A note of appreciation

Inspiration & guiding principles.

Home.

A friend asked me very recently ‘what was my inspiration for starting the newsletter?’

It’s a really important question, but I found myself scrambling a bit to compile a sufficient and truthful answer. Surely this should be something I can produce in an instant, having invested so much time into this.

I think my scrambling is in part because I’ve been doing this for a whole year now. How crazy. One year of writing, gone by in what feels like seconds.

It has been so long since inspiration turned action, I forgot what it was. I’ll give it a go.

At a fundamental level, the purpose of starting this newsletter was to share ideas. I’ve found that some of the best conversations are the ones where you connect with someone a layer below the ‘how was your summer?’ or ‘what are you up to for the weekend?’ There’s nothing inherently wrong with these sorts of conversations. It’s completely acceptable. But the meat and potatoes of human interaction really lies in sharing things you really care about. Mine just so happens to be ideas.

Secondly, since I think covid, I have been utterly addicted to my phone. Every waking moment of boredom, my hand instinctively reaches for my phone, if I’m not already on it (unlikely). My current data period on my work phone is 77.8GB (already a disgusting number). Of this total, 29.1GB have been used on Instagram. I’m happy to out myself, because I think this is a serious issue. I can no longer slow down. I’m so accustomed to fast entertainment that I can’t even sit down with a book without constraining myself to leave my phone down.

I chose a newsletter because it feels like the best digital medium to get people to slow down. 7:30am on a Sunday, with a coffee and a new entry feels like the closest thing to we will get to reading the Sunday paper. I haven’t been good enough to provide this every week, or even on a Sunday, but I’m trying.

I set out to write about the things I found interesting, and the ideas I hope to shape who I want to be. If even one person found this useful, I knew I could look back knowing that all of it was worth it.

But looking back, you guys have answered me like crazy.

The level of aroha me te tautoko you have shown me is more than I could have ever asked, and the feeling it gives me is truly indescribable.

I hope this outlet continues to serve you, as much as it serves me.

Thank you Nigel, for your question and your love.

---

In celebration of one year together, I thought it would be fun to compile three lessons you have allowed me to shamelessly recycle.

Memento Mori

The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Japanese, Icelandic, and religious communities like Buddhism, Taoism, and Islam have all reflected similar ideas about the truly impermanent nature of life. Memento Mori serves as a reminder that death is inevitable, and to think otherwise, or not at all about this is to give up the one thing that actually provides meaning to life.

‘Why should I see my grandparents now. I can always see them later?’

It puts a lens on what is actually important, and that maybe you don’t always have enough time. It’s only when we get some bad news that we start to appreciate what we have, and who we have around us.

Don’t wait.

Life, if well lived, is long enough — Seneca

Amor Fati

Amor Fati — translating loosely to ‘love of fate’ — is the practice of not only accepting what happens to you, but embracing it. Adversity and obstacles, no matter how challenging, are merely opportunities to demonstrate the best parts of you.

Rather than focusing on the problem itself, it is to put your energy into what really matters, overcoming it.

The formula for Human Greatness is through Amor Fati: That one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backwards, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it….but love it.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Eudaimonia

Aristotle was a large proponent in Ancient Greece of achieving what is called Eudaimonia — the highest good. It is the feeling achieved not by an outcome, but a process. The process of fulfilling or realising one’s unique purpose in life.

The stoics believed that in order to achieve Eudaimonia, which can be thought of as a form of flourishing, is to live inline with four key virtues:

1. Wisdom: the knowledge of right and wrong, what is in and out of our control, and how to respond.

2. Courage: to face misfortune, death and criticism with bravery.

3. Temperance: to live in emotional and physical moderation, and find the golden mean between all things. Not too much, not too little.

4. Justice: encompassing fairness, and kindness, doing what’s right and standing against what is wrong.

Through these guiding principles, can we lead a life of right action and access this profound and long lasting sense of purpose.

I hope these ideas open a window into what I’m all about, or what I’m trying to be about. Again, thank you for one year of this journey with me. Here’s to many more.

Just Something To Consider.