Aron's posterous

What channels do you use?

Channels connect seas. It's a thin body of water which connects two larger bodies of water.

Every person is a sea. The channel is used to connect you to another person, to another sea.

You can choose many channels with which to connect seas.

But, know this...

Use breeds use. The more you use one channel of connection the easier it will be to continue to use that channel. The less you use another channel the more difficult it is to use that channel.

Ask yourself, "What channels are well dug and well entrenched in my relationships? In my family? My workforce? My community?"

Channels of love? Channels of resentment? Channels of positivity and praise? Which channels are difficult to use? Is it easy to bestow dignity upon others in my workforce? Do we engender positive feelings towards fellow employees? Employers?

Think about it. Then improve it.

Give Praise. For Your Sake.

Imagine approaching Albert Einstein and saying, "Hey Albert, you make great toast. Thanks." That would be an insult. Praise Albert for his intelligence, not for the toast he makes. By praising Albert for making good toast you demonstrate how you don't understand his greatness. Prayer is replete with praises to G-d. We pray three times a day.

Why does G-d desire our praise? It seems downright insulting to praise G-d. By praising Him you are insulting him. You are minimizing Her with your praise. "Hey, great toast you make." Ludicrous. We praise G-d for ourselves. By praising him we bring out our appreciation for all that he does for us. G-d asks us to praise him for our sake, not for his. This brings out our soft side. Our side which is vulnerable to the Creator of all kind. We praise him to start our connection with Him. He is connected with us, but are we connected with Him? They tell a story of one of the Chassidic Rebbes who asked his Chassidim, Where is G-d. They naturally responded, everywhere. To which he replied, only where you let him in.

Praising G-d is a way of letting him in. Realizing our punity. Realizing and appreciating just how small we are.

This is the way you let Him.

One Unnatural Act.

"A single act is better than a thousand groans."

A thousand groans comes more naturally to us than doing one action. We prefer to kvetch and complain about things and yet do nothing about it. We prefer to scream and shout about all things gone awry and all things going that way than actually do one small action. Kvetching is more natural. Stop kvetching. Do something unnatural. Do something.

Sent from my iPhone.

The Giver.

In a world which is so filled with people trying to make money and fill their back pockets, this video was very refreshing.

Life lesson: Seek areas where you can give, rather than where you can take. Be a giver.

So...

Whenever you do something there will always be complainers.

So...

There will always be someone that is disgruntled. Not satisfied. So...

Do it anyways. Do something which people are upset about. It sure beats doing nothing.

If you didn't like this post...

so...

Lipskar. Novelty.

At the Sinai Indaba, Rabbi Yossi Jacobson (a world renowned international speaker) was scheduled to speak at 11AM. However, due to volcanic ash from Chili, his flight was delayed and he was only able to give his talks later on in the day. So they asked Rabbi Lipskar, the Head Shliach of South Africa, to fill in. Rabbi Lipskar did an phenomenal job. His talk was inspirational, cohesive, and well delivered.

People seek novelty. They get excited about new speakers, new gadgets, and new experiences. They look outside of their own hamster wheel to kindle their emotions and to charge up their lives.

However, often there is something in our backyard which can inspire us. Something in our own mundane and boring lives which really has the ability to light our lives aflame. What's in your backyard? (If you aren't yet looking, it's time to start.)

Photos And Nostalgia

People like to take pictures. They enjoy freezing memorable moments of life. You can look back at them and forget about the tough times that co-existed during rosy times. As said about nostalgia, "Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days."

We don't like to freeze the difficult and challenging times on picture. We prefer to relegate those to our memories so they get foggier with time. We don't like to remember bad things and why should we? However, what if those difficult times led to the development of a deeper and more alive person? What if those crises result in enhanced and more meaningful lives?

Is the reason why we don't freeze dark moments because we view them solely as dark? What if we viewed them as bringing about a greater light? Would we take pictures of them as well?

Just some food for though after taking some family pictures.

Sent from my iPhone.

Sh_t happens.

Sh_t happens. Life happens.

Every person is faced with their own challenges that they have to deal with.

However, to some people it appears that they don't just get pooped on, they happen to own the whole city's sewage. They seem to be at the butt end of all things bad. Their children are terrorists and they get no joy from them. They are rejected by their family. Their health and quality of life is going from bad to worse. Their livelihood is also the doldrums. They can't find a job. Nothing seems to go their way.

So they shift the blame. It's his fault. It's her fault. The famous blame game. G-d dealt me a hard hand.

A remarkable story takes place in last week's Parsha. Yosef's brothers come to Egypt to buy grain. Yosef is the viceroy of Egypt. He deals harshly with them. After realizing their remorse for selling him, he reveals his true identity. He says, "It is not you who sent me here, it wasn't your doing that got me into Egypt. I was sent here in order to provide for the family." Here was a man who was thrown into a pit with snakes and scorpions. By his brothers. Sold as a slave. By his brothers. Arrives in a foreign land, not speaking the language. Is imprisoned after being framed by his masters wife for sleeping with her. Languishes in an Egyptian prison cell for years. All, seemingly, because of his brothers. This is a man who has been dealt the country's sewage. Never mind the cities'. This is a man who could have easily blamed other people for his problems. Especially his brothers.

Yosef chose to appreciate that this was his unique challenge. He looked at his lot as a hurdle to overcome, not a hook with which to blame all of his problems upon. Look at your challenges and realize that they are there in order to propel you higher. Don't skirt them by blaming other people. Take responsibility and you will rise high.

Hills and Valleys.

Life is about hills and valleys.

There are times in life when you are at the top of your game. You are
pumped. You are energized about today. And tomorrow. And the day after
tomorrow. Life is looking absolutely awesome. You are on top of the
hill. King of the jungle.

And than there are times when you are feeling down and out. Life has
punched you in the stomach. As you got up, you got socked in the face.
Life sucks. And it sucks badly.

When down in the valley there is a tendency to say, "Things will turn
around and I will be back on the hill again." "Things can only get
better from here on out."

However, that essentially states that the 'here' and the 'now' are
bad. (I wanted to use a different word but I figured it would be a
little uncouth.) By saying that things will turn around, you are
saying, "And boy do I want them to!"

There is a different way to look at it. A better way.

A valley is only a valley if you look at it straight. However, look
at a valley upside down. What do you see? A hill!

Let me say that again. A valley is only a valley when you look at it
from a certain angle. However, look at your valley from another angle
and all of a sudden it becomes a hill.

It's one thing to create a fantastical and hopeful future where things
will be better. It's a whole different thing, to change perspectives,
and to look at your valleys as hills is. That is powerful.

When you are down and out, and life is really horrible it requires a
real change in outlook to see how what is actually happening is a
hill. The bigger the dip, the bigger the hill.

In life, you can choose to try to create a hopeful future. More
powerful is to create a charming present.

Enjoy the hills. Embrace the valleys.

Sent from my iPhone.

Grounding an idea.

A couple of days ago I wrote a post regarding the transient nature of ideas and the need to ground them in order to do something with them later. Recently, I came across an arduino project where hackers were working on translating your brain waves into commands for the Mrs.Siri on the iPhone 4S.  It got me thinking that one day it will be possible to have all of your thoughts simultaneously.  

Now, that would be 'ground' which is always available.  Something which transcribes your thoughts.  You'd never lose any good ones.

The problem: Not all thoughts are good or valuable. You would have to sift through a lot of garbage in order to get to some good ones.

Some ideas are like chaff.  Others are like kernels, ready to be turned into wheat stalks and then kneaded into flour for bread.  To be presented to people at a meal for them to enjoy it's taste.

In theory, the best thing would be to have something which could filter our thoughts and only transcribe the valuable ones. Automagically. However, we don't have that available - just yet.

In the meantime we have to make due with the next best thing.

Good ground has three criteria: A.F.R.
1) Availability. How often do you have it with you? The more often, the better. The more often, the more available it is.
2) Friction level. How many steps does it take to get from having an idea in your head to having it planted in the ground.  The lower the friction, the better. The less steps, the better.
3) Retrieval.  How easy is it to retrieve the location of the idea in order to water it and make it grow? Is it clear where your ideas are located or are they buried amongst a lot of noise? You want your signal level to be higher than your noise level.

The ground for your idea could be a paper, a notebook, or electronic bits on a screen.  Somewhere where you record your ideas so you can water them at a later stage and make sure they grow.

I have used a few types of 'ground' in my life and here are the advantages and disadvantages I have found in each. (A) = Availability. (F) = Friction level. (R) = Retrievability.

1. Scraps of paper - use as a last resort.
A) Pretty available.  You can find scraps of paper pretty much wherever you are.
F) High. Try ice skating on a carpet. You have to find the scraps.  You have to find a pen. By that time your idea has already flown away.
R) Not easily retrieved.  Scraps get lost easily.
2. Pocketmod -
A) Pretty available. You can make a bunch of these and always have one available.  You can make them out of any A4 paper.
F) Low. Ice skating on ice. Provided you keep a pen with you at all times connected to the Pocketmod.  Writing on paper is pretty frictionless.  The steps required are
1. taking the pocketmod out of your pocket. With the pen, of course.
2. Scribbling your thought down.
R) Not great. PocketMods are lacking the 'seriousness' of a regular notebook, so they are more easily lost.  Also, there is no way to file ideas and sort them.  So the signal to noise ratio is not great.  
3. Field Notes notebook.
A) Not as good as a PocketMod.  Here you have to actually keep another item on you.  You also have to have a pocket that the notebook fits into, otherwise you have to carry it along with you - which is annoying.  Who wants another thing to carry.  On top of your keys, phone, and what not.
F) Low. The same as the PocketMod. Whip your notebook out with your pen and you scribble your thought down, and you are done.
4. Voicenotes on phone.
A) Good. Pretty much always available as your phone is something you keep with you all the time.
F) Very low. Ice skating on an awesome ice rink.  You just say your idea, it's much faster than having to write it down.
R) A pain. Major pain. Because you actually have to listen to your voice notes from the beginning and they aren't put in any sensible order. Totally random and dependent upon what time you had the idea.  Unless of course you make a new voice note for every idea, which is still annoying to listen to.
5. Notes on note taking app.
A) Same as voice notes. Readily available.  Nothing extra to carry as you always have your phone on you.
F) Higher friction level than voice notes because you have to type the note in, which takes more time.  It is also more friction wrought than writing with a pen and paper because you have to pull out your phone, go to the app, wait until it opens up, pull up a new note, and than start typing.  I would say this is closer to ice skating on a marble floor.  Not very good.
6. Evernote - this is the best.
A) Whatever you have available in front of you. Use it. And than keep on you or take a picture of it and upload it to Evernote.
F) All depending on what you are recording on.  You can write your note on any paper and than take a picture of it.  So the friction level can be really low.  Depending on what you use.
R) Here you have the advantage of organizing as you please.  The time in which you input your note is entered automatically.  

Choose your ground.  

I would love to hear what works for you.