Hey everyone,
Here’s your weekly dose of Six-bullet Saturday (finally on a Saturday).
What I’m studying
How do I put together a spiritual strength training regimen?
I’d like to come up with a plan to develop spiritually. You could, at any moment, demonstrate what kind of shape you’re in physically, but spiritual fitness is trickier. By definition, it’s not tangible or visible.
Serving a mission, I encountered many people who assumed that us missionaries were spiritual heavyweights. Members who were converts seemed to view us as lightyears ahead of them in spiritual development, and it made me feel very uncomfortable…disappointed. Why didn’t I feel more advanced? What does it even mean to be spiritually “advanced?”
I go through pride cycles which take me from diligence and heightened sensitivity to the spirit to sometimes long periods of time where I go through the motions and yawn. Imagine if I could keep my head in the game? True, we shouldn’t run faster than we have strength, but when I know I’m merely walking, rarely breaking a sweat, I wonder what my potential really is. What if I really tried, and tried consistently?
I could be overthinking this. Pray and read the scriptures every day, fast, pay tithing, serve others, go to church. Can it be that simple? I get the sense that there is more, a deeper level. Of course, there are varying levels of effort. You can “read” the scriptures without absorbing much. You can be “present” in church and come out lamenting the loss of a couple hours of your weekend.
Katie pointed out that this week’s Come Follow Me references a talk by M. Russell Ballard “Be Strong in the Lord” which has some great insights.
I also found many insights from Alma 48, where it talks about how Captain Moroni strengthened the cities and prepared for war.
I was going to delve into both the talk and this chapter, but you don’t need me to preach to you. You will probably get more out of your own studies anyway. But here are a few points I found interesting.
· “If you are doing the workouts you are getting stronger” – Katie.
· Find your weak points to work on.
· Acting on promises is an exercise in faith.
· We can pray to know “whither they should go to defend themselves against their enemies.”
Although it happens to align with this week’s Come Follow Me, I’ve been thinking about this for a while and will continue to study it for some time I imagine.
Question collecting
If you can ask the right questions anyone can be interesting to listen to. If you’re bored with your surroundings or companions, it’s only a reflection on your capacity for curiosity or ability to come up with good questions.
Tim Ferris talks about collecting questions. He would study interviewers like Cal Fussman and Larry King to learn how to make guests comfortable and help them open up. He also realized that people who have been interviewed many times, like famous people do, tend to develop a set of baked answers. He learned to approach from unique angles to lead them away from rote presentations and really bring out their personality. Not that I want to emulate everything he does. He also likes to get his subjects drunk or hopped up on caffein before his interviews.
Finding the right questions became very important to me while dating. I had one experience where my date commented that she felt like she was being interrogated. At the time I thought “well yes, that’s kind of the point.” Part of the problem was she just wanted to flirt with another guy in the group date. But she was probably just the first one to vocalize that opinion to me. I realized that I wasn’t going to make much progress with worn out, mediocre questions. This is one area where quality absolutely trumps quantity. Asking about someone’s favorite color is fine for nervous 16-year-olds trying to break into the arena, but not for a “25 and better” talking to girls who have heard it dozens of times.
When I finally decided to try a dating app, I discovered a fast feedback loop where I was able to play with questions to see which ones evoked the most engagement (no pun intended). One question I used often was “if you were asked to give a TED talk tomorrow what could you talk about for a good 15 or 20 minutes?” (or some variation of that). This question taught me several things. How thoughtful is she? What does she feel strong enough about that she could monologue on for some time? What inspires her? Is she flippant or genuinely interested in communicating with me? I found this question quickly cutting through the small talk and getting into things that mattered to her.
Katie’s response to this question told me that she had a solid testimony and an agile mind. I was impressed and intrigued. The rest is family history.
I started to use that question and others outside the realm of dating to see what I could learn. There is so much human capital we aren’t tapping into. Everyone has had a thousand different experiences and sees with a lens that changes every day. Every person is an opportunity to learn something new or a resource for rounding out our views about things we already know.
I read a book about writing (which I can’t find again, for the life of me) where the author says she took advantage of every opportunity to do research for articles she was writing. While having dinner with friends she would ask about their experiences in such and such, or what they thought about a concept she was working on.
Besides being great for conversation, asking good questions can revive the work environment, and not just for breakroom chit-chat. Someday I’ll delve into how questions help stave off boredom and burnout.
As a last thought, when I’m writing just for personal exploration of an idea or issue, I usually find that most of my writing consists of long paragraphs of questions which may or may not have an answer. I’m still working on that.
Jack’s recent development
Jack is getting brave and will let go of his hand hold to stand on his own or even walk a few steps to get to another chair. Sometimes he walks into the middle of the floor, realizes he’s stranded and gets alarmed. He got his first goose-egg from these ventures, but it hasn’t curbed his energy.
He is also starting to growl for some reason.
Words
· Copacetic – very satisfactory
“Things haven’t exactly been copacetic for us mice since the cat arrived.” I just made that up. Katie’s mother Debbie introduced me to that word, but I don’t remember the context.
· Skew-wiff – askew, catawampus
“That cake looks a bit skew-wiff” The Great British Baking Show
Follow up on headboard
The headboard is being put to use. It could use some paint. We might do that if it becomes more of a permanent fixture. For now, it’s fulfilling its purpose.
I originally had a picture of the headboard with Jack crawling across the bed.
Practice I’m considering
What benefit would there be in naming my notebooks? I don’t mean labeling them Exercise Notebook, Gratitude Journal, or Bullet Journal), I mean real names like Bob, Betty, or Bucephalus (props if you get the reference). Any thoughts or insights you might have are welcome.
Well, that wraps up this week’s essay into the mind of Peter. I hope none of you are the worse for wear. As always, please share your thoughts or other feedback if you feel so inclined. I can be reached via email, text, or Marco Polo, whichever suits your fancy. Boy, four clichés in one paragraph. Sorry.
Peter
boonies167 