Hey! In case you missed last time, you’re receiving this because you’re a supporting force in my life; someone I’d like to stay in orbit with. Below, I share a bit about what life’s like these days.

Writing this is only 5% of the fun — I hope much more joy comes from the follow up walks and conversations I’ll share with some of you.

<aside> 🗓️ If you have a few seconds to leave a response, I’d love to hear about what you did today!

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As opposed to the usual smattering of updates, today I want to go deep on two themes: quality of thought in my inner world, and social duty in my outer world.

What’s going on in my inner world

I’m becoming increasingly aware of quality of thought in myself and those around me.

Obviously, everything in this update is just my take — here’s how I see “quality of thought”:

• High-quality thought enables better decisions that lead to a life filled with richness (self-defined). The thinking is sometimes conscious, but usually not.
• Gaps in feeling richness can be attributed to specific beliefs, decisions, and their tradeoffs (assuming basic needs are met).
• The barriers to better thinking are largely psychological, and surmountable with the right support, effort, and intent; changing our mental programming is doable, but hard, especially at the subconscious level.

I’ve been working through low-quality thought in a few facets of life.

To be clear, I’m neither beating myself up over this, nor complaining; just an observation of some patterns that lead to me feeling crummy.

• I’ve often felt unwilling to go the extra mile with gratitude, candor, or putting effort into the little things, like cleaning up around the house, responding to texts, reading, or exploring hobbies I know I enjoy.
• These are all places I (tell myself I) want to be conscientious:
  • I see others exhibit these behaviors, feel like I should too, and it feels great when I do!
  • But I also find myself holding back often, and consistently not making the decisions that would lead to more richness.

What’s causing the low-quality thinking here? It feels rooted in:

[Ego] Not believing the impact of those little things, or that they’re not worth my time.

[Low battery] Lacking emotional energy, feeling fried too often. My exercise, sleep, and diet are still too inconsistent.

[Bad habits] Gravitating towards lizard-braining and scrolling Twitter, YouTube, or games.

The path to the higher-quality thinking (and decision-making) I’m craving might look like: