What is the healthiest level of skepticism? — it can be a safety feature, but it can also be a wellness killer.
Is it harder to say goodbye, each time you leave the house, to your first child? Or to your first dog?
The people that will truly appreciate the trees we plant will be witnessing them generations after we’re gone. Tell me about your great great uncle that planted the tree? Not a memorable act, but a memorable result nonetheless.
1. The sun takes no breaks. No matter how hard I work, sunburn will always suck.
2. The faster I move about, the slower things seem to grow. Nature has its own schedule.
3. We don’t control the weather. So, why bother stressing it?
“The next Great Depression“,
“Another Great Recession“,
“It’s actually a Great Compression“,
The market, at large, is out of our individual control.
What is in our control, however, is whether or not we commit our attitude to making the best of this life.
If we do it right, we won’t deteriorate the things closest in proximity to us because of an internationally cumbersome issue — family, joy, passions, skills, will to work, will to master your craft, friends, laughter, and more.
Ironically, if more people adopted a positive mindset and busted their ass to seize the opportunities before them, the market, at large, would turn out for the better.
People can get triggered easily these days.
I won’t diverge to a rant about worthy triggers, but we all know what it feels like to get ticked-off, yes?
Let’s instead talk about turning a negative to a positive. Find the silver lining.
The Trigger Mechanism
We have the capability, albeit subconsciously at first, to automatically respond to outside stimuli. That’s powerful. Think about it.
Now, consider posing this question to yourself.
Might it be possible to train my responses to outside stimuli?
I believe it is possible.
I do it all the time. I am not great at it yet, but I’m slowly becoming a master of my own responses, and therefore, many of my desired outcomes as well.
JOURNAL PROMPT
Pick three things that can trigger an automatic POSITIVE response and write them down.
Practice them this week.
If you pick good ones, they will come up often, and you will find yourself experiencing gratitude and optimism more frequently than before.
One step up Mt. Botl. 
The origin of the idiom “every cloud has a silver lining” is most likely traceable to the year 1634, when John Milton Penned his masque Comus. In it, the quote appears as “Was I deceived or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?”
Any thing, over time, will deteriorate. That is, after all, the natural course of things. Soil and foliage, micro-organisms and mycelium, they break down and decay whatever they’re in contact with.
Everything rots.
As humans (for better or for worse, nobody knows) we reject the natural course. We attempt to preserve, and sustain, and build, and grow.
It takes immense effort to sustain, though.
No building lasts forever.
No business runs itself.
Full autonomy is an illusion.
Nothing can sustain, over any amount of time, without care and attention from someone, somewhere.
Our brains can decay, too.
Books don’t read themselves.
Deciding to improve something isn’t ‘extra credit’, it’s a necessary step if we care about preservation, success, longevity, and sustainability.
Cleaning up the mess is part of the project.
Getting an oil change is part of driving.
If we ever find ourselves bored or struggling to keep engaged, just remember: everything around us will rot if we don’t tend to it.
If there’s nothing better to do, pick a thing, any thing, and improve it.
JAKOB'S JOURNAL 