Will you need it in a year? In three years?

Is it useful? Does it bring you joy? Is it worth the price of owning it?

Everything we buy, be it a car or clothes or technology has a half-life.

A new phone, whether you’re an Apple person or an Android person, comes out every single year. You know there’s going to be a new one.

Clothes wear out eventually. New cars depreciate immediately.

Stuff doesn’t always last, but that doesn’t make it less valuable or meaningful to us. It’s worth considering though. It’s worth remembering that maybe this thing will be out of date soon and if I buying it for the wrong reasons maybe I just, well, shouldn’t.

There’s always going to be the next new awesome thing. So why not spend our money only on the things we truly find joy or benefit from?

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,

— Josh Waggoner

Daily Blog #491

IG: @Renaissance.Life

My wrists have been hurting recently.

I couldn’t pin down why they were hurting.

Was it the daily yoga I’ve been doing for the past few months?

Was it something I was eating that was causing them to inflame?

No, it was the smaller, cramped keyboard and trackpad I was using for work. A simple, mechanical, and repetitive motion done for hours a day, all week. A keyboard I’ve been using for months but only now started noticing the effects.

Sometimes the cause is so obvious it’s nearly impossible to see unless you are looking for it. A simple trackpad and keyboard causing wrist pain.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, sometimes the cause is easy to spot, but the effects are so subtle you don’t notice they are happening. Daily sugary sweets that add up to an unhealthy 20+ lbs of extra you.

Sometimes the effects take a while to set in and have a lag time.

Sometimes causes stack on each other, and become so twisted and complex it’s hard to nail down what or why or how they are happening.

The key here is to be aware of the possibility of cause and effect and to control the things that you can control. You might not know, and you might not know exactly what, but you can test an assumption and see where that leads. Then another.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,

— Josh Waggoner

Daily Blog #490

IG: @Renaissance.Life

H‘When someone pushes you away, that’s on them. But when they ask for help, that’s on you.’

I’m paraphrasing a little. Something I learned today.

It’s not what happens to you that matters, but how you react to what happens.

The dirt and shade others sling your way is one thing, but throwing back your own anger and resentment is only hurting yourself.

No matter what happens, you always have a choice to be the better person through your actions. Sure things might suck, but when things suck is the perfect opportunity to show yourself how you handle the suck.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,

— Josh Waggoner

Daily Blog #489

IG: @Renaissance.Life

I return to ideas from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott whenever I’m feeling too overwhelmed and discouraged to do anything about it.

One bird at a time, one little thing you can focus on that leads to another and another. A checklist you pull from the chaos to guide the way, forcing your focus towards one square to check off at a time.

Whenever in despair, this can keep the overwhelm of your work or life at bay or better + 1 for it.

STAY BOLD Keep Pursuing,

— Josh Waggoner

Daily Blog #488

IG: @Renaissance.Life

We see what’s in front of us.

We have an idea of what we want our future to look like.

Yet what get’s lost is how our present is connected to our future.

Our daily actions, mindset, beliefs, habits lead us forward. Where we are going depends on the quality of the act, but we are going somewhere.

Picture your future as a photo album and your day as one photo. What does today’s photo look like? Does it add up to the future you would love to live?

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,

— Josh W.

Daily Blog #487

IG: @Renaissance.Life

There’s really only one thing that separates those who succeed in improving in a skill and those that fail — they keep doing it.

Guitar, surfing, coding, running, drawing.. you name it.

Talent, luck, and connection are meaningful, but commitment is king. Skill only takes you half way (and maybe half way for you is extraordinary compared to others less talent fortunate), drive takes you to your ultimate potential.

Everyone else just stops. They fade away from it. They don’t show up one day and eventually, it becomes something they did.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,

— Josh Waggoner

Daily Blog #486

IG: @Renaissance.Life

The path is clear,

you’re just getting in your way.

Once you let go of all the crap that’s holding you back,

you’ll finally start to move forward.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,

— Josh Waggoner.

Daily Blog #485

IG: @Renaissance.Life

“Like musicians, like mathematicians — like elite athletes — scientists peak early and dwindle fast. It isn’t creativity that fades, but stamina: science is an endurance sport. To produce that single illuminating experiment, a thousand non-illuminating experiments have to be sent into the trash; it is battle between nature and nerve.” — Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: an Intimate History

“Grit, in a word, is stamina. But it’s not just stamina in your effort. It’s also stamina in your interests. If you are working on different things but all of them very hard, you’re not really going to get anywhere. You’ll never become an expert.” — Angela Duckworth, Grit

Are you in it for the long-term, or are you just doing it because you have to?
You are going to fail. You are going to have crappy days.
You’ll be tired, grumpy, lonely and sad sometimes too.

But if you are pursuing something hard yet something you love doing, you’ll find the strength you need on the hard days to keep going.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh W.

Daily Blog #484

IG: @Renaissance.Life

Why do we do the things we do?

Why do you say yes or no?

Why do we say nothing?

Sometimes I catch myself just going through the motions of my normal.

Get up, morning routine, go to work, go home.

Like cranking a wheel, routine and rut are the same motion – one just gets you where you want to go and the other gets you nowhere.

It’s good to pause as much as you can do and make sure your habits and your decisions are pointing you in the right direction at least. It’s also good to spice things up and turn things on its head every once in a while to dust off the cobwebs and see if the routine is still helping you.

It’s hard to notice your going in circles unless you stop, slow down and notice what you are doing and why.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh Waggoner

Daily Blog #483

IG: @Renaissance.Life

The idea’s on this blog aren’t really my own.

Not to say that I am borrowing someone else’s ideas. I’m just a champion for ideas. A bowl of chili of my own life experiences. A passage in a book that sparks something within. A speech or conversation that makes me think. And all the other people and things in my life I surrounded myself with.

Ideas can light up the world.

But they don’t just come to you. Well, that’s not true. They do, but they are slippery. Having a great idea is kind of like catching a fish with your bare hands. Even if you manage to nab one, you still have to cook it. (I’ve mentioned food twice now, I must be hungry… 😋 🍪 )

To be a champion of ideas you have to be a seeker of ideas.

Open to new experience, willing to change and apply what you understand.

STAY BOLD, Keep Pursuing,
— Josh W.

Daily Blog #483

IG: @Renaissance.Life