Inspiration and Motivation.

I have always enjoyed most of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural designs. Earl and I have toured by Taliesin, his home and studio in Wisconsin, and Taliesin West, his home and studio here in Arizona. In fact, we’ll probably be making a trip to Taliesin West soon because now I feel inspired.

I was happy to stumble across this article. “Final Usonian home” by Frank Lloyd Wright was completed earlier this year. Some modifications have to be made “under the skin” to bring the design into compliance with modern codes, but otherwise it’s true to the original design.

OK, I admit that I get frustrated too often when I’m out and about on the roads of Tucson. I needed to watch this. Better yet, I need to heed this.

I woke up this morning with the intent of going hiking. I had a plan of hiking a trail I’d explored only briefly a couple of months ago. The hike would have taken me up around 1500 feet and would have promised some great photo and video opportunities.

I just wasn’t feeling it this morning. The rain looked to be moving off to the east but something in my gut said this wasn’t the morning to go hiking.

So I went back to bed and took a nap.

It’s two hours later and there’s impressive rain showers (not in the forecast) passing through with a couple of lightning strikes showing up on radar. 

Always go with your gut.

As I type (and the shower is passing through) this I would have been at the furthest point away from the car. It would have been quite a wet experience, which is fine when I’m chasing storms and near the car, but not at the moment on a mountain with a few lightning strikes in the area. 

Instead, a decent cloud shot will suffice. My hike would have taken me toward the highest peak in the distance in this shot.

“Doing the verbs, not trying to be the nouns.”

This phrase in this video by Ryan Holiday really struck me in a motivational way when I heard it this morning. I have followed Ryan Holiday’s work for some time. I was happy to see his video come across my feed from BigThink on YouTube.

Let go of the labels.

Kevquirk recently shared a blog post highlighting A Nun Answering Questions in a YouTube video. I watched the entire video and found it absolutely fascinating. 

I have always found nuns a little scary because I’ve heard the stereotypical stories about knuckles being slapped in Catholic School and in other anecdotes they’ve always been described as so stony and hard.

This video changed my perspective quite a bit. I am happy to have watched this video.

Reposted from Cal Newport’s Blog (original link):

I’m writing this post about eighteen hours before the first polls open on Election Day, and it feels tense out there. The New York Times, for example, just posted an article headlined: “How Americans Feel About the Election: Anxious and Scared.”

Based on extensive interviews conducted over this past weekend, the Times concludes:

“Americans across the political spectrum reported heading to the polls in battleground states with a sense that their nation was coming undone. While some expressed relief that the long election season was finally nearing an end, it was hard to escape the undercurrent of uneasiness about Election Day.”
These results probably come as no surprise.

The question then becomes what to do with this anxiety. The first step, of course, is to vote — and not just vote, but to approach your decision honestly and dispassionately. By the time you read this, you’ve likely already completed this step.

But then what?

Here I have a suggestion that I think could be healing for all points of the political spectrum: use the stress of this election to be the final push needed to step away from the exhausting digital chatter that’s been dominating your brain. Take a break from social media. Stop listening to news podcasts. Unsubscribe, at least for a while, from those political newsletters clogging your inbox with their hot takes and tired in-fighting.

I suggest you switch to a slower pace of media consumption. Don’t laugh at this suggestion, because I’m actually serious: consider picking up the occasional old-fashioned printed newspaper (free from algorithmic optimization and click-bait curation) at your local coffee shop or library to check in, all at once, on anything major going on in the world. I think I might setup a Sunday-only paper subscription as my main source of news this winter.

Equally important is how you redirect your newly liberated attention. Consider aiming it toward real community, with real people who actually live near you, to retrain your brain to stop thinking of the world as hopelessly fractured into vicious tribes. (If right now you’re scouring this post to seek evidence as to whether I’m friend or foe, then you’re already severely suffering from this malady. )

Consider reading books again. There’s a pleasure in the conquest of deep ideas that’s been lost as we thrashed in a digital sea of churning distraction. Spend more time in nature to discover that despite the apocalyptic tenor of the online world, its analog counterpart persists, and is beautiful.

The Republic will still stand without our constant digital vigilance. But it’s unclear if our mental health can survive the status quo.

Fellow blogger Cole B wrote a blog entry I find quite inspiring. In the entry he shares his thoughts around a post he saw on The Art of Manliness, which is about the mindset and intentionality around achieving our desires.

To win and secure the thing you seek, your desire must be potent enough to energize and animate, but not so all-consuming it smothers and corrupts. You must want it, but not need it. – The Art of Manliness

I encourage readers to take a peek a look at Cole B’s entry. I hope you find the same motivation I felt while reading his post.