Tag: perspective

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The Perspective Of Meaning

If you consider anything from a perspective of a time distance enough for it to not have any meaning, well then it won’t have any meaning. It’s a trueism often spoken in other ways such as “nothing matters anyway, we’re all gonna die” and the like. What I never hear anyone talk about is the opposite – instead of going further and further out into time until we reach the heat death of the universe, starting from there and coming closer and closer to the present moment until there is a difference / meaning.

Almost everything is forgotten or disappears over time. After a few generations, you will be an ancestor whose genetics and traits are all but gone along with any memory of you. With this perspective, it feels like there’s no point in trying hard or anything. It’s almost a feeling of hopelessness or whatever German word exists for realizing how little control & effect we have over most of our life and environment. It feels like the world wouldn’t really be different without me.

All this is a matter of perspective. The above is the wrong perspective. It’s just so easy to believe that the world will continue on and be unaffected by our living or dying that we don’t stop to question why it’s worth thinking this way. Not debating how true it is and with what caveats, but rather why do we let this be our default perspective? The right perspective is that everything does matter. Because we exist now and there is nothing more worth considering. If I can make someone happy now, help someone now, be valuable now, well, this is the only time it matters. How long lasting are the effects of when I went to Africa for a mission trip? Did I impact all those kids in a positive way that will ripple through time? Maybe or maybe not. But that’s not what’s important. What I would rather focus on is that in those very moments of helping is where the impact was. It’s not my concern if they remember me today or tell their kids about me in 10 years. In the moments I had to help, I did and it was significant.

For climate change and other things like that, it’s very important to consider our actions in this moment as they relate to the future. But other than that, my argument is that it’s pointless and maybe even harmful to thing too far out into the future. We will all be forgotten and lost in time. But that never was and never will be the point. The point of it all is what we do now. Not to be remembered, but to be.

PS instead of thinking whether or not something will “matter” in 10 years, ask if it will matter tomorrow, in the next hour, in the next month.

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The Unfair Advantage of Being in a Wheelchair

Reading time: 3 minutes

This is off the top of my head while I’m taking a break from my studies.

I thought we could brainstorm, well, I’ll be doing all the work, but brainstorm about what there is to do if you’re in a wheelchair.

I’m the type of person who, with curiosity and ambition, wants to endeavor on any opportunity I see fit for me. There are many, and I’ve practiced saying no to a lot of things. 

In the world of business, when starting out, it’s advised to start small. Start very niche. As Seth Godin has said, be a meaningful specific instead of a wandering generality. Do it different, do it fresh, give value.

In other words, we’re in a world full of people. So many people that the greatest human desire – to be remembered – has become one of the most difficult achievements. Being in a wheelchair, or having any respectable adversity, becomes leverage for greatness.

So, what is there to do? 

As you should know, I’m a bodybuilder. A real bodybuilder – competing like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I wasn’t going to be a pro, but I did win all competitions but one.

As a 21 year old, there are enough guys my age that are better than me in every bodybuilding aspect that I would surely lose.
However, there are not many guys my age who are also in a wheelchair that I would compete against who would be better than me. And so, in becoming more niche, I have reduced the competition and increased my probability of winning, which is what matters in a competition. 

With that as an example and keeping “niche” in the forefront of your beautiful mind while reading this, here are some avenues to pursue if you’re in a wheelchair.

These may spark an idea within you, I hope they do.

•  Motivational speaker 

•  Write books about adversity (your experience, lessons, actionable knowledge)

•  Be an advocate for disability and inclusion (D&I) 

•  Work at a company for D&I 

•  Go into politics for D&I

•  Start a blog

•  Start a YouTube channel 

•  Become an engineer to invent tools for D&I 

•  Compete in any sport – think about the Paralympics, where there is less competition relative to the Olympics

•  (If you’re attractive enough) become a D&I model for clothing or products 

•  Start a nonprofit for a disability related cause 

•  Work as a consultant for companies to improve D&I (clothing companies, therapists, corporations, public buildings, etc.)

•  Make a world record as the first person in a wheelchair to do ____ (likely with a sport) 

The list can continue in you beautiful and limitless imagination.

No matter what it is that you’re interested in, you can do something about it. If you want to be an actor, that may not happen, but you could be a playwright. Think broad, find crossroads, then narrow dig deep.

Immediate actionable items: I just read this today when I grabbed a book off my shelf and went to a random page: advice from Warren Buffet – write down 25+ things you want to do, circle your top 5 and focus on those. Completely ignore the rest.

(Book is Grit by Duckworth)

Summary: There are more opportunities that arise from being in a wheelchair than not. Specifically, think in terms of competition. The probability to be the best at what you do has increased because there are less people in the pool of competition when you get more niche.

Overdeliver:  Like mentioned in the actionable items, it is also relevant what Steve Jobs has said, that focusing is about saying no to a lot of things.

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Necessity and Creativity for the Paraplegic

Reading time: 2.5 minutes

Dying of thirst, an eagle was flying over a rather dry area looking for what it needed badly, water.
When the eagle passed over a hut that had left out a vase of water, it landed and tried to drink the crystal water. After struggling with no success – the water was low and out of reach for the eagle – and knowing that it needed this water, the eagle knew it had to get creative.
Tipping the vase over wouldn’t work. The eagle thought for a while, and then thinking “if only there were a way to make the vase shorter by raising the bottom.” Then, the eagle went around collecting rocks and dropped them in the vase until the water level came within reach.

You may have heard a similar story, but with a crow. I read this in my Aesop’s fables book, but I like eagles more than crows, and I added some detail.

Everyone is, in some way, unique.

Or at least we all think we are, and so I don’t expect anyone to disagree with that.

You can interpret that fable in any way you like but the intention is to show that necessity drives creativity. That isn’t the only place creativity is found, but necessity always leads to creativity if there is an obstacle. Food is necessary, but I don’t have to get creative because the market is nearby.
If I were hunting in the wilderness with Boone, I would likely have to get creative in finding the next meal for my family.

You can find that almost anywhere you see creativity, there is a necessity and an obstacle between what’s needed and what is currently being done.

If you think deeply about things you might’ve wondered what really is necessity? Not what we consider a necessity, but what makes us consider things a necessity. The answer is belief. Which may not seem much different.

If you don’t strongly believe that something is necessary, you won’t care to get creative and solve problems.

Here’s an observation on my life. I go to the gym every day, now that I use a wheelchair, I have to get creative if I want to have a good workout and do the exercises that I want. In the gym, when I’m doing some crazy workout, people would come up to me and tell me that it’s smart or creative and ask how I came up with it. Well, I believed that I had to do it, and that necessity inhibited my creativity.

If you don’t like going to the gym or you don’t believe it’s necessary for you to do, then you won’t go in and put in the effort to figure things out in an unconventional way.

Where our beliefs come from is a larger topic, but this is an observation you can make of yourself quite easily if you’re in a wheelchair.

People in wheelchairs, or anyone with a disability of any type will, by that nature, have obstacles in life.

Unconditionally, everyone faces obstacles, and we either turn the other way if we don’t believe that we have to overcome, or we get creative and persist.

The purpose of talking to you about this is to have you realize the strengths and development gained from things such as being in a wheelchair.

It isn’t all good using a wheelchair, but it has driven me to observe more, visualize more, get creative, figure things out, and learn about myself and where my true beliefs are.

These skills will help in every area of my life and now I have experience, maybe not professional, but the gym is still a good place.

Immediate actionable items: Think about a time that you had to get creative to solve a problem, and think about what that says about your beliefs of what’s necessary. Stories of creativity are good during interviews, parties, and for introspection.

Summary: Our beliefs determine what we consider to be necessary, and if obstacles arise, as they often do, we will get creative. This is especially relevant for those in wheelchairs in a world of mountains, but it only makes us better when we get creative.
And most of our beliefs are created by our behaviors, which is why you will never belief what you do to be bad, or “that bad.”

Overdeliver:  A quote I read every morning, I don’t recall where I got it from, but it says, “when the values are clear, the decisions are easy.” Being fully aware of your values and beliefs will help you easily make decisions and when you do something you believe is necessary, nothing will stop you.