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Shoshikantetsu

asnewman.github.io

91–100 of 126 posts

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#91
I have always been a "My Word Is My Bond" guy.

If I say I'll do something; I follow through, come hell or high water.

A lot of folks know this about me, and try to get me to commit to stuff. I'll only commit to the stuff that I plan to complete.

It's interesting how hostile people get, when I mention how important it is to complete stuff. I had a trainer once say "It's really important to know what 'Done' looks like."

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#92

Having a high say-do ratio has always been important to me I've never encountered this idea, but as soon I read it I suddenly see it everywhere. My roommate who tells me he'll clean the kitchen then doesn't; my cousin who says he'll come to dinner then cancels. My best friend who says she'll start going to the gym and never does. My world is awash in people who say the most wonderful things and then don't do any of t…

Why would you want a high say/do ratio? Did he mean "low"? I don't understand why you'd want to say a lot of things and do only a few.

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#93
post #89

Having a high say-do ratio has always been important to me I've never encountered this idea, but as soon I read it I suddenly see it everywhere. My roommate who tells me he'll clean the kitchen then doesn't; my cousin who says he'll come to dinner then cancels. My best friend who says she'll start going to the gym and never does. My world is awash in people who say the most wonderful things and then don't do any of t…

I think this is mostly the culture of "should". In our highly individualized society that glorifies self ambition, the list of things we "should" do are endless. However, when we say "I should go to the gym", we're not saying "I value my personal health and wellbeing and am convinced the gym is a path to that", but rather, "Society/friends/family/work might value me a little more if I do this" or "society may value m…

yeah a lot of the self help industry is built on shaming and shoulds. We "should" excercise for 60 minutes a day, meditate for 30-60 minutes, go for a walk after meals, work on career, our brand, our hobbies, our business, read a book for 30 minutes.

Like Oliver Burkemann said, most of these producutivity articles are written by and for 20 year old kids with no family, no responsibility; and the rest of us are shamed if we dont meet these impossible standards.

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#94

Having a high say-do ratio has always been important to me I've never encountered this idea, but as soon I read it I suddenly see it everywhere. My roommate who tells me he'll clean the kitchen then doesn't; my cousin who says he'll come to dinner then cancels. My best friend who says she'll start going to the gym and never does. My world is awash in people who say the most wonderful things and then don't do any of t…

> it feels like a distinctly modern phenomenon Probably not a modern phenomenon. Except in so far as it's a lot easier to "hear" people say things much more easily now.

"Confucius said: 'The ancients were hesitant to speak, fearing that their actions would not do justice to their words.'"

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#95

Having a high say-do ratio has always been important to me I've never encountered this idea, but as soon I read it I suddenly see it everywhere. My roommate who tells me he'll clean the kitchen then doesn't; my cousin who says he'll come to dinner then cancels. My best friend who says she'll start going to the gym and never does. My world is awash in people who say the most wonderful things and then don't do any of t…

Don't resent people for this. I used to as well. But these people only try to become better versions of themselves. And for various reasons fail. It's still noble of them to keep trying.

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#96
post #39

A similar idea that resonated with me is CGP Grey's suggestion to replace resolutions with themes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVGuFdX5guE Rather than set a lofty goal you're more likely to give up on (leaving you having accomplished nothing), simply look for ways in which you can do/be better than you were before.

Amusing to see this in the thread as, inspired by CGP Grey, my theme for the year is "be intentional" so this post particularly stood out to me.

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#97

My favorite yojijukugo is from Chinese, despite the fact that I barely speak it. 自強不息, or “Pushing forward to better yourself without ceasing,” I think? Maybe there’s a better way to put it? Another poster mentioned 点滴穿石 which is my second favorite. It puts things in perspective quite well.

Be careful when you use "自強不息" though. I have never seen any native speaker who is also a sane person use it in daily life without sounding sarcastic. This word does mean what you say, but it probably one of the overused, insincere, and meaningless words in government speeches. It's like people roll their eyes when tech giants says "make the world a better place" for the past 30 years. But instead of 30 years, this came from 《易经》,which was roughly from 5,000 year ago, and has been constantly used in a similar fashion since then. So imagine how a Chinese speaker will think of it.

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#98
post #52

I always say this to my kids when they don’t feel like doing some habit: just half arse it. Another phrase I use is: if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly. I run 12km every day, but some days I don’t get out until the afternoon, like today, and it was 30 degrees C and I could only run 8kms and when I got to the bottom of the hill at the 8km mark I couldn’t run up it and just walked the remaining 4km ho…

> if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly

I also keep coming back to this phrase. I believe this is the source (G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World): https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1717/1717-h/1717-h.htm#link2...

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#99
I think this is great advice in the short term. In the longer term it’s worth evaluating whether a commitment you made only/mostly to yourself is still serving you, or whether the “you” that came up with the commitment was missing some bit of information that you have now.

Like, if the commitment is serving your past self rather than your future self, give it up. You don’t owe your past self anything.

Hank Green did a really good talk on this a few years ago: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lPtopvsxmZY

Re: Shoshikantetsu

#100
> 一期一会 (ichigoichie) - "Treasure every encounter, for it will never recur."

Interesting that science by design is the inversion of this— to only show concern with the parts of every encounter which must always recur.

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