I am still trying to work out what I am going to give up in 2024. What is going to be the cost in one area, so I can improve in another? As I see it, in order to make improvements, we have to be able to create the space and environment that is conducive to getting those results, otherwise we are just wishing for a miracle, without putting skin in the game. It is unlikely to happen, isn't it?
People think that time is the most valuable resource we have to waste, but I disagree. Time is valuable of course, but in and of itself, it is nothing, except the space to do something within. What is more valuable in terms of our personal resources, is our attention. It is our attention that matters, because where we place it, is what is going to get the rest of our resources.
Pay attention to what you are doing!
We have all heard this before, because there is a cost to not paying attention. For instance, if we aren't paying attention whilst cutting vegetables, driving a car, or to the people we care about, we are going to pay a price. We know that when we aren't paying attention to what we know we should, there are going to be negative consequences, so when we know there will be a cost, we generally force ourselves to pay attention, so we don't cut ourselves, crash the car, or lose the people we care for. However, there is a bit of a difference in that last one, isn't there? Because time is involved. Being inattentive for a day might not carry a high cost, but for a year will.
And this speaks to where attention is valuable for our goals and perhaps why we find it difficult to accomplish long-term goals. Like when we pay attention whilst cutting tomatoes, we are also prone to slowly not paying attention to our partner, whom we love. It is far easier to keep our attention when there is an immediate cost, rather than a slow decline. For instance financially, if we got a bill for $10,000 dollars, we aren't going to be thrilled, yet if we buy a new car for 50,000, that is how much it will lose as we drive it off the lot, and then likely another 10,000 a year or two down the track. We don't see this as an immediate cost, or the depreciation as a bill, because we don't "feel it" instantly, like a cut.
Even worse perhaps, is when we have our hopes and dreams for accomplishment of something in the future, but our momentary attention is always spent cutting tomatoes - which only takes a moment. However, when we are spending hour upon hour watching streaming content, that is taking our attention too - attention that could be spent elsewhere. For example, if we were looking to improve our personal financial situation, even working a job at McDonald's will return far more value than watching the latest hit show on Netflix.
Our attention can only be spent in the moment, which means that in order to achieve those long-term goals, we have to do the right things now. Just like time, we can never get our attention back, but time actually has no experience to it. People talk about spending their money on experience rather than things, but experience is useless unless attention is also being paid. It reminds me of a trip to Egypt where my girlfriend and I were running around the Great Pyramids, trying to explore and soak in all we could, whilst some other people on the tour, sat on the bus playing cards. They paid for the experience.
Which takes me back to the start of this article, where I am still unsure what I am going to be giving up in 2024, because I am also unsure what I want to accomplish that is compelling enough that will hold my attention long-term. There are plenty of results I want to achieve, but how am I going to ensure that I will stick to it. Essentially, there has to be some kind of immediate cost to not paying attention to what I want to achieve, rather than just the slow slide into non-accomplishment.
And, this is something that I reckon is also getting in our way, as the things that we want to accomplish are seen as good things, where the result is a positive, like quitting smoking, losing weight, or exercising more. This means that "non-accomplishment" isn't an actual loss, it just isn't a positive gain.
I am at a loss.
I have never thought much about New Year Resolutions before, but I think that this coming year I am going to try one, but do it in my way, where in order to get something, I am going to have to give up something. It is much harder to give something up, than say I want to get something in the future, knowing there is no cost to not getting it.
Get it?
So, perhaps I will crowdsource some ideas on what might be a good goal for 2024 and then, work backwards from there to see what kinds of things I might need to give up, or giving up would facilitate the outcome.
What do you want to accomplish in 2024 (and beyond), and how are you going to go about reaching that goal? What are you going to commit to, what are you going to give up, what costs are there in not reaching it?
What I do know is that if it is not compelling, if there isn't a need, if it is just a "nice to have", non-accomplishment is pretty much guaranteed.
What compels you?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I don't typically do the whole new years resolution thing. In fact, when I decided to start working out I made sure to do it before the new year because I didn't want it to be one of those things that someone starts and then doesn't finish. If I had to pick something though, I'd probably choose to give up my hesitation, my fear, and my tendency to play it safe. I know my time here is getting less and less, so I need to live a little more.
That would be my goal.
Good to hear man, the New Years bandwagon group is annoying lol. Do something because it’s important and good not because a Hallmark holiday.
Totally!
What is something you would give up, that would help you give up these?
I don't even know!
I am good at making plans and make it happen. I enjoy doing this. I already work at the development plan for the 2024 and it is looking amazing.
Do you fulfil your plans?
All except one. I wanted 20 Archon Miners and I have only 19.35 for now, so, by the end of the year, all hive plans will be done.
Where attention goes, energy flows! You are damn right with this one.
New Year's resolutions though... I'd rather asses and reassess as I go.
Is that assess, or asses - just want to make sure before I put my foot in it ;D
And yes, it requires constant evolution, but perhaps it is like an investment into a new business or something - there has to be the energy and resources put aside to get started.
Lol, and you KNOW I know how to spell - perhaps I couldn't be arsesedesded today.
My attention today is TRYING to go anywhere but "I'm depressed", so if I can get over that hurdle, I can asse what's next. :)
Oh hell, I know of a lot of things that I need to give up! Even bad habbits! Butnit isn't always just as simple as that now is it?
Each day on its own will certainly get you there!!
So, what are the things you don't want to give up but are willing to, which would help you realize what you want to gain?
Well not to sound cliche or anything and parrot what you said. But time, but then again that is attention right, so both of those but in a vast range. To stop wasting time on useless and meaningless things. Like youtube, movies and even on stupid people.
One example of that might be to rather not spend an hour a day watching youtube reels and rather focus that time into my studies. It's hard it really is, not the "Not doing it" part but more so the "Being consistent in not doing it" part.
I don't specifically have anything objective that is keeping me from my goals and dreams besides money of course but we all have that problem and nothing comes for free so to that I can't really complain.
If you don't pay attention what you are doing, then you could waste your time, which also might be valuable for another thing.
Time always has potential value, but unrealized potential can't be regained once the time has gone.
I believe I need to work more to be selfless and help others. In the end it is not the material wealth or self-gratification that we leave behind but the selfless love we shared.
What are you willing to put down for a while, so you can pick up more work for others?
I've to say i'm in a sabbatical year. And I started to be active here during this period.
Mmm its an interesting article but actually I'm am more about live the day, the moment, without planning anything. Taking care of attention sounds to me, for this moment, as always in an alert mode. I am also thinking that some stuff is good for planning for the long term but life is always unpredictable and can completely change your planning. Big article :)
Are you completely content in your life? Day by day is a life without purpose, isn't it? Always reactive, never proactive - often based on feelings, whether they are valid, or not. I have been thinking about it a lot over the last decade and I believe that people have misunderstood the "live in the moment" concept, as they think it is to live without plans. I think it is that we are always living in the moment, but if we are living without purpose, we aren't really living.
I think that to be completely content can't always be possible and to be always reactive uhm it's an excess. Otherwise we are a robot.
I agree 100% for the purpose. But going deeply, the purpose can also be temporary for a year, five years.. and then it happens at an event that mixes all the cards on your hands. But yes, a purpose is necessary, vital.
I had a plan A that opening the eyes was not worth it. So yes I am redefining a different plan :) Really nice conversation!
Last New Year I made a single resolution and that was to power up something, anything on the Hpud and Lpud days each month. I did it! I really stuck with it lol...I am so surprised and proud of myself. Not that I lose interest or go off in pursuit of some other shiny object, it's just that, well....I am just so damned scatterbrained LOL.
This year what will I give up, hmmm. I am going to sincerely try to lose my tendency to give into distraction, I need to be more focused in order to achieve any goal at all.
That is quite an effort! I missed many of them :D
What normally distracts you the most and, are you willing to give it up?
Hive! But I'm not giving it up lol. Sometimes I think maybe the fear of success pushes a person off of their focus, perhaps intentionally. To truly answer that question I need to think on it a bit.
I think I'm stopping making plans or setting up goals for 2024 since the last few years were a mess more or less not being able to achieve any of my goals set so I think going with the flow is also an option. Especially during this crazy period of being alive
Do a postmortem on what stopped you from achieving your past goals - was it because you couldn't, or because you didn't? What got in your way? Is that thing getting in your way so important that you have to keep doing it?
It's just life. I don't think there is an actual reason because the goals I've set are always the top ones which perhaps one achieved after many years of hard working so most likely it wasn't the time for that. But sometimes it's very discouraging.
Time is valuable. Life is just so short. We should be very attentive to what makes our life worthwhile or else it will just be wasted.
I often feel that most of us are sleeping through life, as our attention is firmly fixed on the irrelevant.
True. Sometimes we are just wasting our time on irrelevant things.
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The celebration of the date of the so-called new year is anyway fake cause it is just a moment of time which we globally agreed upon. It is another fiction, an illusion that we live through so I do not take it seriously. I make my resolutions every day. Giving up on things is a virtue, especially today when everything is offered on the plate & you just need to reach out & grab it. But it is never free! That is the law of this dirty pyramidal scheme capitalism system which doesn't care of any being, not even human, but cares only about the profit of the multinational companies behind which the owners are hidden & sucking on the energy that the humanoid worker bees generate & produce. Pure matrix.
Being conscious of these facts of the system illusion we're forced to live in, gives us a chance to become free. Giving up & letting go of thousands unnecessary things & toxic people gives your freedom back. Not shopping like a greedy delusional maniac also gives less support to the top of the pyramid.
I personally gave up meat for years, alcohol, other drugs, smoking & many other bad habits for months, which also are having negative effect on the environment & not only me. Giving up on these habits & toxicity makes a lot of space in my life for practicing yoga, healing myself, learning about many forgotten knowledges of our true connection with Mother Nature & other human beings, upgrading myself to the real higher levels of awareness & consciousness... So, the conclusion is that giving up on various unnecessary bullshit improves our lives in general!
The asceticism was/is always a very welcomed virtue!
Good luck with your transformation & you wrote it already about time - it's an illusion which we agreed upon - so you do not need special dates to make a resolution! You can do it anytime/anyplace!
What better place than here, what better place than now!
I’ve also never been one to really do a “resolution” I think I’ve tried it a couple times but it’s nothing really serious. I don’t need a specific day of the year to bandwagon the idea of making a change when we could do that same thing April 17th or something. It seems silly to me.
I do appreciate and understand the need to focus on our attention and what gets that. It’s not something we talk about much but I wonder if that’s intentional because the massive companies want to monopolize our attention and the more people don’t realize their attention is as important as it is, the more they can harvest it.
Giving up something to then try something makes sense, we have to balance the scale and with someone as busy as yourself, that scale needs balancing more than it needs another weight on one side.
Have you considered going passive on something like Splinterlands? I know that consumes a fair bit of time and it’s certainly fun and can be rewarding in a number of ways but the time trade off is also rewarding if you wanted to devote it to something else. I don’t know what that else is but thinking of the extra time I’m adding to my day to do other things by not actively playing at the moment. It’s a tough balance!
Coming back to the ghost thing -
We raised our son in the most natural and chemical / toxin free environment we could. My wife pumped her breast milk and he ate that for 3 years of his life. He also consumed organic, cow and lactose based formula mixed with ultra filtered reverse osmosis water. My wife ate almost all organic and we basically kept his body as pure as we could.
At about 1.5 or 2 years old he would look to this one corner of our living room and stare at it, and interact with it a bit. He would laugh and babble, do the baby talk towards the corner and have a bit of a genuine conversation with what was in the corner.
He got a little older and we didn’t say anything about the things happening, we just let it play out as a natural experiment and made no deal out of it so that he would keep doing it and we could watch him go with it. He eventually got to talking and using real words and we asked him about it one day and he said that the person he was taking to was the man with the hat that was from the ship. I don’t know who that could be and it may not have rung a bell with my wife on her side of the family but the person he was talking to and interacting with seemed docile and good natured.
Our son would be over there and look up at the corner and say something or would extend his hand up to it and hold it while walking over to his toy box or something as if it was a real person. He played with it, showed it toys and things. It was the most surreal experience that we had ever witnessed and it was absolutely fascinating.
We let this go on for as long as it would and it ended about when he was 4 years old or so, and we backed off on the very strict diet, strict ultra filtered water and things since it was fairly expensive to keep that up. He was drinking more filtered water from the fridge that is likely added with fluoride and that is known to calcify the pineal gland which many say is how we have the capability to do these extra spiritual things.
It proves to me that there are so many things we have no idea about as adults and babies are exposed to, with the full wonder and ability that they do. Their bodies and minds aren’t bogged down by the crap we are so they can be completely open to these wonderful things, and also not be subjected to the toxic soup of crap that adults have years of exposure to.
There are so many things I’ve not been paying attention to but in this year, I want to put my focus on them just like my Forex trading and even other things…
I'm still just going to be doing the same thing that I do every year which is of no help to you at all XD
I can't really drop anything else coz I've already dropped everything else, I was trying to add roleplaying back in but am being discouraged from doing that because it would take up a lot of time too
I think attention and time are both equally important. Having one without the other is usually bad. As for the resolution, I think I replied this in another post as well, and it is to budget my time better. I felt like I was spreading myself thin this year, and I need to focus more on things and investment that matter.
That is my struggle ever since 30s. I have tried drinking sugar free stuff but still it is not diabetic friendly so in future soda can bite even if it is sugar free. Another thing I am planning on dividend income hard so I am sticking with those companies. In near future let's assume more rough days come in, I just want to hold the financial castle strong.
You've said a lot here friends. I always tell my friends that focus can be a distraction. Just as the new year will soon unfold, I guess we should take this few days to look at everything we have and everything we want with just one strong question, 'is it actually worth it?'. From here, we will know what to let go
I have already made plans for 2024. I hope to make them happen. With your explanation, I would have to put energy and all that I've got to make them happen.
I've had the goal since 2021 to try and move to a different country at the end of Summer 2024 because I am quite fearful of what's to come in the USA during the run-up to the 2024 election in November. It is going to be a shit-flinging shitshow, and we have a felon leading the way for one of our political parties.
I don't think I've sold my partner on it though, and I don't know if I ever will. Maybe the comfort of having a partner is holding me back from my dreams?! She is not something I want to give up, but maybe I've made too many compromises already. The uncertainty is getting heavier and heavier.
In your shoes though, I would give up processed sugar! Easy enough goal and will definitely do a body good!
A greater part of my resolution for year 2024 is to give up on certain habits that will retard my growth in the new year. It's not always an easy task, but I believe it's possible with determination and self-discipline.