James Clear Posts ‘+ Thinking Principle’ From His Late Grandpa
Do you know what you want? This may help get you there.
If you have yet to read James Clear’s post about his grandpa yet this morning, you must. Click above and follow the Twitter thread.
The Positive Thinking Principle
The Positive Thinking Principle is something each of us can learn, print out, write on an index card and slip under the glass on your desk. For the more inclined, you may want to tat them to your forehead. Perhaps a printout that slips inside your Bible is better. You may also want to retweet. Even write about improving your own content with these guiding thoughts, (You know, like I’m doing at the moment.)
Mr. Clear reports that yesterday, his family found this notebook quote left by his grandpa. It is brilliant. If you still have not read it yet? Please do so.
@ThreadReader on Twitter
Posting threaded comments, (Between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern; +5 hours from Zulu) at the recommendation of Tim Denning, is part of the secret sauce of success on Twitter. And since few would argue with me, sometimes it is a little difficult to read straight through a posted thread without getting caught up in all the comments, likes, and retweets. Forgive my use of cliché here, but “There’s an app for that.”
This morning in the comments following Mr. Clear’s Twitter brilliant thread, I found the comment from @ThreadReader app (ThreadReaderApp.com.) For a thread, (posted like Mr. Clear’s) a free, or $3/month or $30/year subscription enables one to save the whole text of a thread on one page. You can even turn it into a PDF and hang onto the magic that way. The file downloads in a way that does not require an endless search in your ever-expanding Downloads file. (Thread by @JamesClear on Thread Reader App — Thread Reader App.pdf)
@Readwise
I also found an app called @Readwise. (readwise.io.)
The beauty of this SaaS is that if you make a highlight on several platforms, the app curates the information into your favorite note-keeping space. How convenient is that?!
I am going to give each of these two apps a chance to wow me over the next few weeks. Particularly as I begin Monday with the regimented Twitter strategy outlined by Tim Denning this week in his post titled, “The Retweet Tecniques Used by the Biggest Twitter Personalities To Grow Their Audience.”
Morning Pages via @JuliaCameron ’s ‘The Artist’s Way’
Four years ago I worked my way through Ms. Cameron’s trilogy, beginniing with The Artist’s Way. Straight out of the gate readers are encouraged to get a notebook and hand write three pages of stream of consciousness thoughts one has at the beginning of the day, before tackling anything else.
One is encouraged to symbolically prick the finger of your writing hand and let all the venom, toxins, and regrets on those three pages. Every morning.
Each summer before school begins, I go to Walmart and buy a stack of the old fashioned composition notebook I used for science classes way back in middle school. They are $0.50 for each college or wide rule notebook here in the USA. So for $6 you can buy enough notebooks for one year. If you write three pages in your composition notebook everyday, each has the chance of serving you with one per month.
My own late Grandpa Andrew Sheptak of Hobart, IN
Grandpa Sheptak has been gone about 14 years now, and I told my mom recently that almost each day, I recall something he did or said and the impression he left on me; particularly about art. It is sort of funny how he went about preserving such information.
For one, in his garage behind their home in Hobart, IN (Pronounced as ‘Hobert.”) Grandpa would use a pencil to leave his wisdom behind. He seems to have lived by the writing on the wall medium, which is also available to you.
One of my last trips to the old house, I took photos of the cabinets on the walls of the garage. They are/were covered with observational notes, “I planted garlic,” with a detailed drawing of what the stem, bulb and roots all look like.”
In May 1994, he also penned the words, “The longer I live, the shorter my shadow becomes.”
He fixed me up with many of his art books, supplies, and photo copies of books before he died.
Grandpa told my mother that he had “fixed me up,” with a portion of his old art books. He was an avid active reader.
In the mid-1970s, he also gave me my first microscope. What I haven’t ever seen elsewhere since, was that the reflective mirror was pasted over with a series of 1/4 inch by 3/8 inch pieces of see-through plastic.
Puzzled, I asked him why the microscope mirror was done like that. And then he taught me a valuable lesson.
When you’re studying something, it is better to be able to adjust the lighting for it. Even turn it sideways, upside down, etc. and then see if the plain version is sending the same message, or you can see more with the different color perspectives.
Morning Pages and Blog Posts
I’m in the process of consolidating two of my old websites into DonaldJClaxton.com. What a process this has been. Particularly of playing the game of keyword selection by using various tools, and recommendations. My website is still not finished in the way of a total structure. So if you click there, understand I’m still building.
There are almost 30 of those composition notebooks put away over the last four years. I have yet to go back and read any of them. I’ve pushed through so much negativity, physical and emotional pain because of injuries to my back in May 2016. Things for my daughters, perhaps any grandchildren will find interesting reading far out into the future. My eldest has told me the blog pages from two other sites combined into the new one, she wants preserved so she can get into them someday.
We live on in our blogs, stories, notebooks, and even garage wall pencil drawings. Almost all of the 155 books I’ve read since December of 2016 have passages underlined, and notes added.
Think about it
What are you creating that maybe posthumously your kids, grandkids, biographers, etc might want to read someday? This one important and easy way to keep on living once you’re gone. Don’t you agree?
