Random thoughts for you

It’s good to have goals, but you also need perspective and understand why you have those goals. Know your values (easier said than done) and they will help guide you.

Be mindful of ways the world and society are unaligned with those values. It can be insidious as we accept them as a given. One example is consumption. There’s nothing wrong with buying things and we need to buy things to a certain extent. We need food, clothes, shelter. We probably need some comforts and luxuries too, but I feel we can lose sight of the important things. Missing the important for the bright and shiny.

Know your values and see what in your life is aligned with those values and what isn’t so aligned.

Be aware that their are influences around you, some are conscious and some are subconscious

Read that somewhere and seems like the simplicity of the statement.

Be honest with yourself and be able to discern the difference. If it feels like a chore or you’re doing it out of obligation instead of desire, it may be more lust than love

Read this quote and thought it was nice:

“Being old isn’t about age. It’s about what direction you live your life – you’re old when you live your life looking backwards instead of forwards”

Have an interview or wedding and traveling with a suit or dress clothes? Odds are, your clothes are going to end up wrinkly not happen how you fold them. Enter: travel steamer. This stemmed from a terrible experience where I was in a hotel for work and tried to iron my dress shirt. Well, no one had used the iron in some time so rust had developed in the steam holes. I squirted orange liquid on my dress shirt and ruined it. Thankfully I had a second shirt (I tend to be prone to food stains lol). Ever since then, I travel with a steamer if the occasion calls for it. Helps my formal clothes look less wrinkly and more crisp. It has come though time and time again. Highly recommend

I used to do laundry on Sundays, but felt like it was cutting into relaxation time on the weekend. I tried doing laundry in Fridays and it’s made my weekends so much more enjoyable. Granted, I’m at a place in my life where I’m not going out Friday nights, and instead take it easy. So for me, it’s a nice way to transition from work to relaxation

Microwaving something? Letting something cook for a few minutes on the stove? Try washing the dishes or cleaning up the space around you. It was a small, but powerful game changer for me. You’ll be surprised what you can get done in a couple of minutes. I know I was!

There’s 3 elements to cooking chicken: the seasoning, the cooking, and the sauce

It seems pretty obvious, but it’s a nice framework in which to view chicken preparation

The seasoning: I’ve been playing around with kinder seasonings but salt, pepper, garlic is just fine. This adds much needed flavor

The cooking: the key to delicious cooking is to avoid overcooking the chicken if possible as dry chicken is yuck, in my humble opinion. What I have been doing is sous vide the chicken at 145-146 for ~3 hours. If you want to go the extra mile, sear it to get a nice char on the outside (since it’s already cooked on the inside. You can grill it but it runs the risk of overcooking the meat

Sauce: adds an extra level of flavor. Been liking the chick fil a sauce but will rotate to keep the novelty and avoid it becoming too boring

Seasoning, cook, sauce: the 3 elements of cooking chicken

Sometimes, I’ll get rotisserie chicken and even though it’s cooked, I’ll sprinkle some seasoning to give it a little more flavor along with a sauce

The more we have, the more we have to maintain

The less we have, the less time and energy needed to maintain them

And the fewer items we have, the more important they become

Moreover, don’t buy or own things in order to convey your status/value. Trying to keep up with the Jones’s is a losing game

Don’t let the stuff that represent our qualities become the qualities themselves.

In order words, it’s okay to own things when they they confer a purpose or help you pursue your interests, but do not own for the sake of owning or because you thought it would be cool to have. Because if we do, we will ultimately become slaves to the things we own as we spend time and energy taking care of them

Sometimes we feel like we can’t get rid of somethings, but know that you can. If you get rid of things, you will start to realize how much these objects become a part of you, and that is not a good thing. The more you remove, the more liberated you will be

Appreciate the difference between a want and a need as we have a tendency to blend the two

Develop the habit of getting rid of excess. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight, but work towards cultivating it. The act of discarding things is a skill

Organizing =/= minimizing

Keep your unused space empty. Just because there is space, doesn’t mean you have to fill it. Thought: the most efficient use of space is to have it unused

That open space will give you a sense of freedom