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Stop stopping

Stop stopping. Stopping is the worst thing. Stopping breaks your momentum. Stopping is the start of decay and regression. When you choose to stop, you set yourself the task not only of getting back up to the same speed as before but also to the same altitude — the same level of Japanese. Taking a break from Japanese will hurt your Japanese. A lot. Each time you stop, you lengthen the road to fluency. When you stop, you quite literally become like Sisyphus: forever pushing the rock of your Japanese ability up the hill, only to have it roll down each time you pause. And just like Sisyphus, you have to retread the same ground to get back up where you were. Always restoring, never progressing; it’s a huge freaking waste of time.

Are You a Three-Day Monk? | AJATT | All Japanese All The Time

Source: alljapaneseallthetime.com
Basic things to keep in mind

What I’m setting up for myself to successfully train for the marathon uses the same principles I’ve followed for every other long-term project or big goal I’ve wanted to accomplish. It’s how I started my first business. It’s how I became a coach. It’s how I climbed Mt. Hood.

Here are the basic things to keep in mind:

  • Know your goal – understand why it really matters to you
  • Create and follow a plan – it doesn’t have to be elaborate, but knowing what you need to do really helps
  • Build a base at the beginning – keep it small and doable as you gain experience and build new habits
  • Intensify over time, as your skills improve – challenge yourself to steer clear of ruts
  • Cut yourself slack, you aren’t going to be able to do every single step perfectly – know that, be okay with it and keep going
  • Enlist the help of other people – don’t underestimate the power of having people in your corner

Training for a Real or Metaphorical Marathon | Perception Studios | Shannon Wilkinson, life coach & more

Source: perceptionstudios.net
Be honest with yourself about how hard you’re willing to work. One thing I noticed as a trainer and as a professor is people want to achieve something, but aren’t willing to put in the effort to get there. They say they want to work hard but when you work them hard, they run. Don’t be the person who runs. The discipline it takes to do that is uncomfortable and unpleasant sometimes and you must be willing to enter that discomfort. Look at advanced degrees: two out of three people don’t complete their PhD. It’s punishing. I’ve cried because of the stress numerous times. Every day I have to reaffirm my efforts at my dissertation, at lifting, at personal relationships. But it’s so, so worth it in the end.
Chasing Strength
Source: chasingstrength.com

Consultant vs. contractor

Alan Weiss, of whom I am a groupie, just published a quote that rocks my world. The full article is in the June 2012 issue of Balancing Act.

If someone pays you for your wisdom and advice, you’re a consultant—a “brain.” If someone pays you for your work and delivery, you’re a subcontractor—a pair of hands. Both constitute legitimate and respected work, but the former can charge based on value delivered and the latter can charge only on time spent on the job.


Consultant vs. contractor

Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, a Unitarian minister, summed it up decades ago:

The master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his work and his play, his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves others to determine whether his is working or playing. To himself, he is always doing both.

Career Planning—Does Personal Passion Matter? « doug toft
Source: dougtoft.net

Fritz on happiness

What is more important than happiness is involvement.  We want to be involved with our lives, other people, projects, and the creative process.  In that involvement, we will experience a range of moods, emotions, feelings from high to low.  It comes with the territory.  And, in those wonderful moments, when you are happy, it is something to appreciate for what it is, an exquisite interlude that makes up in height for what it lacks in length.


Robert Fritz

Many pro authors say you should try a dumb trick if your writing is moving frustratingly slowly: just banish a certain part of your A to Z for a bit. This paragraph can’t contain any “A”s. Try it. You find that your brain has to slow down and focus on that arbitrary limit. It distracts you, making you pick all of your words with caution.

Okay, that was just one paragraph without using the letter “E” and it took me about three hours to assemble. It’s a great writing trick because all too often, you get trapped by your own writing style. Water carves grooves in rock after a number of years, you see. When that happens, that’s becomes the only path the water wants to take. An arbitrary but ironclad rule forces your writing to flow into new directions.

The Wheel Of Fortune Comment Moderation System – Andy Ihnatko’s Celestial Waste of Bandwidth (BETA)
Source: ihnatko.com