• Integrate Life, The Renaissance Way

    by Alexander Becker

    Integrate everything with everything else. Circles of peers and friends, knowledge, skills.

    Integrate all planes of life. Short-circuit your output and discover and follow universal principles.

    The Renaissance Spirit

    When someone is called a Renaissance Man today, it is meant that he does not just have broad interests or a superficial knowledge of several fields, but better that his knowledge is rather profound, and often that he also has proficiency or accomplishment in (at least some of) these fields, and in some cases even at a level comparable to the proficiency or the accomplishments of an expert.

    Historically (roughly 1450–1600) it represented a person who endeavored to develop his capacities as fully as possible (Britannica, "Renaissance Man") both mentally and physically. Being an accomplished athlete was considered integral and not separate from education and learning of the highest order.

    It seems to be important to make a distinction between the true reanaissance man and the so called "Jack of all trades" whose knowledge is merely superficial and doesn't stand the tests. Achieving proficiency is -- despite an often cited information overload -- still possible with the intelligent application of the principles of learning and triage, for example.

    Leonardo da Vinci

    A scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, poet and writer, Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man" or universal genius, a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity was equalled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

    Infinite curiosity

    Strive for an olympic gold medal competing in decathlon and a nobel prize in science, for example. It's not about the actual medal or the nobel prize as rewards or recognition. It is the ability, the knowledge, and the excellence to get there. Be a scientist and an athlete.

    Integration

    The synthesis of knowledge is combining completely different fields, nourishing one another and generating ever escalating output. Creativity is a collateral of universal curiosity. You start to see connections all over the place, drawing conclusions will be inevitable and an endless set of stairs building on top of one another is your reward.

    Integrate it all, make it personal, even more so, mix personal and business, it's not a no-no if you really want it...

    I don't do it -- not often enough, not on all planes -- and I know that you don't integrate everything either. But just in case you wonder, that's the exact reason for things to fail or to not work out perfectly as intended.

    Integrate everything with everything else. Only then can you start to divide and rule.

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  • Constrain Yourself, Your Time, and Your Tools

    by Alexander Becker

    Some concepts keep recurring, again and again, less is more, for example.

    Of Ririan Project's 33 New Ways To Overclock Your Brain, one is particularly powerful --

    Constrain yourself.

    You need structure in your life. And by constraining yourself -- say giving yourself deadlines, limiting your time on an idea in some manner, or limiting the tools you are working with -- you can often accomplish more in less time.

    Use deadlines and short time frames. What do you do with your time and sharply defined increments?

    Let's take a look at relativity -- what do you accomplish within an hour?

    Exercises, for example
    100 bodyweight squats: 3 minutes.
    10 intervals of 15 seconds all out sprinting and 45 seconds recovery jogging: 10 minutes.
    Four ridiculous minutes of dumbbell thrusting.
    Full body workout using free weights: 30 minutes.
    Writing
    One such article: 20 minutes.
    Food preparation
    A big omelette with vegetables and some chicken, all freshly chopped: 15 minutes.

    Now, what is it, what single activity takes a full hour? Is there anything taking one full hour? Sure, but cramming those activities within the available 30 minutes makes them even more intense, more dense, and more fun to begin with.

    On the other hand, try to limit tools and get your ideas out, with whatever's at hand.

    Pencil and a notebook instead of the computer anyone? The medium makes the message. Leave the notebook at home and write your million-dollar-idea down, on the next best surface. Do not let the medium or the brand of your beautiful sketchbook dictate your message.

    In other words, do you need a certain, specific, tool to get the job done, a piano made out of glass, for example? One of my favorite quotes from Hugh MacLeod's How to be Creative, is about pillar management, and the props used to hide behind --

    There's no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership. None. Zilch. Nada.

    There you have it, etc.

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  • Why You Should Seek Inspiration Instead of Motivation

    by Alexander Becker

    Motivation makes you want to do while inspiration tells you what to do.

    Motivation is unspecific. You are motivated or you become motivated through external stimuli and you get ready to do something. Once you are motivated, i.e. stimulated to a sufficient extent, you can and do start whatever task is offered or would offer itself to you.

    To sustain motivation, it has to be kindled and rekindled and carefully guarded while, on the other end of the scale, the overwhelming force which inspiration creates, is hard to disturb and even harder to resist.

    Inspiration starts with an idea or the seed of an idea, call it a hunch or an intuition, with only the slightest hint of motivation. Once picked up, the idea will immediately start to unfold and pull motivation towards itself until completion, until its full manifestation.

    Inspiration-invoked motivation is invincible and divine, it is not comparable to the externally aroused, raw, almost crude, give-me-something-to-do kind of motivation.

    The trick is thus, in order to achieve maximum and real motivation, to work on and take care of inspiration. Inspiration is the shortcut to motivation and it is much harder to induce since the reception seems to be a very delicate and subjective process without the physical means that trigger motivation.

    Inspiration takes place in the mind, via emotions and evaluation of the effects of sensory input. Motivation, on the other hand, is a matter of tangible cause-and-effect events that function via direct sensory input. You can become motivated through physical activity -- inspired you won't become, not necessarily though.

    I may motivate you with passion and with the influence of physical power but without actual inspiration and you will ask me for a task to complete... any task, you will be eager to use your instilled energy no matter how. I may do the opposite and give you inspiration; you will instantly and effortlessly motivate yourself and find and complete, all by yourself, the exact task for that very moment.

    Always look for inspiration and motivation will take care of itself.

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