Enlightenment may not be what you think!

Micah Manning
5 min readDec 31, 2023
This is an image of a dog looking through a window with evening sun rays coming into the room, and a glass of wine sitting on the table in the foreground, as though we the reader were the dog’s owner appreciating the apparent enlightened state of our furry friend.
Photo by Peter Schulz on Unsplash

Today, I am exploring the idea of enlightenment as a lightening of mental load through experience, study, and cross-training.

First, let’s dig into what this means for me. I have three major guiding principles that inform my actions from moment to moment.

  1. Seek Enlightenment: Evaluate whether this knowledge or effort makes future endeavors easier.
  2. Fear is a tool: Recognize fear in myself as a mechanism that guides me away from failure.
  3. Don’t sweat the small stuff: Embrace life as it comes and learn how to dance with it.

I try my best to apply these three principles to things that I feel may be keeping me from what I want out of life.

Seeking Enlightenment…

With Guidance

Two people sitting at computers one showing the other a document. This is representing mentorship or tutoring for the purposes of this article.
Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

This journey began with difficulty but, built over time, came to represent the core of my education and how I learned to learn. My mother played a crucial role in my enlightenment. Before ADD and ADHD were widely studied. She taught me at a very early age that I had a “jazz” type of mind and that the music may take me off into solos from time…

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Micah Manning

I am a web developer working out of the Greater DC area. I mainly focus on Accessibility issues and Section 508 compliance in my day to day work, and love it.