RAY'S REPORTS

File this one in the “life hack” category. I started putting my phone on airplane mode while I’m working on stuff. Then I bumped it up to when I’m out running, when I’m out shooting, skating, swimming, etc. Now I plan to use airplane mode an hour before sleep, while sleeping, and probs till at least 11am.

Maybe you do this already. And obviously this won’t fit all lifestyles like if you have kids or your job requires you to be connected 24/7.

Here are my findings. Your brain becomes less reactive and more proactive. You train yourself off those notification dopamine hits, your train yourself off reacting to all day short term stimulus. Now your brain can focus on the task at hand and be more engaged and productive.

I have wrote about how we have billions of options with a decision to make every second. This is called living consciously when you purposely make those decisions. By going airplane mode, you are less distracted and can better make decisions.

One example is, I read in a book, to pause before you are about to eat something and ask yourself, “Is this poison or medicine?”

That’s a harsh example and something I struggle with. But most of the time we are running around without these moments of pause that can be useful.

This is personal but thought I’d share. I been having a hard time with my goals but today some switch got flipped.

Setting monthly monetary goals has just been kinda blah for me. It means trying to sell more books per month and that translates to me feeling spammy. I tried to re-frame it by saying things like inspire more people per month or connect with more photography people per month, but that hasn’t been super motivating either.

The plan has been to publish once a month. The math isn’t right though. Which is why I think I have been dragging my feet about it and pursuing more freelance work. But today I thought if we do more than 12 issues per year, then the math works out.

The idea of making a volume goal instead of a monetary goal works better for me. It’s motivating. I don’t even know if I can do it, but it won’t kill me to try. I think it will be fun.

I started running again. Trying to lose 15 lbs or more. Having an ideal weight goal isn’t getting me anywhere, but having a goal of 3 laps a day around the nearby park is.

I guess the take away is that we have to write our own goals in our own language sorta tricking our minds to co-operate and have crystal clarity on what works for yourself.

Another paradox but this one I am calling a false paradox.

The idea is that you should operate at a place of “enough”, meaning that you have all that you need at your disposal and that you should happy and grateful that you even woke up today.

The paradox is that when you work it out in your brain it seems to go against striving for more or going for goals. Like if you are fine with where you are at, then why make any changes at all.

The reason why it is a false paradox though, or a non argument, is because you didn’t make your best work from a place of thirsty desperation to hit a goal.

You made your best work from a place of creativity and inspiration and you continue to do so. That should be the “enough”. It’s a re-frame. It is also faith that your own creativity and inspiration can influence your circumstances in a positive way.

“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” – Lao Tzu

I am a late bloomer. I am new to the game of pre-loading in advance. I have to do it for this site, but am realizing I should be doing it for everything.

Obvious example is bills. I was never a save for a rainy day guy, I am a enjoy the sun while it’s here spend everything guy. That’s changing though. I like to travel light weight, but I see the wisdom of squirreling away a stock pile.

Not so obvious example is energetically. We have cycles of rest and work, there’s also cycles of creativity and productivity, motivation, physical activity, etc. And I am talking about warehousing that stuff when it’s available.

In skateboarding when your going down hill too fast, your balance starts over compensating in both directions and you get the speed wobbles. I think it’s a matter of your bushings, wheels, bearings, ankles, tendons, calves, etc aren’t used to going this fast and just not ready. Sometimes you can hang on and make it through, other times you eat shit real bad.

Where in your life do you catch wobbles? I’m catching them now trying to update this blog every day. Is it worth it? Yes.

I was driving while shooting this photo. You can see wobbles in it.

I have a friend, who just turned 50, that is scared to go in the ocean past his knees because he thinks a shark will violently murder him. What are you scared of?

I have a fear of being sick, like real sick stuck in the hospital for months kind of sick.

Not afraid to die. I am afraid of dying with debt, that would be regretful. People have done me a lot of favors and I hope to return these favors before I go.

Just make sure to throw my dead body into the mouth of a live volcano.

No limits. We know we are capable of extremes, but even just defining that extreme could be limiting.

I think the Navy Seals are the guys who make you do push ups until your tired, then after that is when they start counting. They know that you always have 40% left in the tank. Like you might feel all the way done, but secretly unbeknownst to you, you’re maybe only half done.

I have some friend’s that have painted themselves into a corner and not sure how to get out. This happens to me all the time. It’s natural to plot a way out, strategize, get help. But sometimes you have to go less logical and hypothetical and go deep beast mode. And now we know that when you’re done, you’re actually not.

Ok in order to not be so vague, I skipped posting yesterday. Not on purpose, but because I had a lot going on. One idea is to write like 5 posts in advance so there is always a cushion in case some days get hectic. Doesn’t sound like that big of a deal, but it’s not strategy it’s extra push ups at the end of the day.

Every second we have at least 1 billion options in front of us. Every second we are making a choice. Some decisions may seem to be more important than other decisions, but one can argue that each one of them are equally important.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

Use your dimensions. Use your dreams. Use your mirrors. Use your magnets.

I’m liking the language that popped out in the last post, so I’m gonna keep it going till it’s annoying.

There are 4 main realms within each of us. The realm of the mind, the realm of the body, the emotional realm, and the spiritual realm.

The idea is that we explore and take responsibility of these realms, fix them up, sort them out and eventually we are “self-realized” or have “mastery of self”. Mastery of self is mastery of thoughts and since our thoughts make up reality we can say that we are now “master of reality” or “king of all realms” which I just made up.

The dilemma is that while exploring you find out each realm is infinite and eternal and there just isn’t enough time to comprehend it all. And as you get deeper, more realms open up. Dream realms, pain realms, energy realms, elemental realms, galactic realms, celestial realms, etc etc.

Your consciousness is forced to expand, it feels like a paradox, existing in multiple locations at multiple times. It is not a paradox, it is multi-dimensionality.

All the Lord of the Rings movies are on Netflix right now. In one of them the Father Elf, let’s call him Daddy Elfman, says to Aragorn, “Set aside the Ranger and become the King you were meant to be!”

He is basically calling out Aragorn because all he wants to do is roll around with the homies, but the orcs are out of control and Middle Earth has no proper king right now.

Maybe it’s time we all call ourselves out.

Maybe if we can better create our realities, then we can better co-create the collective reality.

We have an inner voice and an outer voice. You use both every day all day, so you are familiar with these 2 realms. If you think about it you can sense there are more realms to explore. Could each of the realms have their own voice? Their own truths? I think it is worth it to find out. The realms of your dreams, your heart, your body, your brain, etc. In these realms there are monsters to battle, yet golden nuggets also await. In which you will need to become the best version of yourself, the real version.