“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” – Ernest Hemingway.
This thought or tenet can be attributed to many people. Hemingway is the one who brought it to my attention is such a succinct way. You will find this quote printed out and taped in the center of my desk. It is a constant reminder, because its value needs a constant practice. It takes a strong reflection to constant look internally to find what needs to be improved upon. But through that practice I m able to apply it to myself.
The definition of noble is, having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles and ideals. Broken down even further, personal qualities, personal morals, personal principles, personal ideals. Personal. It is a waste of time to look for a comparison externally. You will never truly know who, what, or how that external factor came to be where it is. But you always have front row seats to your life. To properly define and be noble it must come from introspective striving for improvement from yourself today as it is compared to yesterday. That is it. Am I refined just a little bit more than yesterday. If you are putting yourself in the spotlight and working towards self improvement there will be no need for comparison to the external.
This thought can be harnessed and applied to every aspect of your life whether it be personal or business. Am I a better husband than I used to be? Are we providing more for our clients than we did before? And it is not that improvement is required. It is knowing that improvement comes from within.
When a situation happens, whether it is only to you or to a room of people you are in, there is no good or bad. There is only your reaction.
“The wise man regards the reason for all his actions, but not the result.” – Letters to a stoic.
How you perceive, digest, compute and file away that experience is when labels of quality and emotion are applied. And when you see that the perception of experiences can either build you up or break down you you must decide which will be more beneficial.
I strive to take every and all experiences to build onto my reputation. I want to be superior in every way shape or form, to my past self.
This requires a daily practice of being exposed to as many perceptions as possible. While we can see, feel and touch many people throughout our daily lives I use another medium to expand those perceptions. Which is reading. Being educated enough to speak, write, read and listen is already in itself a perception that grants us more than many. Taking that ability and now consuming the entire lives of people neatly condensed into a bounded format is powerful.
I am not a teacher or philosopher or even an author. I am just a single person striving to improve my daily life and in turn how I affect those around me. I will write about many topics like education, business, marketing, health and it will always be with the purpose of bringing in more perspective. In improving my self it always has the effect of improvement of the things I am experiencing. Starting with my time in college identifying the gross misevaluation of a product I was seduced into. But instead of taking it for it face value I shook the system up and made it what I wanted it to be at the price I needed it to be.
Sometimes the writing will be tangible and applicable like the guide to navigating formal education. Sometimes the writing will be more thematic and compare a train of thought between two seemingly unrelated topics.
My thoughts and “articles” started out as passive musings shared between a core group of friends and family. It often came with what books these thoughts derived from or simply what books I would recommend. There is a highly active and self aware group here and we would love if you joined us.
The theme of perspective can seem broad but that is for a reason. “The more you know the less you need.” We can know more about so much. Whatever it is you are looking for it will lead you to need less. Minimalism is a core idea you will find in a lot of my writing. But that can come in many forms. What is the most effective way to execute this business idea or project? What formal education do I really need? Will these material things have a positive affect on my life? All answered in different ways of minimalism. Perspective can bring presence, clarity, appreciation, understanding, health, wealth and simply knowledge. So yes perspective has many angles. But that is a design with purpose because we all see from different directions.
There is a monthly email/digest of those readings and books here you can sign up for.
Books recommendations (sometimes free) are sent once or twice a month. Spam never happens, even the canned kind.