Hello and welcome back to this week’s blog. It’s Tristan here, and I am going to be diving into my mind.
This weeks blog was inspired by Modern Wisdom #705. In this episode Chris talks with Spencer Greenberg about self-improvement, habits, personality, values, intuitions, and wisdom, to list a few. Spencer is the owner of the website clearerthinking.org. This website currently hosts 80 free self-diagnostic/assessment tools. While I plan on exploring as many of these tools as possible over the next few weeks, I am most interested in 4 this week: the “Ultimate Personality Test,” “Intrinsic Values Test,” “Your Greatest Sources of pleasure,” and “Uncovering Your Guiding Principles.” In addition to the Modern Wisdom episode, I will link these 4 tests at the end of this post
Moreover, there are tests relating to sleep, procrastination, productivity, habit formation, reasoning, self-analysis, and other informative tools. I will explore this website and report back.
I have been struggling with sleep during the last month or two now. I have identified the primary cause to stem from my diet and improved during the last week. While not directly related, If you have been following along with me, you would know that I have changed my diet recently. Also, in this time, I have grown my understanding of how nutrition relates to me and my goals. I want to create a whole post on this soon. I say all of this to mention that I did the “40 Winks: Better Sleep Made Easy” test. This test was good because it gave me ideas to improve my routine: limit food and water intake 3 hours before bedtime, install “f.lux” (a computer program that adjusts the warmth of the display to reduce blue light at night), and use relaxation techniques to combat restless thoughts when falling asleep. I have truly fallen in love with self-improvement, so I am excited whenever I get the opportunity to experiment with new ideas. I am not sure how much I will learn from these tools, but I am confident that they will give me some new ideas.
Since I am very limited on time this week, I am only going to be doing self-introspection this week. I am going to give my best self-diagnosis and ideas about what I have learned most recently. After this, in next week’s post, I will reveal what I learn from using the four tools mentioned above. This will give me more time to carefully take the tests and analyze my results.
Today, I will aim to answer four questions:
- What are my three highest intrinsic values?
- Where do I derive most of my pleasure?
- What currently guides me?
- What are my greatest fundamental weaknesses?
In my haste, I will likely come to better understand the answers to these questions as I think about them more through the week. I will add significant revelations to the beginning of next weeks post. Let’s begin!
- I must start this one off by clarifying that I am not entirely clear on the definition of “intrinsic value.” This confusion is something that is mentioned in the Modern Wisdom podcast episode, and my limited understanding is a primary motive for taking the test. I will answer this question to the best of my ability, and next week, we will compare. I think that answering this question with my current ignorance will ultimately lead me to a better understanding of myself.
My first value is “authenticity.” Being genuine should be the easiest thing to do, but the authentic self can often be difficult to reveal. I do not think that I am always an authentic person, but this is a value that I aim to improve. I am turned off by those that leverage a false identity. There is a perfect quote from Chris that I will share next week. In my mind, I relate this to lying and cheating. Ironically, the liar is the one who often ends up most discontent. A great conversation related to this is mentioned in Modern #712. There are at least a dozen posts that I could spur from that conversation between Chris and Peterson.
My second value will be the desire for improvement. I often find myself trying to fix things. I am a problem-solver both of the mind and spirit. I believe that it is our responsibility as individuals, members of society, and bearers of the future to seek improvement to the greatest possible limits of our situation. I guess this value is the opposition to cynicism.
I also want to add that this desire for improvement is also reflected in my desire to become a better father to my future children. This might be itself a value. Sacrifice in service of the next generation I hold close to my heart.
Finally, I will make diversity my third value. By diversity, I mostly want to emphasize the unique good that can be found in all people. Societal norms and conformity make most people predictable. While this has its positives, I strive to find what makes me different from other people because I know that if I can find this, I can become my best, most authentic self. That self is the person that will be the most happy, be able to contribute the most to society, and will live a life worth living.
- When I think about pleasure, I think of the following: food, friends, success, talking, creating, love, media, and exploration. These are all very vague, I know.
Recently, I have taken a lot of my pleasure from the progress that I am making toward my goals. The only gratifications that I allow myself to indulge in include talking to coworkers and family, enjoying foods that are healthy and I enjoy, and watching my favorite shows and content creators while I eat.
I get long term pleasure from completing my blog posts, creation, and through my pursuit of success.
I also find it enjoyable to do certain tasks like cooking, shopping (both in grocery stores and online), improving and organizing, and exploring my curiosities. With these, I find I can easily get distracted and convince myself that I am not procrastinating.
- Currently I think that I am most guided by my more immediate long term goals. I have great ambitions, and admission into university is my next greatest leap. There is so much uncertainty, but I am giving my all, so I am trusting the process and doing what I can to enjoy it. Ultimately, my guide is to make the decisions that allow me to optimize my success in health (physical and mental), socially, and in relationships. This principle I will give an arbitrary time frame of 10 years, or the time it takes me to become educated, begin my career, and start a family… Maybe those three things are my guiding principles.
- This question is going to make me a little crazy, but I will create a list to be analyzed another day:
I focus on the smaller details while knowingly and unknowingly ignoring the greater picture
I have a tendency to either give all or nothing. I struggle to find the gray areas. I am either a success or a failure, vegan or not on a diet, an extraordinary individual or nobody.
I place too much of my self-worth on the approval of others and society.
I have a tendency to justify 80% and not give 100%.
I sometimes struggle to adapt to what I know is best for myself long term because of some value or preconceived notion.
I change my guiding principles to satisfy my daily desires.
I doubt myself despite knowing how hard I continuously work and the talents I have fortunately been afforded.
I cast off those that love me in service of resentments that I do not announce.
I limit my thinking in fear of the truth my thoughts might reveal, in submission to my weakness to confront my mental reality.
I ignore setting the simple goals that are best for me in order to chase the extraordinary goals that are deceptively more important. (A related idea is mentioned in rule #4 of Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules For Life).
This is where I will end for today. I will be honest with you, I am not satisfied with the post this week; however, I have set a decent foundation for next week. I will just have to dive deeper then. I have too many ideas inspired by Peterson to keep organized, and I know that there is much more to pry out of my mind… maybe I should not pry into my mind right now… I might reveal something that I am not prepared to mend right now. What is the worst that could happen, I reveal my truth?
Maybe those tools will help to inspire my introspection and relax any inhibitions.
This is all that I have time for this week. We will pick up right where I am dropping this week when I return next week. I will share more ideas then.
It has been Tristan. HQ is cold in the winter, but I will never leave! Bye bye.
Citation
“Free Courses for Decision Making and Reasoning.” Clearer Thinking, www.clearerthinking.org/. Accessed 7 Jan. 2024.
Peterson, Jordan B. 12 Rules for Life. Goldmann Verlag, 2019.
“Take This Test to Find out What Your Most Important Values Are!” Page Redirection, programs.clearerthinking.org/intrinsic_values_test.html?_gl=1%2Av5xndx%2A_ga%2AMTAzMzI2NTA3My4xNzA0MjkwMzk2%2A_ga_58RPQ2D860%2AMTcwNDY3NTU5MS41LjEuMTcwNDY3NTc2NC41Ny4wLjA. Accessed 7 Jan. 2024.
“Ultimate Personality Test: Unveil Your Type.” Page Redirection, programs.clearerthinking.org/personality.html?_gl=1%2A1syc46v%2A_ga%2AMTAzMzI2NTA3My4xNzA0MjkwMzk2%2A_ga_58RPQ2D860%2AMTcwNDY3NTU5MS41LjEuMTcwNDY3NTczNC4xNS4wLjA. Accessed 7 Jan. 2024.
“Uncover Your Guiding Principles.” Page Redirection, programs.clearerthinking.org/uncover_your_guiding_principles.html?_gl=1%2A8ukovp%2A_ga%2AMTAzMzI2NTA3My4xNzA0MjkwMzk2%2A_ga_58RPQ2D860%2AMTcwNDY3NTU5MS41LjEuMTcwNDY3NjQ2OC42MC4wLjA. Accessed 7 Jan. 2024.
Williamson, Chris, host. “#705 – Spencer Greenberg – The 5 Most Effective Techniques To Hack Your Habits” Modern Wisdom, Spotify, Nov. 2023, https://open.spotify.com/episode/0P2m2cpxFOS7kFxWKSsJBK?si=fe0ff1db03a54cfc. Accessed 07 Jan. 2024.“Your Greatest Sources of Pleasure.” Page Redirection, programs.clearerthinking.org/sources_of_pleasure.html?_gl=1%2A7fw50p%2A_ga%2AMTAzMzI2NTA3My4xNzA0MjkwMzk2%2A_ga_58RPQ2D860%2AMTcwNDY3NTU5MS41LjEuMTcwNDY3NTYxNC4zNy4wLjA. Accessed 7 Jan. 2024.