The gentle art of sanity amidst civilization
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Over the next few posts, I’m taking you down the rabbit hole as far as you’re willing to go. Before we go on, though, it’s time to tackle a topic that is essential to understanding humanity and ourselves. I refer to the ego frequently here on Raptitude, and that’s because it has an immense role [...]
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When I was six years old, I was crossing the little bridge on Center street when I realized I was doomed. I don’t know why it only occurred to me then, but once it did I couldn’t deny it. I was in Grade 1, and I liked my current teacher, but I was afraid of [...]
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Happiness is slippery. It doesn’t like to stick around. We know we’ve had it before, but it’s gone away, and we know there are certain things we have to do to find it again. Certain ducks have to be in a row. After all, if you didn’t have to do anything to be happy, you [...]
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I’ve been home from my overseas trip for a week now and I haven’t really stopped moving. Seeing all my friends again has been awesome, and I’m so happy to have more than four shirts to choose from. I have my beautiful car again, and my pillowtop queen is more welcoming than all of the [...]
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As I was sprinting through the cavernous Hong Kong airport toward my gate Sunday afternoon, a deodorant roll-on in my bag cracked and leaked all over my laptop. The laptop is replaceable, but its contents are not. There may be a way to recover my files, but for the moment it looks like I have [...]
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Today I saw something on the sidewalk that made me stop. Somebody had etched a small swastika in the concrete. I wouldn’t say it exactly upset me, but it got me genuinely curious… who did that? Presumably, some kid stumbled across a rare chance to immortalize himself in unguarded wet concrete, and this was his [...]
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Today I fired one of my bosses. Last year I took on a commitment that sounded like a good idea at the time. It didn’t look like a lot of work, and it wasn’t, but I never really got on top of it. It took me a while to realize that I didn’t actually want [...]
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I think it’s really helpful to forget you exist, and often. It sounds impossible, but it can be done. Here’s an exercise I do sometimes to achieve that perspective: Wherever I am, whatever location I am in, I picture the situation exactly as it would be if I wasn’t there. I just watch it like [...]
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Done. My campaign to go 21 consecutive days without complaining or gossiping is finally over, and what I discovered surprised me. To recap, the experiment was to cease complaining or gossiping for twenty-one straight days, as long as that took. If I complained, I started the count again from zero. The idea was inspired by [...]
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This is part 2 of a two-part post. The first half is here. Let’s continue, shall we? Things may get a bit rowdier here in the second half. But as before, there’s something for everyone. “Need You Tonight” – INXS Looking back to the decade that produced me, there was a point when all the [...]
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