“We are what we repeatedly do; therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit.”

— Aristotle

I’ve recently spent time pondering the statement, “you’re either a writer or a person that writes.” As someone that has a hard time posting something more than every couple of weeks, I likely fall into the latter camp.

My writing leans towards self-awareness posts, and ultimately, I’m posting for myself. It’s my internal voice telling my brain to get with the program.

The writing helps me focus on my main interest, which is music, as it has been for over half of my…

“Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.”

— Napoleon Hill

I had a breakthrough a couple of days ago, and I’d like to share.

I took my drum set to a music gear exchange store to trade it for a guitar pedal. I hadn’t had the drums assembled in years, and the guitar pedal will help me further explore ambient horizons, as I’m playing guitar regularly.

I traded in the gear the store needed for the pedal I wanted and got a little money on…

I’ve spent the past two weeks perusing 50,000 words worth of personal notes from years past to collate them into directives and ideas. I’ve tightened it up by almost 20,000 words, but more revision is required.

I also haven’t posted anything to Medium since then, so I’ll share what I’ve learned going through those notes, then get back to sifting.

01. Don’t Be an Agreeable People-Pleaser

People will like you for who you are or they won’t. You don’t have to go out of your way to make people like you, as no one is keeping score. Live life as you see fit and join people…

There are times in life where it feels like everything has run its course.

Our job is no longer fulfilling, individual relationships are stagnating, and the daily routine feels uninspired.

The place we live no longer feels like home, and with each passing day, we become more disconnected from it.

Reflect and Decide

These revelations come with making the decision to deeply reflect on the life we choose to live, and analyzing what works for us and what doesn’t.

After coming to conclusions about the choices that got us here, more decisions require us to figure out what to do about our current…

We tend to look for quick-fix solutions to long-standing problems, which is why the idea of fasting is so appealing. “I can lose weight quickly and benefit my body, and all I have to do is quit eating for certain times? Sign me up!”

In essence, it is that easy, but it’s a habit that you have to integrate with discipline and perseverance into your routine.

How It Works

The benefits of fasting start around 12 hours after eating, as it takes the body that amount of time to burn the glycogen (glucose) in the food consumed.

After the glycogen stores deplete, the…

We only know what we learn from those who teach us. Sometimes our teachers are qualified to teach the material, and sometimes they are not.

Sometimes specific tools needed to live a healthy, balanced life are not afforded to us by those tasked with developing who we are.

Sometimes we have to take the initiative to learn on our own or find new teachers to help us grow.

Identifying the Issue

Something that I’ve had an issue with is the idea of love. For many years, I felt love was something that we had to fight to keep. …

We can create idealized versions of ourselves and others.

While having an idealized self to work towards is a noble pursuit, the other side of that is idealizing others and not seeing them for who they are, warts and all.

We might wonder why we create that narrative for ourselves, but it might be as simple as having those people represent what we want them to, rather than accepting them for who they are — that is where the disconnect happens.

When their true selves present in opposition to the ideal we’ve held those people to, we find ourselves withdrawing…

The catalyst that sparked this album was a difference of opinion with my parents. I asked them to respect my decision to be in a relationship with the woman I’ve been with for three and a half years, which they refused to do. I wrote more about this in my “Fighting the Urge to Be Lazy” article, but the gist is that this was the first time we had strongly disagreed on anything, and it threw my whole mindset asunder.

Every memory I had of them and everything else in life permanently shattered (thus the title). It made me question…