These are my Momentos, short personal diary entries I write daily – since 2013 – and publish monthly. Some links are affiliate links.
1
I like getting older in the sense that each year I come to know myself a little better. We’re all born with a body and mind but receive sparse, scattered and often bad instructions on how to use them. You figure out your own best practices over time.
2
Pushed up against my limit today, trying to squeeze some last tasks out of the work week. Spent the evening in the Botanical Garden but took a while for my brain to unclench and enjoy the nature. It’s not so much the hours I spend working, but the hours I spend thinking about work when I’m not working.
3
Interesting to read the comments on articles and videos about celebrity scandal. Everyone so quick to cast sweeping judgements on people they’ve never met, based on brief glimpses into their lives or clickbait claims that can’t be verified. Fingers crossed I’ll never be famous.
4
I’ve had to adapt to a slower working pace, can’t just power through and get as much done as I used to. Well, I can, but it always comes back to bite me. Recognizing after 3 solid hours today that I’m at my limit. What’s left on my list will have to wait until tomorrow.
5
27 applications so far for this Executive Assistant job. Every time I go through a batch of these, I’m amazed at how little effort is put into the majority. It doesn’t take much to stand out, but few people ever seem to try.
6
Ended up with another kamikaze taxi driver in Tbilisi. One of those guys who drives like he’s on a mission in GTA. I close my eyes and listen to meditation music, but the jerky maneuvers are hard to tune out. Amazing that I’ve only had one collision here in two years.
7
In my past life as a basketball junkie, I remember Chris Paul saying the key to his game wasn’t speed, but change of pace. He knew when to go fast, when to slow down, and could shift gears in an instant. That could well be the key in all kinds of work.
8
Four interviews today. I’m not used to hiring or managing people, doesn’t come naturally to me. But it’s a skill I’m determined to learn. I can’t build my ideal business or have my desired impact when it’s mostly me doing everything.
9
This guy is saying how he almost died from illness, his wife almost died from illness, his kid has had health issues. He’s come to believe strongly in God, figures He must have helped him survive it all. This confuses me: all the people who haven’t made it through illness… why did God not help them as well?
10
Someone asked recently what habits have helped me build my business. I think it’s mainly just persistence. I started working for myself in 2010. So I’ve been practicing for 12 years. Stick with anything for that long and you’re not going to be shit at it.
11
When people or situations annoy me nowadays, I try to reframe the issue as me being irritable. That way, it’s not so much something “out there” that’s the issue; it’s how I’m receiving and processing that thing.
12
Looking back at the last 3+ years of building and running eBiz Facts: which tasks in that whole process have I enjoyed the most? Clear to me now that it has been the big messy tasks, where I was able to bring order to some kind of chaos, with plenty of learning along the way.
13
Fair to say that humans are generally very good at adapting to change. We might even be better at it than any other species. And yet change is often what we fear most, especially once we get in a comfort zone. Afraid of something we can handle pretty well… strange creatures us humans.
14
Watching highlights of New Orleans beating San Antonio in what may have been Gregg Popovich’s last game. Brought back memories of me in that same building 14 years ago, when Pop’s squad beat my team in a Game 7 and I sat alone in the stands for a long time after.
15
Watching The Mark Of Zorro, a silent movie, more than a century old. It was the first Zorro movie, and apparently a big inspiration for Batman. Douglas Fairbanks was the Tom Cruise of his day, pulling off some ridiculous stunts and busting out parkour moves before there was even a name for them.
16
Gay Hendricks notes how common it is to complain about time, as if “time is the persecutor and you are its victim.” It really is a silly thing to complain about, especially past a certain level of wealth. We all have the same number of hours in a day.
17
In the park and this guy comes along and strikes up a conversation. I’m taken aback at first, haven’t experienced much of this since COVID started. He doesn’t seem to have any agenda, not selling anything, just being friendly. He’s from the UK, recently moved here from Iran.
18
Best time of the year for my basketball fandom: first couple of weeks of the NBA playoffs. I still get giddy like a little kid sitting down to watch the latest game highlights, scouring YouTube with half-closed eyes to avoid spoilers.
19
Spent many years striving to be as productive as possible, training myself to squeeze a little more out of every day. Recently I’ve had to unlearn some of that, figure out how to switch off and unwind so I don’t burn out. My 45-minute doze on the couch this afternoon = progress.
20
I was able to step back a bit today and appreciate the little drama I was fixated on, see how ridiculous it was and let it go. The video game analogy helps: my higher self is controlling this character who defaults to destructive behaviors unless I press the right buttons to keep him on track.
21
Traffic is slowly and steadily declining. Revenue will follow suit. Reassuring myself that this is all part of the plan, have to take a step back before I can move forward again. I don’t want eBiz Facts to be another site that churns out ho-hum content, trying instead to be a category of one.
22
Politics depresses me. There’s no nuance in it, no appreciation that the other side might have some good ideas or valid concerns that warrant discussion. Instead it’s presented as a battle of good versus evil. If you don’t agree with our over-simplified memes, you’re an immoral idiot.
23
Watching The Searchers from 1956, my first time seeing a John Wayne or a John Ford movie. Some iconic shots in it, and one of the first cinematic depictions of an anti-hero. Apparently it’s one of the most influential movies ever made, inspiring the likes of Spielberg and Scorsese.
24
The botanical garden in Tbilisi is my favorite thing about the city. Especially at this time of year. Weather that makes you forget about the weather. You hear and see birds and squirrels and frogs. And the valley all lit up with shades of pink and white and green.
25
Talking to a few people about my business lately. It’s really only when you try and explain your plans and challenges to someone else that you realize how much of it is held together with duct tape. Feels like I have little idea of what I’m doing and it could all fall apart at any minute.
26
Something of an out-of-body experience now I’m back in my skin and walking home but not directly home going to circle the block to be safe and I have a lit cigarette in my hand not sure if I should pretend to smoke some more or stub it out probably best I don’t look back.
27
First movie my mother ever saw in the cinema was Ben-Hur, back in 1960. Just watched it myself, now listening and reading up on it. The most expensive movie ever made at the time, it still holds the record for most Academy Awards won by a single movie, tied with Titanic and the third Lord of the Rings.
28
There’s an exercise in The Listening Book to sit and listen and write down all the sounds you hear. The tapping of these keys. The hum of the fridge. The ceiling creaking. Distant traffic, barking dogs. My own breath. And that might be the hint of music a wall or two away.
29
Ryan Holiday once said that he rarely reads books published in the last decade, preferring to read older works that have stood the test of time. Those are the ones more likely to be worth your while. The same could be said for movies.
30
Reading a biography of Shackleton, the part about his farthest south expedition in 1908-1909. Four months, almost 2000 miles, across largely unknown Antarctic territory in ridiculous cold, surviving on half rations, no way to summon help if the four-man team got stuck. They could have been first to reach the pole but decided to turn back 97 miles from it. Shackleton later explained the decision to his wife:
“I thought you’d rather have a live donkey than a dead lion.”