It has now been a good 5 months since I’ve last written about goal-making (see 1, 2). To be honest, the delay is probably due to my own sense of limbo about what I want to pursue as a career.

It has now been almost 1/2 a year since I’ve graduated college, and although I have been keeping busy diving into my own personal interests, I have yet to draw any clear path about where I want to be in the future.

Is this normal for a recent graduate? Maybe, maybe not.

Either way, I know panicking won’t do me any good, so I remain relax and focused.

It’s not that I don’t spend time thinking about the future – I do and I do it often – but I want make sure that when I find my niche that it is something I can become fully engaged in. The last place I want to be in 40 years is at some dead-end job with no love or pride for my craft.

Long ago I came to the conviction that there need not be a difference between work and play. That one can simultaneously do what they love and prosper from it if they put their mind to it. First, I need faith in my capacity to think, grow, and create value.

Believing I can achieve something must be the first prerequisite for actually going out and doing it.

Mission Statement

Throughout my life I have always had some desire to write. As a kid I remember thinking up short screenplays, reviewing video games online, and expressing my feelings about loved ones through lyrics and poetry. Today, I continue to make a conscious effort to improve my writing ability by blogging on sites such as this one and Libertarian Minds.

The past year has been an experiment to see if I can stay committed to blogging and still come out enjoying it in the end – I do.

That is why I now want to take my craft to the next stage. This, to me, means turning it into a profession.

First, I want to create a mission statement. Then I will write it above my desk, so I can recite it every morning. This one simple ritual will help me to maintain flow and keep my mind concentrated on the habits I need to adopt in order to be successful.

Here is a picture of my mission statement written on a dry-erase board:

To become a professional writer I will follow my self-appointed mantra of RAWA meaning “Read A lot, Write A lot.” In it there are 6 tenets: consume, digest, rest, grow, repeat, and evolve.

1. CONSUME A LOT OF MATERIAL

Lucky for me I love reading and I already go to all sorts of different websites on a daily basis. Over the year I have accumulated a list of my favorite and most informative resources:

Mainstream Media

CNN.com
MSNBC
FOXNews

Sites to follow the most up-to-date news of popular issues.

Libertarian Opinion/Blogs

Reason
Cato Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute
Campaign For Liberty
Foundation for Economic Education
Anti-War.com
Center for a Stateless Society
Ayn Rand Institute
Capitalism Magazine
Libertarianism from A to Z: Jeffrey Miron’s blog
Think Markets
Marginal Revolution: Tyler Cowek and Alex Tabarrok’s blog
LewRockwell.com
Stephan Kinsella
Austro-Athenian Empire – Roderick Long’s blog
Free Advice – Bob Murphy’s blog
Ideas – David Friedman’s blog
Fringe Elements – Ryan Faulk’s blog
Economic Policy Journal – Robert Wenzel’s blog
Free Association – Sheldon Richman’s blog
Brad Spangler
Fr33 Agents

Professional resources and personal blogs to help build a comprehensive libertarian philosophy. More to be added.

Alternative Opinion/Blogs

Salon
Smithsonian Magazine
Huffington Post
New York Times
Bloomberg
WallStreet Journal
Alternet
DailyKOS
The Daily Caller
Politico
New Yorker
Fora.TV
Rolling Stone
The Conscience of a Liberal – Paul Krugman’s blog
Libcom.org

Other resources to stay knowledgeable about opposing opinions. This is important to help keep a well-rounded view. More to be added.

I will try to visit most of these sites at least once every week. The big ones like CNN.com (or ones I really enjoy like Mises.org), will probably be visited more frequently. I also go to reddit everyday where users post articles from all over the web.

The main point of building a huge list like this is to always have reading material available and to have access to a wide range of viewpoints and philosophies.

2. DIGEST IT ALL

It would be wasteful to read hours everyday but to never think critically about the content. I believe contemplation is one of the most important mechanism to human learning.

Studies have shown that when rats are given time to reflect, they learn faster than rats who don’t. Time spent introspecting on one’s thought patterns can help us better understand our beliefs. We may even discover that we have made a logical fallacy or a cognitive bias.

Humans are infallible but they are also self-correcting. There is no need to be alarmed when a belief of ours has been challenged. Instead it should be seen as an opportunity for growth. Those who deny their mistakes will always remain fixed where they stand, but those who are willing to weigh other alternatives are more likely to progress their understanding and step forward as intellectuals.

Digesting material means to put a conscious effort into reflecting on what we have learned and how it fits into our worldview.

3. REST

Between all this reading and thinking I am going to need some leisure time. This means things like nap-taking, hanging out with friends, listening to music, watching Mets games, and going out to dinner. Life stuff. Stuff less mentally-intensive so my mind has a chance to rejuvenate itself. After all, variety keeps the mind healthy and balanced.

Including rest in your routine is the difference between hard work and smart work. Also, one positive thing about actively taking your mind off of your work is that it lets your unconscious mull over ideas as you engage yourself in other activities.

4. GROW

Once I have consumed, digested, and taken a healthy break, I am then ready to apply my knowledge into the form of writing.

While the digestion phase was about breaking down information, the growth phase is about integrating information into an article that conveys a coherent theme. All writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, is the process of connecting old ideas and transforming them into something new, something more contemporary, and something more aligned with the zeitgeist of the times. It is the process of moving knowledge forward.

To fulfill my goal I must write each and everyday, even if it is just for a little bit. If by the end of the day I am not happy with what I have written – and it never gets published or even posted on a blog – it is still a worthy exercise in critical thinking and creativity. I think of it as analogous to a professional baseball pitcher: although it may not always be there day to start a game, they still go out in the bullpen and throw some pitches everyday, because that is how they keep their skills sharp.

If you want to be good at something you need to live and breathe it. It needs to be a part of your daily routine. By aiming to write everyday I am setting a precedent to continuously improve until I reach that next plateau.

5. REPEAT. REPEAT. REPEAT.

We all have certain habits which we repeat day-in and day-out. They become automatic or “second nature.” One beauty of the human mind is that we can consciously choose to replace existing habits with new ones – to reinforce “positive” behavior and punish “negative” behavior (however an individual may come to define those terms).

Over the last year I have built up a habit of reading, thinking, and writing about political philosophy, economics, and society at large. It is something I have developed a passion for which is why I now picture myself doing it as a career.

I don’t want to be simply good at it but great at it. I want people to read what I have to say and walk away more educated, more independent-thinking, and more inspired by life around them. I want them to think, “this is so good, I want my friends to read this.”

But this kind of value can only be created if I am dedicated to my craft, which means: practice, practice, practice. I believe that the more I immerse myself in an activity, the better and faster of a learner I will be.

6. EVOLVE

Evolution is a series of adaptations and changes over time. In many ways, it is spontaneous and unpredictable. Often the order is not clear until you look back on it.

This post marks a starting point for my pursuit as a professional writer, but only time will tell where I will end up a year, five years, or ten years down the line.

While I may not know the specifics of where this path is heading, I do know that if I stay devoted to my mantra of RAWA (“Read A lot, Write A lot”), and its 6 tenets, that it will lead me somewhere productive and fruitful.

The human mind can facilitate positive evolution by identifying value and producing it over time. Only by adding value to our lives and the lives of others do we progress as humans and make life worth living.

ENDING NOTE

At its core the RAWA strategy is simple: get emerged in reading and writing and I will soon build the skills to enter the professional domain.

Of course, this is not all one needs to be successful. Along with actually having the ability, one also needs to know how to network, market their product, and land opportunities. These will be issues I will try and resolve in later posts.

For now, my main focus is thinking of myself as a writer, reinforcing these positive rituals (consume digest, rest, grow, repeat, evolve), and eventually building a portfolio of my best material to send to editors.

People who have never blogged before may not realize how much of multi-faceted activity it really is. Every individual post incorporates brainstorming with research, writing (obviously), editing, and marketing. Then you have to account for all the behind-the-scenes work of updating layouts, formatting posts, adding pictures, and working on the whole “aesthetic” of the blog.

After one dedicated year I feel as though I am on a new plateau in the blogging world. I slowly, but surely, began to discover my voice, and I am now more focused on the ideas I want to convey to my readers. I have become a better writer; take a look through my archives, read one of my earliest posts and then go to something more recent – you will notice the change.

More importantly, blogging has become a rigorous exercise in self-discovery. It has helped me better define my interests and to integrate those concepts into my life in a practical and effective way. As I mention in my article “Writing As Meditation,” writing is a form of contemplation and critical thinking. It makes our minds stronger and better able to function in the real world.

If you think of your mind as a muscle then writing becomes a “mental gymnasium.” We need creativity to maintain healthy cognition just as much as we need a proper diet and exercise to maintain bodily health. If you find yourself lacking in creative hobbies considering dusting off that old guitar, writing a poem, or going to the park on a nice day to take some pictures. A good hour dedicated to self-expression adds a healthy dose of meaning to our existence and promotes mental health (sometimes even in those who have severe disorders like schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder).

Blogging has helped me cope with some of my own mental handicaps like anxiety and depression. As someone whose mind often wanders and races, blogging became a way for me to put my life into focus and re-assess what makes life worth living; it made me ask, “What do I value in life? What should I strive for?”

Aside from my intellectual improvement, I also have some objective measures to show for my blogging efforts.

Over the past 364 days, I have accumulated over 100,000 visits. That is an average of over 280+ visits a day and an average of 735+ visits per blog post (for those following the math: I have written over 136 posts within the past year).

Assuming only 10% of my readers actually read a full article that is still over 70+ “full readers” per page. That may not sound like a big influence compared to a Paris Hilton or a Michael Jackson but that is 70+ minds I have affected (in some large, small, positive, or negative way) simply from writing my thoughts on some quirky website. For my first year that is a pretty good foundation to build upon. The best part is anyone can do this with a little time and effort.

The article was rather short (and not too informative), but one excerpt suggests a compelling parallel:

“Staff at Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park in Stirlingshire used video cameras to document the death of a terminally ill female named Pansy, believed to be more than 50 years old.

When she became lethargic in the days leading up to her death, other members of the group became quieter than usual and stayed with her at nights, grooming her more than they did normally.

After her death, her daughter stayed near the body for an entire night, even though she had never slept on that platform before.

All of the group were subdued for several days afterwards, and avoided the place where she had died, spending long hours grooming each other.”

Visit here to see two excerpts of some of this footage: the first video reveals a moment of death in a chimps life with surrounding family, and the bottom video shows a young chimp playing with a dead one until the mother takes it away.

Primal Empathy: Your Suffering Is My Suffering

When a chimp notices a family member is dying they become more attuned to that member’s needs (in the same way a mother becomes attuned to the needs of her baby). Like chimps, our brains “sync up” (as Daniel Goleman puts it in his book “Social Intelligence,”) and we feel what another being is experiencing. In social neuroscience this is referred to as primal empathy or “the ability to sense the non-verbal emotional signals of others and to feel what they are feeling.” Evolutionary psychology tell us that we are biologically driven to respond to those needs; in other words: they are instinctual.

We all experience primal empathy in one form or another. Narcissists and sociopaths show weak empathy for others while those who are charitable and compassionate are seen as more empathetic.

Whenever I think about empathy I am reminded of the teachings by Buddha. He emphasized the wisdom of interconnectedness and described loving-kindness and compassion as a logical moral consequence of this insight.

Science is bringing us one step closer to this knowledge. Through neuroscience we are seeing the biochemical effects of brains and minds feeling connected. In evolutionary psychology we are witnessing high-order thinking mammals exhibit empathy and compassion for one another.

Animal Consciousness

Who knows what it’s like to be a bat, or a whale, or even a tyrannosaurus? Each has a completely different sensory system and a completely different way to interact with its environment. If we were to zoom into the consciousness of any animal it would probably be akin to a psychedelic experience. Yet at the same time we are all united by the fact that we live, we breath, and we are all fighting to stay alive and satisfy our desires.

We often like to see animal consciousness as inherently distinct from human consciousness. Some claim animals aren’t even conscious at all (even to the extent that they don’t experience pleasure and pain). But this assumption seems to ignore even a basic commonsense understanding of other living things.

When viewing these videos of these chimps, when looking at animals at the zoo, or even when just observing our own pets, we are peering into the minds of these living creatures. For humans, empathy is inter-species.

Where Is Evolution Heading?

I don’t think anyone is truly qualified to say where nature is heading. Nature is always changing and adapting in unpredictable ways. If empathy proves to be a dominant force in our evolution, then perhaps we can conclude – to some extent – that nature is a scientific, moral, and practical argument to act good? Perhaps, nature is heading toward a direction of less suffering and a greater sanctity for life?

Maybe sometime in the far away future the golden rule can even beat out natural selection and “survival of the fittest.” Maybe nature does have the potential to be divine? Maybe I am also just dreaming, but one can have their suspicions…either way it won’t be in any of our lifetimes.

The article mentions author Dr. Joe Allen, who says today’s children aren’t growing up because adults simply don’t let them. In his troubling book Escaping the Endless Adolescence, he shows how modern culture has shun children away from real life.

Long ago we as a society decided that children should be in school for at least 13 years before they can display any sense of competency in the world. Allen writes:

“We place kids in schools together with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of other kids typically from similar economic and cultural backgrounds. We group them all within a year or so of one another in age. We equip them with similar gadgets, expose them to the same TV shows, lessons, and sports. We ask them all to take almost the exact same courses and do the exact same work and be graded relative to one another. We give them only a handful of ways in which they can meaningfully demonstrate their competencies. And then we’re surprised they have some difficulty establishing a sense of their own individuality.”

I think Allen would agree with me that modern society has reinforced a culture of dependency. Nowadays we look around and see child-minded young adults in their early 20s, early 30s; in fact, some don’t ever seem to grow up.

Some of the most common excuses we hear are that “teenager’s brains aren’t developed enough,” or “our world is more complex now, so we need more education.” While it may be true that teenager’s brains aren’t fully developed or that our world is more complex, what better way to learn than to step outside of the classroom and embrace this complex world head first (especially while our brains are most ready to learn).

As I mentioned before, many of my posts on this blog already address these issues and draw upon my own personal battles with formal education. In many ways this blog is a reaction to that whole culture. However, I want to hear your guys opinions:

• What are your experiences with the current education system?
• Can you name any particular instances where you felt your individuality was being suppressed?
• If you could, how would you reform education in today’s society?

I also encourage discussion of this post over at Evolver.net.