Misogi

Today was one of the first real times I reached for chatgpt to answer a question that I previously would have tried google. And I was definitely not disappointed.

At first I went basic.

From a 30,000 ft perspective, almost everyday looks the same. We wake up at a similar time, we do what we need to, we eat, we sleep, etc. But even the tools we use, who we talk to, where we get our information, we are creatures of habit. Familiarity is comfortable, but every once in a while, doing the uncomfortable brings back some awareness and snaps your life back into place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCbGM4mqEVw

Misogi

I hadn’t heard this Japanese phrase before, but a piece of Jesse Itzler content put this on my radar. He mentions Misogi in the context of doing 1 really meaningful thing every year of your life. You might not remember exactly what you did 2 weeks ago, but if you have 1 big thing every year of your life, you’ll remember that that was the big thing each year.

The original definition doesn’t quite fit exactly what Jesse describes but I find there’s something valuable to be taken away from it. This year, my defining activity is this challenge. What’s yours?

Appendix:

While "This Is Water" is a speech delivered by David Foster Wallace in 2005, it has been widely transcribed and published as an essay. Here are some notable quotes from "This Is Water":

1. "The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day."

2. "Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience."

3. "The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about."

4. "The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head. It is about the real value of a real education, which has nothing to do with grades or degrees and everything to do with simple awareness—awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: 'This is water. This is water.'"

5. "The world will not discourage you from operating on your default-settings, because the world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self."

6. "If you worship money and things—if they are where you tap real meaning in life—then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth."

7. "It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out."

8. "The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people."

9. "The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the 'rat race'—the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing."

10. "If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is and who and what is really important—if you want to operate on your default-setting—then you, like me, will not consider possibilities that aren't pointless and annoying."

These quotes highlight Wallace's reflections on the importance of consciousness, self-awareness, and the power of choosing how we perceive and engage with the world around us.