Our Best Life Is Already Here

We’re conditioned to think our best life has yet to be lived. It’s somewhere far off into the future, travel the world to find it, or maybe just waiting around the corner. We have to wish for it, pray for it, and hope that, on imaginary lottery night when they draw the winner, our name gets called.

live a better lifeThe truth is our best life is right here. It’s already happening as we speak.

“The image of the Zen philosopher is the monk up in the green, quiet hills, or in a beautiful temple on some rocky cliff. The Stoics are the antitheses of this idea. Instead, they are the man in the marketplace, the senator in the Forum, the brave wife waiting for her soldier to return from battle, the sculptor busy in the studio.”[1]Page 19. Holiday, Ryan, and Hanselman, Stephen. The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living. Penguin Random House LLC 2016.

I believe there is a valuable lesson in this passage. It’s important that, especially in this modern era, we find peace where we are in our own environment. Because we’re not always going to have enough PTO to make that 4 week pilgrimage to find ourselves. We may not even be able to save up enough money for that trip to the Amazon to visit the magical shaman that’s supposed to help guide our spirit.

Stoicism teaches us that we have to exercise our mind to bring about the peace and serenity we seek, regardless of our environment.

What is Friday Focus?

The Friday Focus post is an article related to the reflectional reader I’ve chosen for the year. It enables me to study and retain what I’m reading.


Interested in what I’m reading?

Buy The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman from Amazon Today

References

References
1Page 19. Holiday, Ryan, and Hanselman, Stephen. The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living. Penguin Random House LLC 2016.

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday: 2017 Reflectional Reader

Two years ago I was at a point in my life where I was losing focus and I needed something to ground me and keep me centered. I explored yoga, discovered meditation, and practiced breathing techniques. Then I discovered devotionals. Daily devotionals are books that provide a spiritual reading for each day of the calendar year.

Usually daily devotional literature is religiously themed, which I am not. However, I do have an open mind, so I started off with New Year New You by Joyce Meyer. Each day I read a page, I pondered and I wrote in my journal. I considered what message was being conveyed through the text. How do I interpret it? How does it work for me (for the good of mankind)?

It was a good starter. Each day was related to a bible verse, so I even went as far as looking up said verse in a little handheld bible that a friend gave me a couple years ago. I read it from cover to cover. I was pretty proud of myself for accomplishing a year-long task.

Then when it came to choose my next one for 2016, I found Savor: Living Abundantly Where You Are, As You Are by Shauna Niequist.

I enjoyed this one as well. The author shares daily stories and bible verses as well as personal recipes. She believes that “spiritual living happens not only when you read and pray, but also when you eat and gather with friends and family.”

And then this year, I’ve taken a bit of a departure with this one by choosing The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. I discovered this book when I participated in a binge eating rehab group last year.

In fact, The Daily Stoic started out as a daily blog that you can (and probably should) subscribe to if you like motivational reading. If you’re like me and have no idea what stoicism is (other than the textbook definition of the word “stoic”), I highly recommend signing up for their 7-day intro into what stoicism is. It’s a great little crash course.

This book isn’t really a daily devotional in the traditional sense since it doesn’t repeat verses from the bible. Instead each calendar day features “a devotional of Stoic insights and exercises featuring all-new translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or the slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus.” In fact, maybe I’ll call this my “reflectional reading” rather than “daily devotional.” It’s a little more secular, ambivalent.

I love the philosophical perspective of The Daily Stoic. It’s different from the others and I think it speaks more to me than bible verses.

Friday Focus: Clarify Your Intentions

Early on in my career, I had a fantastic mentor that I met with once a month. When I had to lead a pretty sizeable project of implementing a project management system and process, one of the first lessons he taught me was to begin with the end in mind.

I never forgot that lesson. I recite that in my head to this day each time I’m trying to solve a problem, whether I’m at work or at home. This week, the topic that really stood out for me was called Clarify Your Intentions on January 5. This solidified the importance of that early lesson my mentor taught me and reminded me that everyone needs to have an intent, a purpose. Purpose guides our actions. Actions lead to meaningful success, which makes a life worth living.

Two years ago I lacked a purpose. That’s what set me on my journey. And here I am. While I don’t feel I’m quite there yet, I feel like I’m a few steps closer.

Will I ever find that one true purpose? I don’t know. Maybe I never will. But at least in the meantime, I’m enjoying the search.


Interested in what I’m reading?

Buy The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman from Amazon Today

Truman Capote in the Clutter living room.

Booklist Updates: A Foray into the True Crime Novel

Thoughts on In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

A true crime novel by Truman Capote
A true crime novel by Truman Capote

I knew very little about Truman Capote before I read this book. Yes, I knew the name. I knew the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but that’s all. I honestly had no idea he had a side of him that was fascinated by tragedy.

Although, maybe to some–Holly Golightly’s character would be considered tragic. But we’ll save that for another discussion.

In Cold Blood recounts what happens when the senseless murders of an entire, well-to-do family rock the sleepy town of Holcomb, Kansas. It is a true story of that one windy night in November 1959 when Dick Hickock and Perry Smith decide they’re going to invade, rob, and ultimately massacre the Clutter Family in the middle of the night.

Richard Eugene Hickock (left) and Perry Edward Smith (right) murdered 4 members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, KS in 1959.

Despite the fact that I Googled the real life event before I finished the book, I still read it poised at the edge of my seat. I give credit to Capote’s gift for storytelling.

From what I found in my Googling, though, others accused Capote for taking certain liberties with his story. In fact, there were a few reports that some conversations or encounters hadn’t even taken place.

I think I would agree with that considering this man didn’t even take notes when he interviewed people. He relied on his memory and tapes.

In addition to that, there were no footnotes at the end of the book. There was no appendix that listed times and dates of interviews, etc. So yeah, could it be 100% accurate? Maybe not. But that doesn’t deny the fact that it’s a superbly written, thoughtfully constructed piece of dramatic literature. However, according to the lead investigator, Capote’s book was largely factually true.

Craig and I watched the movie adaptation shortly after I finished the book. He saw it before, but because he loved it so much, he was up for watching it again.

In Cold Blood directed by Richard Brooks (1967)
In Cold Blood directed by Richard Brooks (Columbia Pictures 1967).

It was well done. Disturbing, especially for the time period. However, the event itself was disturbing so you can only put so much lipstick on a hog, you know. But while the movie did a good job of painting the big picture, it could never capture the detail that spilled out of the pages of the book. That’s true for any movie adaptation, not just this one.

Craig described it as “one of the greatest character study films within the subject of crime/justice drama” and I would enthusiastically agree with him.

My Book List Updates: Historical Suspense Novels Are My New Obsession

A historical suspense novel by Erik Larson.
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson

Well I finally finished Erik Larson’s Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. This is the first historical suspense novel I’ve read by him but I know it won’t be my last. I have The Devil in the White City waiting for me somewhere in my stack of books in my office.

I think historical crime/suspense novels are now my new favorite genre.

To be honest, I didn’t know much about the Lusitania. I remember learning a little bit about it in high school. My sophomore year history teacher was a World War history buff so we spent the entire first semester on World War I and second semester on World War II.

We briefly touched on the sinking of the Lusitania and how it ushered the United States into The Great War, but we didn’t go into depth about the particular event, so my knowledge on this topic was a blank canvas.

I struggled a lot with the maritime terminology in this book. I don’t know how many times I had to Google words and descriptions that I’d never heard of. Once I got to the part where the Lusitania and the U-boat encounter each other, that’s when the pace picks up quickly.

The Daily Mirror reports on the sinking of the RMS Lusitania
News headline from the actual sinking.

Erik Larson is a very talented storyteller when it comes to historical events. Now though I not only have a much greater understanding of the event itself, but I also can sympathize with the victims and their loved ones. If anything, the victims’ stories are rarely touched on in history books, but Mr. Larson truly has a gift for bringing them to life one last time.

His acknowledgements and author notes fascinated me at the end. I’m so amazed that he got to travel to all of these locations while he was researching. And I mean not just to where these things took place, but to the various libraries and museums that kept the artifacts left from the wreckage. He even got to read Schweiger’s captain’s log and look at the photos of the unidentified and unclaimed victims of the Lusitania. To be able to touch a piece of history… to me, that would be a dream come true. That’s really the only way to describe it.

So now I’m moving on to my next book. Rather than reading another Larson novel (which I’m itching to do!) I figured I’ll give one of the other books on my “to-read” stack a chance.

This time it’s In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. The book is about the brutal murder of a small family of four in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. There was no motive and almost no clues.