I was having a discussion with a friend recently who is holding himself back from doing the purposeful work he thinks he wants to pursue. What’s holding him back? Fear of putting himself out there in public. Fear of failure. Fear of being judged. Fear of choosing the wrong path. Fear of not being good enough.
Tag: journey
Identity and Social Constructs
I pity most people who get lost in identity. These are people pigeonholing themselves. These are people who can’t accept themselves. These are people who can’t negotiate who they are and how they feel with society and so they abandon themselves and opt to become an artificial construct.
The Difference That Makes The Difference
You can make a much greater impact by hitting the gym or hitting the books than you can by hammering the doubters and naysayers in your life with long-winded arguments.
Life’s Conflicts Are the Plot Points of Your Life’s Story
For some time now I’ve been fascinated by the idea of the monomyth popularized by thinkers like Joseph Campbell, C.S. Lewis, and (more recently) Jordan Peterson. One way of understanding a piece of what they have said is that all humans indeed occupy a story framework. We’re all taking Campbell’s “hero’s journey” and passing through its phases, which may look different for each of us.
When Are Video Games a Waste of Time?
Video games were a big part of my childhood. Even though I sometimes wonder why I spent so many hundreds of hours playing them when I was younger, I still look back on many of the game titles fondly. I have some good memories and great feelings attached to games from Krash Bandicoot to Harry Potter.
Josh and Eve’s Journey & Homeschooling (1h2m) – Episode 109
Episode 109 welcomes Josh and Eve LeVeque to the podcast for a chat with Skyler. Topics include: their separate journey’s to libertarian thinking; the value of discussion groups; each of their police and state court experiences; crimes verse torts; authority verse loyalty; Thomas Jefferson Education (TJEd) and unschooling; phases of learning; having kids; marijuana; their new short term rental business; peaceful parenting and spanking; and more.
The Voluntaryist Ethnicity
As my family has traveled the country and met or stayed with other voluntaryists and unschoolers, I can’t help but notice certain general customs among people and families of this kind. Without putting anybody in a box or limiting how it is expressed or experienced, here is the voluntaryist ethnicity as I’ve seen it.
Why Unschoolers Grow Up to Be Entrepreneurs
Almost by definition, entrepreneurs are creative thinkers and experimental doers. They reject the status quo and devise new approaches and better inventions. They are risk-takers and dreamers, valuing ingenuity over convention. They get things done. It shouldn’t be surprising to learn that many unschoolers become entrepreneurs.
Comedy: The Most Powerful Therapy
I’ve heard a variously attributed quote about how a paper cut is tragedy, while falling in an open sewer and dying is comedy. My friend experienced both as comedy. It made him invincible. Not a stoic acceptance of pain and suffering. Not an optimists insistence on silver linings. My friend had something else.
The Trouble with Abundance
Humans aren’t evolved to have or handle abundance. Our nature has a very hard time dealing with abundance. Our abilities, desires, motivations, tools, and everything about us were forged in an evolutionary history of extreme scarcity. What we are evolved for is the journey of survival in the face of scarcity, not the destination of contentment in the face of abundance.