Life — Work | Mitch Schwartz

 There’s a saying that hell is meeting the person you could have become. …As in one day you meet the best-timeline version of yourself and realize you’ve squandered your newly-seen-as-meager existence. “Aww, he’s so great and I’m crap and wasted my life” you would think. …And that would be your own personal hell. Except I’d like to argue that a truer hell is to live constantly worried about keeping up with that guy. It’s worth saying that everyone’s hell is different. Everyone’s motivation is different. One person’s “just do it” is another person’s toxic bro advice. One person’s motivational messiah is another’s cringe factory. It’s also said that competing with yourself is the healthiest competition. I think this is more about comparing to our past records and achievements instead of the world at large, in which there is always someone ahead of us. But if we can engage in toxic competition with someone who is always ahead of us… our future self or our best timeline poten...

Thought I would share a few recent breakthroughs. It's been said that finding inner peace isn't about doing something new but rather doing less and connecting with what we already are.  It's described as a wordless experience that can't be described so much as pointed to. A teacher of mine, Joe Hudson's favourite pointer is to 'Drop the resistance'. While the phrasing 'drop the resistance' is a great pointer. I've been missing a piece needed to more fully with his teaching. I've recently noticed myself spinning in resistance loops. I came across Adyashanti's framing of meditation as simply 'not trying to change anything' and It's been amazingly powerful. It feels exactly how I would expect 'dropping the resistance' to feel. It also reminds me of 'the great perfection' that so many Buddhists have referred to, Naval Ravikants preferred 'drop the intention' meditation, and the state I get into when I medit...

An arrangement of notes I took during the Art of Accomplishment Course: Artistry requires self awareness; Your consciousness comes through in every product you create. When we use a product, we are consuming also the consciousness of it's creators;  Consciousness is part of creation, this is what makes it an art form. If a product is made in scarcity and fear, we'll feel that when we use it. Software developed by a team with poor communication, running around trying to complete a huge backlog, will bring this level of consciousness into the product. Trust your full expression. Trust what's coming through you. When we see this full expression in others, we want to follow it. If we're judging and questioning ourselves, we can't be in a flow state. The only way we will see that we're inherently good is by knowing who we are; Artistry comes from this place. I know what I am and I'm committed to fully expressing it Is the state which drives the purest creation. T...

The mind trap is simple:  The way to "solve" emotional issues is to let them go but this isn't actionable advice; they seem to come right back