind was really working on all cylinders, cylinders, and I was just pumping stuff out and getting stuff done and kind of. I was in a place and I’m not sure if it was because of the pans making a lot of noise over there.

[00:09:07] Pam: my hand caught on my headphone cable.

[00:09:11] CK: But anyway, I, I don’t know if it was because of the point in the process that I was at. And. Oh, sorry. So we have our neighbors, new neighbors moving in downstairs. So you might hear some other weird noises,

[00:09:29] Pam: And

[00:09:29] CK: or pounding.

[00:09:31] Pam: the neighbor with the charger just started his car too. So everyone’s making lots of notes all at once.

[00:09:37] CK: We’ll see how much of that I can get out. But anyway, the point I was at in the process, I had, you know, something ready and ready to yell. And at that point I’m just kind of tweaking and optimizing and eking out. Those last percentage points. And I really liked that part of the process because I pretty much have everything wrapped up and I’m just kind of tidying up loose ends and maybe even optimizing things even further and further than I need to.

[00:10:09] But for some reason at that point, maybe at that 90 to 95% completion point, like. My productivity just ramps up. I don’t know if it’s, because I’m just able to finally connect everything and everything’s kind of coming together and I can just knock everything out. Maybe, maybe because I’ve done so much to get everything where it’s at at that point, at that 90 to 95% completion point, but I don’t know whatever it is.

[00:10:47] I’m thinking that. It goes along with my desire to incorporate the agile methodology more because if I can get more agile and get to that 90% completion points sooner, then I can get to that period of extreme productivity. Even sooner and work with that. So, yeah. Uh, that’s kind of where my mind’s at now and the processes that I’m thinking of in terms of production and strategy behind my new creative endeavors. So yeah. Well, what are your thoughts on that town? If you have any

[00:11:30] Pam: really interesting to me, cause I’m exactly the opposite. When something gets to 90 to 95% complete, I’m like, just get it done. And like, I actually skimp at the end cause I’m like, I just don’t want to do this anymore. So we’re totally opposite in that sense. Like, I have no problem getting it to 90%, but then I’m like, Ugh, I’m done with this.

[00:11:48] CK: Yeah. So the reason I, one of the reasons that. I brought that up is because on Tuesday. So I said on Monday, I pretty much had something ready to go with. That was that 90, 95%. And on Tuesday I was working, I kept working on that episode pretty much all day long. And then I kept working on it all through the night.

[00:12:09] And then I was working on the website stuff and getting all that title up around the podcast. And I. Just, I don’t know, I just wanted to keep going and I ended up staying up way past my typical bedtime and I got to bed around like one, one 30 in the morning, whereas I’d been getting to bed around nine 30 or 10, uh, as of late.

[00:12:35] So yeah, I just wanted to keep going and. I dunno, it was just this weird thing. And I wasn’t even tired. Otherwise I would have tried to get myself to bed, but I was like, I’m not even tired, you know, I’ll just wait until I feel a little more sleepy. And I was, I just kept going. I just kept knocking stuff out and it was this, I don’t know.

[00:12:58] Some sometimes I feel like I’m, I work better at night and before when I was an insomniac. I would just work through the night and, you know, maybe play techno music and just kind of knock stuff out. And I kind of had that kind of feeling again.

[00:13:22] Pam: Do you think that it’s, that you work better under pressure? Because part of the problem has been that we didn’t like we had deadlines, but I’m not good at forcing you to stick to them. And I’m been kind of like, Oh yeah, whatever. And we had pushed this so many times that you knew you had to get it done.

[00:13:38] CK: Right. Yeah. There’s definitely an element of pressure. And I do tend to work well under pressure, but like I said, I already had what I needed to get done done. So there wasn’t that pressure too. You know, reach hit, hit a deadline or anything because everything was all done. I just, I don’t know. I was just in this mode where I wanted to keep going, but yeah, that’s a good point on the time pressure element, because. Yeah, the w I mean, we’re working for ourselves, so we determined a lot of our own deadlines. And like you said, you’ve become a lot more fluid or just kind of, I don’t know how you would describe it.

[00:14:28] Pam: I have stopped having expectations.

[00:14:35] CK: And that’s probably mostly a function of my. Optimism bias,

[00:14:40] Pam: Yes,

[00:14:42] CK: but yeah, I’m still working on that. And, uh, I think a lot of the big hurdles in the big mountains have been climbed. Like I’m at the top, we’re pretty close to the top of most of those mountains. So now I just get the coast a little more and ride that.

[00:15:04] Middle of the momentum wave. And so, yeah, I mean, we’ll see how things go. But I also, on that note, I’ve been thinking about my schedule and my routines and stuff like that. And how those have been evolving over time as I’ve been getting into these creative endeavors and you had mentioned something about.

[00:15:31] My star sign or my natal chart, uh, having some kind of success with Thursdays because of Jupiter.

[00:15:43] Pam: Yeah, your, your sun sign is Sagittarius, which is ruled by Jupiter and Thursday is Jupiter’s day of the week.

[00:15:51] CK: Okay. But yeah, I was. So you asked me if I had a favorite day of the week or a most productive day of the week or something like that. And my first thought was. That Sundays were my most productive days or one of my favorite days. And they are so today being Sunday, it’s our podcasting practice podcasting day.

[00:16:16] And you know, it’s a session of self-reflection and practice obviously. And so, you know, I we’ve developed this routine of doing this on Sundays and kind of built a routine around it. For the rest of our Sundays in, I mean, our, our Sundays are filled with this podcast of practice and self-reflection as well as PAMs that bad advice podcast on some Sundays.

[00:16:48] Pam: Whenever I get around to writing it up.

[00:16:51] CK: And then we have our routines of rest and relaxation and recuperation and regeneration. And so it’s a pretty well-rounded day and we have the routine down, like the schedule. I mean, it’s not super.

[00:17:09] Pam: regimented.

[00:17:10] CK: Yeah, exactly. It’s not all locked in, but you know, it’s pretty loose and we’ve been following. Uh, pretty similar schedule for now.

[00:17:19] I mean, this is episode 42, so like the past 41 weeks. So yeah, I mean, it’s, uh, for me coming from being very regimented with my schedule, this, I guess this kind of appeases that and having that regularity, but at the same time, It’s loose enough. And, you know, we kind of go with the flow enough and I think maybe the timing of everything works out well that, you know, we can move things around a little bit here and there.

[00:17:54] And it’s just a well rounded day, you know? So I do like Sundays, but on the point of Thursday’s being, uh, my day for Sagittarius. Yeah. That, so I started thinking that. That also makes sense because it’s not Friday where I’m thinking of the weekend and getting away from work or something regimen and like that per se.

[00:18:25] So, and it’s also, yeah, yet it’s also towards the end of the week. So I’m kind of in the momentum from the previous days. So, you know, it’s not Monday at the beginning of the week, but you know, I’ve had Tuesday and Wednesday to get into a flow and stuff. Thursday, I’m kind of at a max output. So I do like the Thursdays and I don’t know why I’m talking about this.

[00:18:50] I think I started talking about my schedule because I’m still kind of wrapping my head around the how to go about switching from, you know, creative modes of thinking versus strategic modes of thinking. You know, I’ve talked about focus mode and diffuse mode of learning. And so I feel like I’m going back to strategizing my schedule and the reason that I want to look into this a little more and kind of systematize it a little more instead of kind of winning things and trying to figure out where my creative. Times or sessions fit in is because. One going away for my birthday. So we actually went camping or glamping to be technically accurate.

[00:19:55] Pam: there was a heated blanket involved in a mattress and a bathroom. So it wasn’t full on camping.

[00:20:00] CK: Yeah. We had running water and heat and water and power. So, and we had phone service. So. Uh, but we were in a tent and it was called.

[00:20:16] Pam: It was 43 degrees overnight.

[00:20:19] CK: Yeah, I think it got below 40,

[00:20:21] Pam: Yeah.

[00:20:22] CK: I think so. But. Yeah. And to those that aren’t in Southern California might think that’s nothing like free complaining about 40 degrees and that’s the coldest that we get. But anyway, uh, you know, I mean, we’re used to a nice warm vacation type weather year round, basically. So yeah, that’s cold for us.

[00:20:45] And, you know, we’ve talked about before the importance of discomfort. At times, and this was kind of like a intentional discomfort for us, kind of like, uh, it was definitely a pattern interrupt and thanks to my pattern awareness manager. Pam. She constructed this nice weekend getaway for us to go clamping and also a cast iron lasagna in Maine lobster rolls in a phone.

[00:21:21] Pam: Yeah. It was a very bougie glamping

[00:21:24] CK: Clem chatter. And what was that? Coffee? Ice cream thing. I forgot.

[00:21:28] Pam: but we, I forgot. Oh, for breakfast. Yeah. We had coffee cake.

[00:21:33] CK: So,

[00:21:34] Pam: yeah, we were those people.

[00:21:36] CK: yeah, but yeah, that kind of got me to realize being away like that, that I still need to. Get away in my mind and have these periods away from my normal processes so that I can get my mind in a place where I can be more out of the box and more creative and more imaginative and whatnot. And so I kind of have to figure out, maybe it’s like on a certain day that I need to just.

[00:22:16] Turn off and unplug and get in my creative mode or maybe parts of multiple days or something like that. But like, you know, when we went glamping, we really didn’t change our routines very much. Our days were still pretty similar I still, I was able to have different. Thoughts. Like, I felt like I was in a different mode of thinking, of course we didn’t have wifi and we didn’t have a TV and stuff like that.

[00:22:52] So I just couldn’t go online and get to my work or, you know, whatever I do on the computer. So there were instances where we were just kind of sitting around and trying to figure out what to do. we don’t really have times like that. You know, we always have something to do or something that we’re usually doing at certain times of the day, but it was nice to kind of sit there and not do anything, you know, we were just doing

[00:23:28] Pam: so long, like Friday was a long day.

[00:23:35] CK: well, is it not for me?

[00:23:37] Pam: Just felt, I mean, not, not in a bad way. It just felt like there was so much time. Like I would look at the clock and be like, it’s 10:30 AM. We’ve been up for four hours and have done everything.

[00:23:52] CK: Yeah. But at the same time, it’s like, uh, like I was saying, you know, we have a different mindset or you’re just kind of forced into a different way of thinking and, you know, without having. Certain things around you that you’re habitually reaching for or doing it, you know, that forces you to have to think differently.

[00:24:21] So it’s something like that that I want to incorporate into my routine a little more so I can get into that mode and force myself into that mode per se. Yeah.

[00:24:37] Pam: do you want to tell the story that relates to the quote since you teased the bat, just to close

[00:24:41] CK: Yeah. Great point. Thank you. Thanks. Yeah, that’s a great idea. So yeah, let’s uh, recite the quote once more. It’s from Seneca, it says, he says nothing is burdensome if taken lightly and nothing needed arouse one’s irritation so long as one, doesn’t make it bigger than it is by getting irritated. So what happened yesterday?

[00:25:04] On my. Actually on my actual birth date is that, you know, we had a plan to check out of our glamping experience and make our way back up to Huntington beach, where one of my favorite restaurants is, and they have this grilled cheese spaghetti sandwich that. I’ve been getting on my birthday for, I don’t know how long, maybe four or five years. Yeah, I missed last year because we were in Chicago for my birthday, but they offer you a free sandwich on your birthday. So they texted me about that and we worked it out. So we would check out and mosey on back up the coast and have lunch. So I could end my favorite sandwich on my birthday. And so everything was working out perfectly and the timing was perfect.

[00:26:04] And we were having a great day and we get to the place for lunch and they were closed and I had an inkling that that would have happened, At the same time, you know, they texted me the offer and I accepted the offer and I looked on their web properties in their social media and everything looked to be up and running and they had posted something on Instagram that day.

[00:26:39] So, you know, obviously I assumed they were open, so it was pretty disappointing

[00:26:46] Pam: And to be, to be clear, they have three locations and they decided because of COVID to close down one of them, it just wasn’t sustainable for them to keep all three open. And the one that we go to is the one that was closed.

[00:27:00] CK: right, exactly. So, yeah, I was disappointed and. Maybe even more so, because I starved myself to that point during the day. And so I was really hungry. I was ready to eat and they ended up being closed. And so my thing, like I said, my, you know, I’m very strategic with my routines and schedule and the timing of stuff.

[00:27:25] And I had everything lined up perfectly for that. And if it was open, you know, it would have been perfect. It would have been the perfect time for you to eat. And we would have been able to enjoy a meal outside by the beach and they happened to be closed. And so, you know, my initial reaction was disappointment and

[00:27:48] Pam: You were starting to get pretty frustrated there while we were trying to figure out what else to eat.

[00:27:53] CK: I stood in it for a while, because I was starving and. Uh, you know, it just kind of threw a wrench in everything and everything was going so well. Like the timing for everything was perfect and everything else with the whole glamping experience was perfect before that. And so, yeah, I mean, this quote is perfect because. It says, you know, nothing need arise.

[00:28:20] One’s irritation so long as one, doesn’t make it bigger than it is by getting irritated. And, you know, I stood in it in the disappointment for a little while and as I thought about it, you know, I kind of thought, you know, I didn’t, you know, I wanted my birthday to go smoothly, but at the same time, I’ve never really been big on birthdays in general.

[00:28:48] Just, I don’t like, I mean, before I didn’t like the attention or, you know, having all the attention on me and I also never thought, you know, I mean, it’s just the day you were born or what not, but lately I’ve been thinking, you know, it’s good to celebrate your own life and it’s a good. Ding, and it’s a good marker or milestone to consider in terms of reflection and stuff like that.

[00:29:18] So I’ve kind of tried taking that more into consideration and, you know, then I started thinking it’s okay for me to be irritated, that it’s an irritating circumstance. And at the same time, it can allow me perspective and. You know, not only do I have to just be irritated at the time, but I could also consider that, you know, it’s unfortunate to be irritated about being, you know, pissed off about not getting a sandwich that I want.

[00:30:03] Pam: like this is your biggest COVID problem.

[00:30:06] CK: Yeah. So that’s why that quote. Stood out to me when I saw it this morning and I’m like, Oh, that’s just perfect. And to keep going along that theme while we were at glamping, I was thinking, you know, there was a period in my life where I would’ve thought that this would have been the opposite of a happy birthday experience for me, like going out, you know, out of the home and somewhere. That you know, somewhere new in a new experience, like we’re, we don’t really camp. And I don’t know if I’ve ever been camping. I mean, I’ve passed out in nature overnight before through my colleges, but Tim used to go camping when she was a toddler. But yeah, we never really camped in our adult lives in never kind of exposed ourselves to nature overnight.

[00:31:02] Harsh weather, all that stuff or harsh is for us. But so, you know, I was thinking that it’s a good practice or experienced in terms of practicing some discomfort and you know, something new and, you know, going into it. We didn’t really think about it as something that. Was challenging or, I mean, I guess we kind of did.

[00:31:31] I don’t know, but it was like just an experience for us. Like we like going on trips for experiences, but as I was thinking about it, you know, it’s, even though we were camping per se, Like, we still had all these resources available to us. And this experience was set up really nicely by the host and that there was an enclosed area for the bathroom.

[00:32:03] So we were blocked from the wind and they had like a rough on it as well. And, you know, like I said, we had warm running water and we had all the amenities that we needed other than central heat.

[00:32:21] Pam: Yeah, there’s a grill. We cooked everything on the grill. Everything except except heat, which we didn’t expect. People can. If they want to see photos, they can go on Instagram to bonds, all bell glamping.

[00:32:35] CK: There you go, I’ll link to that in the show notes. And yeah, it just got me to realize that we really don’t need much. And it got me to consider the abundance that we have in our lives. And like I was saying, our days were pretty much how they usually go when we’re at home and we didn’t really have to change a lot of stuff up.

[00:33:01] Other than, you know, wearing more clothes and being bundled up and leaning up a little more and spending more time under the blankets on a heated bed. But yeah, it’s just, I mean, especially during this time in the pandemic, it’s really, eye-opening in, I’m just very grateful and I feel very fortunate to be able to consider, you know, This camping experience and the abundance that we have, you know, it kind of helped bring about that, that perspective, I guess you could say. So. Yeah, I’m just kinda rambling here. I don’t really have much else that I can think of right now. Do you have anything else you want to talk about Tim?

[00:33:50] Pam: Um, there is solar eclipse happening on Monday the 14th. We won’t be able to see it here in, uh, in North America. People will be able to see it in South America, but yeah, so it’s kind of a, an infrequent event. So it’s happening in Sagittarius, which is all about, um, expansion and growth and, um, optimism. So it’s a good time to.

[00:34:14] Think about what you want to grow over the next six months, what you want to achieve and where you want to expand.

[00:34:22] CK: Nice. Interesting. And is that on Selena’s birthday?

[00:34:25] Pam: It is on Salinas birthday.

[00:34:27] CK: Yeah. She’ll love that. She was, I remember her being jealous of my birthday last year. I think the, there was like a cold moon or a blue moon or something that was at its fullest at 12, 12 o’clock in the morning. On 12, 12 the day or something like that, which was my birthday.

[00:34:53]

[00:34:53] So anyway, I’m glad that she gets something like that on her birthday this year. So happy early birthday to Selena and that’s all I have for this week. So yeah. Make sure to check out not bad advice first episodes up and we’ll get the second episode of this week. Where are you going to be? Publishing on Wednesdays every week.

[00:35:19] So check that out if you haven’t checked it out yet. And so Pam, where can people find you?

[00:35:24] Pam: You can find me on Twitter, where I am at Pamela underscore Lund.

[00:35:28] CK: And you can find me on Twitter at CK disco. I’ve been posting a little bit here and there lately and have some other things in the works, uh, play with some video actually the past couple of days while we are away. So not sure what’s going to come out of that, but playing around with it, seeing what we can do.

[00:35:46] So yeah, check all that out. And. Uh, thank you guys for listening and Pam. Thanks for joining me as always. And I hope you come back next week and keep on practicing to lose