As I’m cranking out the chapters this week, my post-writing time has been limited. Still, I’m addicted to writing stuff for you guys, so I thought it would be fun to share some random thoughts I’ve been having that probably don’t merit full-length posts.
Thanks again for your patience as I focus on my book writing — I’ve written nearly six chapters this week! I have all of you to thank for it — your encouragement and understanding has been unlimited and surpassed only by your stunning attractiveness.
On Mantras
As I was running the other day, I was thinking about mantras, and how I’ve used them with some success in different situations. As silly as you may feel by repeating a mantra, I think they have great use — they ingrain an idea in your head and serve as a reminder of something important.
To give you an example: I’m running my second marathon this weekend (as you may recall), and the biggest concern I have is not my physical fitness, but a mental one — I tend to run too fast because I get caught up in the excitement of a race, or get competitive with the other runners around me. If I do that in a 10K, that’s OK, because it helps push me to a personal best. But if I do that in a marathon, I will run out of gas before the end and will have a hard time finishing.
So I’ve created a mantra to tell myself during this marathon, to help me stay away from trying to keep up with other runners: “Forget Them. Run Your Pace.” And I know my pace, if I’m able to block out the other runners, and if I do that, I’ll have a nice, relaxed, fun marathon. So I plan to repeat my mantra every time I feel myself getting caught up in the race.
I’ve used other mantras to great success. Last year, 2007, I had only one goal — to use my blog and freelance writing to liberate myself from my day job. My mantra for the entire year: “Liberate Yourself”. I repeated that every day, and almost every action I did was somehow aligned with that mantra. It worked. I’m now a full-time blogger, thanks to the mantra, and thanks of course to all of you.
Another mantra I’ve been using recently is a quote by Thich Naht Hanh that I’ve used in a recent post: “Smile, breathe and go slowly.” This mantra helps me to slow down and relax anytime in my daily life that I begin to feel rushed and begin to lose my focus on the present. It also helps me smile more, which is nicer for the people around me and gives me a good feeling as well.
Do you think mantras could work for you? Or have you used them in the past?
On Small Things
In the shower this morning I was thinking about small things (no naughty jokes please). More specifically, about how one of the secrets to life is learning to appreciate the beauty in small things.
When I was younger, I had lots of ambitions — I wanted to do great things in life. And while I think that striving to do great things is an admirable thing, as I’ve gotten older I’ve found that there’s much more power in going inward rather than outward — there’s much more greatness if you pay attention to small details than in looking at huge vistas.
“What the heck are you talking about, Leo?” you wisely ask. I mean that while it can be very satisfying to achieve great goals and create great things, there is so much more in stopping to smell the flowers, in enjoying giving your three-year-old a bath, in finding heart-rendering beauty in a single falling cherry blossom, in sharing a quiet moment with your wife, in feeling the coolness of a chilled plum in your mouth.
It’s these tiny little things that really matter.
On Lists
I’ve drawn criticism from some readers (and a couple of top bloggers who will remain unnamed) for writing so many list posts on Zen Habits. And I can see validity in that criticism: it can seem overdone if I do too many lists, and seems as if I’m just trying to get popular on social bookmarking sites.
I won’t deny that I get some satisfaction if you guys enjoy one of my posts enough to Digg it or bookmark it on del.icio.us or Stumble it … it’s almost a validation of my writing. But I don’t often write specifically for that purpose — my main purpose is to share things I’ve learned with you guys and to be as useful as humanly possible.
So why do I write so many list posts? Simply put: it’s how I think, and has been since I was a teen-ager. I’ve always made lists, from to-do lists to pro/con lists to lists of favorite songs and movies. When I argue or explain something, I do it in lists. I see bullet points in my head. I number everything.
I can’t change how I think, and I write like I think, so that’s probably going to be the main format of my posts for years to come. I’ve found that many people like lists because it’s easy to scan them for the main points — longer essays are harder to scan, and in these days of information overload, people read blog posts by scanning most of the time. They want information, and fast — and list posts are useful in that regard, for good or bad.
译文:
关于生活的随笔：梵语、琐事、清单等诸如此类
当我这周快速写好这一章节时，我接下来的写作时间已经很少了。尽管如此，但因为我对给你们写点东西着了迷，所以我想和你们分享我的一些也许不用全都贴出来的随想应该会很有趣。
再次感谢在我专注于我的书稿写作时你们等待的耐心，这星期我已经完成六章了！我要为此感谢你们所有人——你们的鼓励和理解是无尽的，仅次于你们那无与伦比的魅力。
关于梵语
几天前，在我跑步时，我想到了梵语以及我是如何在不同情况下成功地运用了它们的。你也许觉得诵读梵语很无聊，但我认为它们很有用。它们将一个想法深深地印在你脑海中而且可以作为一种重要的提醒。
给你们举个例子。这个周末我在进行我第二轮的马拉松（你们应该记得），我最在意的不是身体的强壮，而是精神的顽强。因为进入了比赛的兴奋状态，或者说是欲与我周围的其他参赛者一决高下，我试图跑得更快。如果我在十公里赛跑中这样做，那是没问题的，因为这会促使我达到个人的最佳水平。但如果我在马拉松赛中这样做，我会在到达终点前就筋疲力尽并且完成得非常艰难。
因此，在这场比赛中，我用一句梵语来告诫自己，让自己不要总想着追赶别的选手——忘了他们，保持自己的步速。我了解自己的步速，如果我能忘掉别的参赛者，而且只要我做到这一点，我就会赢得一场让人满意、放松，快乐的马拉松赛。因此我打算在比赛过程中每次我想要去追赶别人时，就反复默念这句梵语。
我还成功运用过别的梵语。去年，2007年，我只有一个目标——用我的博客和自由写作来将自己从日常工作中释放出来。我一整年的梵语是：释放自己。我每天诵读，而且我做的每件事无论如何都与这句梵语相一致。它起了作用。现在我是个全职的博客者了，感谢这句梵语，当然也感谢你们所有人。
我最近在用的另一句梵语是引自一行禅师Thich Naht Hanh的，我在最近的帖子中已经用过了：微笑，呼吸，慢慢来。 这句梵语使我在日常生活中任何感到急躁并开始无心着眼于当前的时候平缓并放松下来。它也让我更多地微笑，这使我身边的人更快乐，同时也给了我一种愉悦之感。
你认为梵语对你有用吗？或者你过去有使用过梵语吗？
关于琐事
今早沐浴时，我想到了琐事（拜托，这不是个顽皮的笑话）。比较特别的是，我想到了生活的一个秘密是如何学着欣赏琐事中的美。
在我年轻时，我有许多雄心壮志——我渴望在我人生中做番伟业。尽管我知道力争达成伟业是件令人钦佩的事，但随着我长大，我发现注重内心远比追求外在更有影响力。如果你注重微小的细节而非只盯着宏伟的全景，那将更崇高。
“哎，里奥，你在说些什么呢？”你英明地问。我是说，尽管达成宏伟目标和创造伟业能令人非常满足，但更多的满足在于停下脚步闻一下花香中，在于享受一次如同长达三年之久的沐浴里，在于寻找一朵落樱花令人心碎的凄美中，在于与妻子分享安静时刻里，在于感受嘴里酸得令人打颤的梅子的凉意中。
这就是细微但真正事关紧要的琐事。
关于清单
因为在Zen Habits网站上发表了许多的清单帖子，我收到了一些读者（还有顶尖博客者里一对不知名的夫妇）的批评。我明白这些批评是有道理的：如果我列过多的清单，那就显得夸张了。而且那看起来好像我只是企图在社交书签网上得到追捧。
我不否认如果你们很欣赏我的帖子而帮顶上掘客或在网络上最大的书签类站点del.icio.us做书签又或是在StumbleUpon网上推荐，我会有满足感。那几乎是一种对我写作的肯定。但我并非经常以此为目的而特地写作。我主要的目的是和你们分享我所学到的东西并尽人力所能及地对你们有所帮助。
那么为何我写了那么多的清单帖子呢？简单地说，那是我还是个少年时的思维方式。我总是列清单，从工作清单到赞成/反对清单再到所钟情的歌曲、电影的清单。当我要辩解或解释什么时，我也会用清单。看到我头上的弹孔，我也会一一编号。
我不能改变我的思维方式并写我所想。所以这可能成为我今后帖子的主要模式。我发现一些人喜欢清单，因为那易于浏览要点——稍长的文章更难以浏览。在信息超负荷的今天，人们多数是通过浏览来看博客的。他们需要信息和快捷，而不管好与坏，清单帖在这一点上是实用的。