Why is explanation is more difficult than action?
Explanation is More Difficult Than Action, sometimes it’s easier to do things first and ask questions later. Have you ever asked a teenager why they did something stupid? I think back to a story my friend once told me of his son. His son decided it would be a good idea to buy a used TV and proceed to yeet it off a bridge.
“It was an awkward position for me, as a parent I was supposed to discipline him, but I remember what it was like to be a kid. I understand why people were upset with him, but because no one was hurt I found it a little funny.”
The typical response that adults get will set you one of two ways as an adult depending on your personality.
“I don’t know” is the answer that angers the “serious” adults, conversly for us “playful” adults it sparks memories.
“I don’t know”
Spontaneous Action
To be able to act without thinking is important in music, art, coding, and performance acts like gaming or sports. By the time most of us are adults we do a good job of killing that improvised way of life. I remember slowly losing that ability to act without thought in my teens. My dad would often quite angrily remind me to “Think before I speak”. You can never kill off that sublime spirit, however. You still get glimpses of being fully present when you have emotional outbursts, play sports, music, art, or game.
In our society, it’s only acceptable to live fully presently under the influence of alcohol past a certain age. In waking everyday sober reality you sit a layer behind your being. For some of us it’s multiple layers behind. That ephemeral being that controls other thoughts. After layers of social conditioning and thinking your actions get routed to your body.
In my shallow understanding of Eastern thinking, most Eastern philosophies and forms of thinking have found a way to combine both of those spaces.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is being in the present, but turning that observer on ourselves. Watching the watcher as I like to say. Have you ever thought about why you do the things you do? Like that little kid who’s just learned the meaning of why, or Simon Sinek, you can always continue to think why?? Part of mindfulness and meditation practices involves looking at how your thoughts go by like leaves in a creek. It’s important to give up judgment, control, and preconceived ideas and just watch.
As I’ve been wanting to produce more content I’m trying to make this blog somewhat of a meditation. The ability to just show up and type without any form of judgment or forcing an article to be a certain way. . . other than SEO Optimization evil laughs*. When I forget about mindfulness it feels like my life is out of focus image. You can bring this mindset into everyday tasks such as cleaning your room, washing your car, or doing your job.
Wash Your Bowl
Zen Story
This story refers to the act of focusing on washing a bowl. Sometimes when we do everyday tasks we can let our minds wander. You won’t be doing a good job of washing the bowl if you’re thinking about something else, will you?
Tutorials and Instructional Material
I became stuck on living in the present day. I spent my time watching my thoughts and actions today because I had to write tutorials. Explanation is more difficult than action. It was as much of a challenge to explain how to use the IT system as it was to make it. Not only do I have to think about how it works, but why it was put together that way. Thinking about crafting the martial puts you in the now, but observing your own product is like watching your thoughts in the third person.
I’ll have to think Dave when I go drinking with him on Saturday. I always thought my high levels of self awareness, consciousness, and overthinking were a problem. The problem was I just wasn’t utilizing my skills correctly. As I was writing the tutorials today I woke up to the idea that some tasks favor my natural born tendencies. There are whole job markets based around technical writing for products both digital and physical. You have to live in a space where you’re explaining terms and functions for people of different levels. You can supplement instructional materials with modern tools like gifs, videos, and images.
It always makes me curious why textbooks are still a thing in schools? With digital learning platforms even basic ones like websites and hyperlinked PDFs would make material more engaging. We’re also on the cusp of augmented and virtual reality. Things that you can already do with the Quest and Apple Vision Pro.
Non Negotioable #1 Down
Explanation is More Difficult Than Action, Similar Thinking About Running is Harder than Running
I saw the clock tick to 19:00 I lazed around on social media for an hour before getting myself together. I promised myself that I would exercise daily. . .there were a lot of thoughts piling up in the back of my mind.
- It’s cold
- I’ll do it tomorrow
- You’ll see how out of shape you really
- I’m gonna have to wash these clothes because of exercise
- You can wait until you get a gym membership to workout
It started to become real when I put my sweatshirt on, and the shoes followed. I used the Nike Run App to start guided run. It was nice to have a companion, guide, and coach to help me get off my ass. Even if I knew the Nike run coaches were just reading lines off a script it helped to give me that motivational kick-start energy. I’ve read The Power of Habit, and for running my trigger actions were putting on my shoes, a podcast/music, and using the Nike Run App. The guided run I put on was called Step One Easy Run.
It had been around three weeks since I’d last exercised, but before I knew it I was outside running in the cold. The difficulty of being in the frisk air was easier with each little step. The unpleasant feeling of the cold was rivaled by the ecstatic joy of moving my body. The world melted away as I ran, the beauty of a run is not having to worry about anything. Running for me is a solo act, like a lot of the things I enjoy I’m alone with my thoughts.
When the Body Runs, So too Does the Mind
The run started as a two-out-of-ten warm-up. After some stretching, the instruction is to step it up to a four. Getting your out there and running does great things for your body and mental health. There’s research that shows that when you exercise more oxygen is also pumped into your brain. Perhaps that’s why I felt my mind running with me.
Explanation is More Difficult Than Action It was easier to think and run than to write about it
This year I’ve been trying to appreciate the unique things I can bring into the world. I’ve always felt like an outside observer to humanity, I never felt like I fit in or belonged. Why would I want to be like everyone else? The majority of Americans are obese and live paycheck to paycheck(Currently so do I so I get the struggle). Even just regular exercise puts you in the minority of only 25% of Americans. Dare to be different. Being on the outside looking in has many great advantages. As a Gaijin, literally Outside Person, I have a lot of respect for Japanese customs and culture, but I’m glad I’m not Japanese.
This year I started on the idea of building an exciting life. I want to do motorsports one day, and although you’re sitting in a car motorsports is physical. The Japanese word for driving a car swift is the same as the word for running physically. If I couldn’t run one way, I’d put rubber to the road a different way in preparation for when that day comes. Exercise is said to improve the retention of our reflexes, although I realize it’s too late for me to find major success. . . I still want to be competitive when I go out on track days.
Did I ever write about the time I almost died in my EVOIV? Just being alive to pursue my pipedream was a gift I was forgetful to be thankful for. It had me thinking about just how temporary our experience on this Earth plane is. We are just tourists in this life at the end of the day. One day we will leave it behind.
I Want to be a Tourist Again
Running is a great way to get your bearings down when you move to a new neighborhood. I still felt like a guest in my own home. Still a stranger to the area I inhabited, I felt like a tourist in my ward. The word tourist gives most foreign expats a slight cringe. Most of the people that make foreigners look bad are tourists . . . or influencers doing stupid things. I think we build a small sense of superiority, no me . . . I live here. Drops Mic and Bass Drops into Dubstep in head.
But interacting with tourists is refreshing. It reminds you of why you of the reason you uprooted your whole life. The real magic comes when you act like a tourist again. By acting like a tourist you can see and learn about all the things the area you live has to offer. We always have the impression that we need to go far to experience new things and travel. That’s not entirely true. New experiences are often a short drive, bus, or train away. A good trick I’ve picked up is going to the nearest visitor centre or using the discover tab on google maps.
I want to take that tourism mindset throughout the rest of my life. As I stated before, we’re only here for a short period of time. It’s worth trying to find gratitude in the everyday grind, hustle, modernity, and mundanity of everyday life. I guess working in the tourism industry should help me get that sense of adventure back into my life.
That Magic Space in Your Head
My body was so happy to be out of the computer chair that inheranitly it wanted to play around. As I run, I pretend that I’m an athlete again. Street poles become opponents to dodge and juke, narrow raised platforms become a ninja warrior obstacle, my phone turns into a lacrosse stick or football. While running I thought of the potential of VR wouldn’t it be cool to play lacrosse again, not that I wouldn’t want to in real life again, but I would probably recklessly hurt my body again.
As I was running I felt a sense of gratitude washover me. I was thankful to live in Japan, that I would be starting a new job soon, I was even thankful to my mom who had supported two athletes from behind the scenes. The burden of supporting an althelte puts a tremendous toll on a family. There’s all the time investment into practices, games, the extra food we consume, and all the extra shorts, socks, and jerseys to clean. My mom would sometimes watch my games in the car, but she showed up to a lot of them. Bless my dad’s heart he loved to sit in the stands and cheer. It was kind of cute that he had a delusional view of how much talent I had. . .maybe in the next life. Is there a new game plus?
Can I Get That Feeling Again?
It would be nice to have that feeling of people cheering for you to win again. That’s one of the magical things about sports. A thing I’m realizing now is the team extends far beyond the boundaries of the players and coaches. It becomes a collective hivemind praying to the universe for a team’s success. Right now for LaidbackLifestyle and my career pursuits that team is small, but I hope that I’ll be able to gather like-minded individuals to build something greater than just me.
Lawsons and Little Decisions
After working out I rewarded myself with a trip to Lawson’s. Living in Japan for my sixth year in March, you forget how awfully convenient these stores are. With health and fitness sometimes it’s making little decisions to help you keep the figure you want. Recenlty I’ve consumed a little too much Cola, but I’ve been dialing it back in lieu of protein shakes, veggies, and protein bars.
Gaming
I’ve been laying off the gaming to pursue other things like video editing, music production, and art. Still gaming has had such a large influence on my life that after showering I indulged in a little bit of gaming. I was playing my favorite title Apex Legends with some friends. I think one of my favorite parts about gaming online is the community you build. For me I find it easier to talk to my gaming friends than even my own real family sometimes. Perhaps it’s because gaming and certain moments in gaming take your eyes off things and put your mind in the same mental space as a long car ride. There is research that shows people are likely to have better conversations while in a car looking at the road than looking at each other.
Because Apex Legends is a battle royale there are a lot of quiet moments to talk about life.
“Ah hows the new apartment and job, your puppy doing okay?”
All those questions you get asked at family reunions and are annoyed by are somehow okay when it’s coming from your gaming buddies.
I’m Pretty Damn Good At This Game
I’m pretty damn good at Apex Legends I’ve reached the top 1% – 2% of players in the ranked ladder. I can only imagine if I’d invested that time into something useful, like aforementioned art, music, video editing. Being the top 1/2 percent in a skill or trade is probably a better use of time, but I still enjoy gaming. Not everything has to be this stupid finance bro, sigma male, gym dude grindset that has become so popular. That being said I wish there was more of a potential reward for sinking all these hours into a game. THe top .001% of players are able to make an income with gaming, but that’s not as easy as it sounds either.
Non Negotiable #2 Japanese Study
It was way too late for me to want to get this non-negotiable done, but I realized Japanese study could be done in my own Laidback Lifestyle way. When’s the last time I watched anime? My plan to watch list on MAL was like my to-do list in real life. One of the hardest things you can do in life is to sit through something and not know what’s happening 100%. I’m lucky because living in Japan, Japanese Netflix is chalked full of really great Anime, Japanese Dramas, and Jmovies.
The only issue is that Japanese netflix has no english subtitles on a lot of their content. I realized that’s a window to turn a problem into a solution. If I was able to focus and sit through an anime with Japanese speech and subtitles I’d be learning.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
I’ve been wanting to watch this show for awhile. Although this anime is a little older I’d been seeing the main character Mai Sakurajima all over Kanagawa prefecture. She was in Yokosuka, Yokohama, and on the vending machine in front of my bus stop. After all the exposure I decided to watch it. Ahh those Japanese advertisements got me I’m hit*
As a weeb I should probably learn the “real name”
Seishun Buta Yarou Bunni Garu Senpai Yume Wo Minai . . .there has to be an abbreviation that Japanese fans call this show. Literally translated it means Youth Pig Damn Bunny Girl Older Person you Show Respect to Dreams Don’t See. The only reason I know seishun is because of one of my Anime Goats OreGaIru. The only other thing I didn’t know is you could combine Buta, Pig kanji often seen in pork based dishes like tonkatsu, tonkotsu ramen, and pig based stir fry, and Yarou* kinda rude way to refer to a guy to call someone a bastard essentially. Damn pig. . .yay learning to insult people in Japanese Education.
Learning About Things During the Episode
After seeing this frame why I’d been seeing the cute bunny girl all over Kanagawa made more sense. Mai Sakurajima lives in Kanagawa. I wonder if Kanagawa natives felt a sense of pride and joy when they see where they live in all these internationally recognized shows. I felt a further sense of connection with the characters when they mentioned Kamakura. Kamakura is a really nice area to walk around and go to little independent japanese shops. Even Japanese people visit to see nearby beaches, shop, and the big budda located there.
I’m glad that I was able to under stand a lot of what was going on in the show despite not knowing every word. I think watching shows are a good way to see what words you don’t know.
Take for instance the above frame. I understood that she wanted to meet him at Fujisawa Sation, a station on multiple lines around me weeb flex*, but I didn’t understand enoden. Enoden江ノ電 is the Enoshima line in English. I also didn’t know the words for Kaisatsu改札 or ticket gate. It would be smart to pluck these out to place them in a spaced repetition based flashcard system like anki.
To grab vocabulary from content you consume is called farming by second language learners. If League of Legends has taught me one thing its that farming is a good thing.
Using Limitations as Power
Theres a saying that goes if we managed to equalize the wealth in the united states the same people would start to become wealthy again. There’s a certain mindset that some people have when it comes to having limitations placed on them. It’s certainly a mindset I’d like to build and I’m seeing the potential in thinking this way.
No English Subtitles
Learn Japanese
Limited Kitchen Space
Learn Toaster Oven Recipies
I put that second one there because in my new apartment things are kind of cramped. It’s hard to find a place to prepare food so I’ve been resorting to Uber Eats and Conbini food. That can get expensive, so I’ve been wanting to find healthy alternatives. I thought back to the time when Martha Stewart was in prison and instead of moping around thinking “I don’t have a kitchen” she learned to cook in the humble microwave.
It’s time to start thinking of my current limitations as opportunities for growth.
Non Negotioables
ExerciseJapanese Study
To-Do List
- Make a New Year’s Video For the LaidbackMarco Channel
- Get Organized Physically/Electronically
- Keep better track and record of finances
- Design Shirts, Clothes, Sweaters, and Products for the brand
- Make a diagram of LaidbackLifestyle funnels and web
- Redesign website to integrate product sales
- Cleanup YouTube channels, linking, and tags
- Send Ophelia, Monstercat, and Other Labels a Demo. . .how do I put together a demo and press kit?
- Visualizer for “Lost at Sea”
- Vertical Visualizer
- Create shorts from Tokyo Underground Footage Vertical for LaidbackJDM
- Upload any Video To LaidbackGaming
- Finish Editing Yokohama Photos and Post Them Online
- Make a reel with trending audio of before and after edits
- Draw anime characters on them for laidbackanime
- Create Shortform Content from Nissan Global HQ
