beginnings Archives - Leonard Ng

The Art of Momentum: How to Actually Finish What You Set Out to Do

22.01.2017 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

Those who make no mistakes have policies which naturally lead to victory. — The Art of War, 4

So you’ve made your resolutions for the new year, and hopefully at least one or two of them are achievement-based goals. As I pointed out in my last entry, achievement-based goals are the ones that give you the qualities money can’t buy: discipline, resourcefulness, commitment, and skill.

So how can we make sure that we successfully achieve what we have set out to do?

The answer lies in momentum.

Momentum is nothing more or less than the deliberate organization of your goals in a way that makes success inevitable.

Momentum is about creating a process and routine that will take you to your goal in the easiest possible manner. Then, once you have crafted your process, all you have to do is commit to it.

The process will then do all the heavy lifting for you.

Creating a Process that Works

When I was in the military, the army had a very simple way to increase the number of pull-ups new recruits could do:

Drop by the conveniently located pull-up bar before lunch and before dinner.
Pull till you can’t pull any more.
Repeat.

It worked.

This process exemplifies the four most important principles behind any successful process: simplicity, convenience, frequency, and humility.

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What Kind of Goals Are You Setting?

10.01.2017 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

It’s the start of a new year now, when many of us lay out our personal goals and aspirations for our planet’s next revolution around the sun. This is the season when we make our resolutions: statements of purpose for the changes we want to bring about in our lives.

Some goals, however, will make a much bigger difference to your life than others. So today I’m going to talk about the kinds of resolutions that will allow you to hold your head high by the time the year is done.

Let’s get to it.

Two Kinds of Goals

The goals people set themselves tend to fall into two categories: consumption-based goals and achievement-based goals.

The two differ in what they require from you. The first chiefly requires money. The second chiefly requires effort.

Let’s look at them both in greater detail.

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When Meditation Hurts

18.12.2016 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

If you’ve read my previous entry you know the benefits of meditation: inner peace, deeper calm, greater joy, and enhanced asskicking.

So why aren’t you doing it?

I know all your reasons, because sometimes they’re my reasons too: Not enough time. Too tired. Can’t find a quiet space. Keep getting interrupted. Not in the mood.

But there’s another reason too, which seldom gets talked about:

If you’re completely new to the practice, meditation can make you feel worse about yourself, not better.

I’ve Missed You Too

12.10.2015 by leonard ng // Leave a Comment

I haven’t blogged in a while. I think I simply outgrew my previous blog: the parameters and style I laid out in 2005 no longer suit me, here in 2015. Ten years have gone by since. I’m different now. I’ve changed, I hope, in all the ways that matter: I’m bolder, kinder, stronger, wiser. A better man. I hope, anyway. I’ve learned to hope.

Growth and change are inevitable, even if we resist them. But often growth happens in a spiral. (Above is a picture of my little mint plant, which has doubled in size over the last week, and while it doesn’t exactly spiral it certainly does wind its way along.) Often we seem to be going back when we’re really moving forward. And now here I am, starting again. And I find that I’m glad to be back.

Work on this new site, like all creative work, was all-consuming; I tended to get impatient and annoyed when things weren’t going my way, or when things were going too slowly. So I took an hour off to recollect myself. Put some music on, lit a stick of incense, aligned my energy back towards growth, tuned my mind back to gratitude. Work went much more smoothly after that. One more thing to be thankful for.

Often we stress ourselves out unnecessarily when we’re growing, even when we’re working on our biggest opportunities. And sometimes we have to consciously slow down to align our attitudes and actions with our larger goals, so that we can move ahead faster.