{"id":37577,"date":"2024-04-17T10:57:48","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T17:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37577"},"modified":"2024-04-18T07:55:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T14:55:30","slug":"build-the-life-you-long-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/build-the-life-you-long-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Build The Life You Long For"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, Wendy and I put on our backpacks and walked the Camino de Santiago. The Camino Frances is an 800-kilometre journey beginning in St. Jean Pied de Port, France and ending at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. How do you walk 800 kilometres? One step at a time. One day at a time. Each seemingly mundane act, of putting one foot in front of the other over 34 days, made for an epic and unforgettable journey. This is the idea in Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments Into Extraordinary Results <\/em>by Shane Parrish. This book is not about making big decisions, but about making better decisions in the ordinary, unplanned, daily moments of our lives so that we can build the kind of life we desire.<\/p>\n

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Clear Thinking <\/em>is an enjoyable and helpful read. Parrish is a practitioner who has a background in cybersecurity and is now a writer, speaker, blogger, and entrepreneur. The book is based on his own experience and what he has gleaned from numerous sources. He has spent considerable time interviewing notable people, such as Daniel Kahneman and Warren Buffet. This could be perceived as a knock against the book. However, Parrish takes varied sources, integrates them, and makes them consumable for the average person in just 267 pages.<\/p>\n

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I have decided to compare the principles found in Clear Thinking<\/em> with those found in Atomic Habits<\/em> by James Clear. Atomic Habits<\/em> focuses on habit formation and incremental improvements. It provides actionable strategies for creating good habits and breaking bad ones. James Clear notes, \u201cEvery action you take is a vote for the person you wish to become.\u201d[1] <\/a>These are two very different books, about different subjects, but both are about how to change your life and shape your future one step at a time.<\/p>\n

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Mind the Small Moments<\/strong><\/p>\n

Often, we assume that it is the big decisions and big moments that matter most. However, both books focus on the minute details. These small moments, as unimportant as they may seem, are woven intricately into the fabric that forms the tapestry of our lives. Invariably, too many bad decisions mean we end up with a regrettable life tapestry. Conversely, good ordinary decisions make for an extraordinary life. Clear writes, \u201cMaking a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be. Success is the product of daily habits\u2014not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.\u201d[2]<\/a> However, these small moments are deceiving. Parrish writes, \u201cWe don\u2019t realize it at the time because these moments seem so insignificant.\u201d[3]<\/a> I note that there are no real small moments in life. Every moment and every decision is a significant one and should be stewarded with care.<\/p>\n

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Receive the Gift of Self-Awareness<\/strong><\/p>\n

As we consider making good decisions in these small moments, self-awareness should become a high priority. Like stepping on a scale following Christmas feasting, self-awareness is humbling but important. In Clear Thinking<\/em>, we are to be aware of our biological instincts that can sabotage us. Parrish writes, \u201cFailing to come to terms with them only makes us more susceptible to their influence.\u201d[4]<\/a> The four biological instincts that Parrish identifies are the emotion default, the ego default, the social default, and the inertia default. In Atomic Habits <\/em>Clear creates self-awareness through goal setting and tracking progress toward the goal. He encourages the reader to use a habit scorecard for gaining self-awareness, explaining, \u201cAs you create your Habits Scorecard, there is no need to change anything at first. The goal is to simply notice what is actually going on.\u201d[5]<\/a> The habits scorecard helps one to notice progress toward the goal and to notice if the habit is effective. Self-awareness helps us to gain a better understanding of how to gain mastery over those things that prevent us from living the life we want.<\/p>\n

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Take Control of Life: Building Strength and Habits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once we are aware of that which takes our lives where we don\u2019t want to go, we can do something proactive and powerful to move in the right direction. Neither author believes that we are victims of our circumstances. Both believe that, by taking responsibility, we can create positive power toward shaping our future regardless of the circumstances. In Clear Thinking<\/em>, Parrish writes, \u201cIf you train yourself to think, feel and act in ways that further your most important goals \u2013 if, in other words you build strength \u2013 then inertia becomes a nearly unstoppable force that unlocks your potential.\u201d[6]<\/a> The four key strengths he identifies are self-accountability, self-knowledge, self-control, and self-confidence.[7]<\/a> In Atomic Habits, control takes place in the form of building habits. Clear explains, \u201cThe effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous.\u201d[8]<\/a> The process of building a habit is broken down into four steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. Shaping good habits around these four parts helps us to replace our bad habits with good ones and has a compounding effect. Both Parrish and Clear agree that there are simple processes, that when implemented, can positively conquer the forces that lead us away from the life we want. We are not helpless victims but can develop progress toward our life vision through a disciplined approach that compounds over time.<\/p>\n

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Shape The Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, the ability to shape the outer world plays an important role in progress toward the vision we have for our lives. Both authors stress that a negative environment puts us in a position to fail, while a carefully curated environment sets us up to succeed. Chapter 3.2 of Clear Thinking<\/em> is devoted to protecting yourself with environmental safeguards. Parrish writes, \u201cSafeguards are tools for protecting ourselves from ourselves \u2013 from weakness we don\u2019t have the strength to overcome.\u201d[9]<\/a> Atomic Habits devotes Chapter 6 to environmental design. Environments trigger cues in our minds that lead us to develop the habits we develop. Clear states that, \u201ccreating obvious visual cues can draw your attention toward a desired habit\u2026If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, make the cue a big part of your environment.\u201d[10]<\/a> The life we want can be more easily achieved when we have taken the time to build an environment that helps us succeed.<\/p>\n

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Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

In summary, building the life we want means living with intentionality rather than living according to our default settings. It necessitates stewarding the small moments well, becoming self-aware of the forces that lead us away from the goal, taking control of life through compounding processes that move us toward the goal, and setting up the outer world so that it works in our favour.<\/p>\n

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Parrish has been a good read to end this semester. I have appreciated his approach to making the most of every small decision that builds into a larger vision for life. I plan to apply this book during the summer, in work and family, as I have more space in my schedule to do so. I will also think about how the lessons learned in the book will carry forward into next semester as I re-engage with school.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> James Clear, Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results\u202f: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones<\/em> (New York: Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2018), 41.Kindle.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Clear, 17. Kindle.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Shane Parrish, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results<\/em> (Toronto, Ontario: Viking Canada, 2023). xiv.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Parrish, 7.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Clear, Atomic Habits<\/em>, 65.Kindle.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Parrish, Clear Thinking<\/em>, 40.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Parrish, 41.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Clear, Atomic Habits<\/em>, 16. Kindle.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Parrish, Clear Thinking<\/em>, 101.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Clear, Atomic Habits<\/em>, 85,86. Kindle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, Wendy and I put on our backpacks and walked the Camino de Santiago. The Camino Frances is an 800-kilometre journey beginning in St. Jean Pied de Port, France and ending at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. How do you walk 800 kilometres? One step at a time. One day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2583,3011,3193,1692],"class_list":["post-37577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-atomichabits","tag-dglp03","tag-james-clear","tag-parrish","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37577"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37601,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37577\/revisions\/37601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}