Shay Carl, Tim Ferriss, and my commitment
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” (Henry Ford)
Tim Ferriss just released another high quality conversation with someone successful and balanced in life, this time with Shay Carl, a YouTuber I chanced upon somehow in a year or two ago. Shay’s energy was what struck me and made me like his work, as it’s probably the case with most people who watch his vlog for the first time.
In this really long podcast episode, Tim Ferriss asks — ‘discuss’ is probably a better word here because he chimes in quite a bit to add to the conversation — Shay a great number of personal questions. It’s a deep conversation about how religion is part of his life, how vlogging fits into his life and his family’s and its sociological effects and much more. Three hours is a lot to summarise and I won’t try. Tim Ferriss has show notes on his website.
But I got a few things out of listening to the podcast today over different sittings (it’s 3 hours!), and this post is about what I’ve learned from being a fly on the wall during their conversation.
Family comes first, and your wife/husband is the first among the first
- society is built on the fundamental unit of a family
- your children will grow up and find their own partners, and our parents will leave the world. Your wife/husband has vowed to be by your side for the rest of life and if you believe in the afterlife, for eternity.
So when you’re suffering through the daily grind of life, it’s important to remind yourself not to vent or pass those sufferings on to him/her. Aim to lift him/her, if it’s just one thing you do each day.
Think much, but learn as soon as possible to be biased towards doing
- as a man thinketh by James Allen
- everything we do and have ever done began as a thought, so don’t underestimate the power of the things we brew in our mind
- combine this fact with knowledge that the hard things are what will bring you success, so quit procrastinating and allow yourself to make mistakes
Speak as close to how you think as you can
- try your best not to re-package your words as they come down your brain and roll off your tongue. Speak as close to how you think as you can.
- useful exercise: picture yourself waking up to a world where you could hear and know what the person you’re with is really thinking in his mind and vice versa — would you be embarrassed of your thoughts?
- practice not worrying about what others think. Tim points out that not caring about what others think perhaps isn’t the best way to think of it — not worrying about it is the key.
What I learned is to be biased towards action, to have a mind (and thoughts) that I won’t be afraid to let someone else peer into, and to constantly work at worrying less each day about what others think. And most importantly, in the process of trying to incorporate new thought patterns and habits that will make you a better person, don’t neglect or shun your wife/husband, because no matter whether you become better or remain who you are now, he/she already believes in and loves you.
Next
I wrote in yesterday’s post that I will be finally getting down to work on five hardware/electronics projects that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. And now, I’m thinking to myself, if I am indeed to internalise what Shay Carl and Tim Ferriss have been talking about for 3 hours, I better practice it!
So here’s my personal commitment: for the next 30 days, I’ll publish a post about my day learning something. It’s nice that today is the 30th of June, 2016. It makes the end point much clearer.
A quick primer: I’ve been learning web development from Free Code Camp for the past 1–2 months every single day. I’m currently unemployed, paying the bills through a combination of renting out two bedrooms at home and doing odd jobs, which gives me quite a lot of flexibility to learn.
If you’re wondering why I’m choosing to write instead of, say, making videos, the reason is this: I’m not confident in front of the camera. Yes I’ve done vlog-style videos, but they’re all private between me and my wife. (I just heard your mind, bro. Duuude…!) I’ll probably try vlogging in the future. For now though, I’m going to take things one at a time.
So for the next 30 days, I’m going to write a post similar to this one discussing what I’ve learned in the day. This, I imagine, is a lot less effort than what vloggers have to put in to upload a video everyday. I’m doing this to prove/learn a few things to/about myself : (1) I can deliver on a promise, (2) whether I like or dislike publicly documenting a part of my life, (3) how I can contribute to people’s lives through the internet.
I’m excited, but not exceedingly so. I’ve made public declarations to commit to things many times, and I have yet to follow through with one. Not the best track record, no. That’s why I’m containing my excitement. I think it might be more like rationing it.
