7/20/20

9:51am

#79

Travel is expensive! But think of all the growth that happens when you travel abroad. Is it worth spending that much money? Do you get more value from that trip than what the trip cost? I’m sure. How can you quantify the cost of hearing the Mosques in Tunis ring with Ramadan prayers? Or eating Papa John’s pizza in the middle of nowhere at a gas station in Sfax. Or finding an orthodontist all on your own and getting operated on only by speaking French? Or ordering a salmon sandwich and being mistaken for someone who speaks Portuguese? You just can’t quantify stuff like that. So travel. Go see the world. There’s so much to see.

Kiubon

9:26am

7/19/20

#78

Some of my favorite forms of learning

• Podcasts
• Audio books
• Books
• YT videos

But none of this beats actually doing. Although these mediums are pretty great.

Kiubon

7/18/29

12:31pm

#77

You will burn out if you focus solely on your work. Think about your favorite “work”. Whether that’s an iPhone, a movie, a piece of art, your favorite dessert. Whatever it is, the feeling you got from it is nothing compared to your favorite moments with other people. If you focus on your work, you will get good results, but you will burn out. You will have no reason to continue working. Because your work can only do so much for you. But if you focus on on the people you are impacting, how they are touched, how you are moved by them, then you will have drive and purpose. You will have a reason to continue. So it’s not all about the work. It’s about the people. The people around you and with you. Focus on them and watch and see.

Kiubon

7/17/20

8:19am

#76

There’s this psychoanalytic theory thought up by Jacques Lacan called objet a. It’s a tangled mess of intellect, so to summarize simply –

That thing you want, when you get it, you won’t be satisfied. We never are. Whether that’s having sex for the first time, finally getting to eat at the beautiful restaurant, or holding an Oscar in your hand. All of these things will be unbelievable, but not satisfactory. At least not forever. That’s why desire is not satisfied. It just snowballs. “Maybe this we’ll be the thing that makes me feel satisfied, or this will, or this will.”

I buy about $3.5k in camera equipment yesterday. They’re cool and all, but they don’t satisfy me. That’s why you have to fall in love with the process. That’s what Lacan says. The limit is the thing that gives us pleasure. Waiting for the packages should be the best part – not getting the thing. Without the waiting, you wouldn’t want it as much. Don’t yearn for the product, yearn for the process.

Kiubon

7/16/20

9:47am

#75

2020 has been a shit show. A lot of people can agree. But one of the reasons why I started this blog is because I refused to let this time be dead time rather than alive time. It just took me a minute to start picking my act together. I came home in mid March and I started this in late May. I guess I spent April pouting because of Corona. Regardless, this is alive time. So yes the world right now is a little upset, perhaps it will be for a while. But are you gonna change it? Are you gonna find a cure? Are you going to solve systemic racism single handedly ? Nope. But what can you do? You can choose how to respond. Respond positively rather than react negatively. Work on yourself. Become a better person. Level up. This is alive time. Not dead time.

Kiubon

7/15/20

9:13am

#74

When I would go rock climbing in Portugal or France, I found myself giving up mid way up the problem time and time again. “How badly do you want it?” is that I would tell myself. Clearly not that badly. Because I continue to give up. If I truly wanted it, yearned for it, dreamt about it, I would finish the problem. But I get half way up, say, “Oh this is too hard” then let go and fall down. We do this with so many things in our lives. So whatever you’re working on, how badly do you want it? If you’re in pain, how badly do you want to stop being in pain? If you want the pain to stop, then what are you doing to get rid of it? Nothing? Then you clearly don’t want it that badly. Perhaps you’re just numb to the pain and you just want to keep it around for old times sake. Beats me. But if you want it to go away and experience the freedom of finally being pain free, then do something about it. What steps are you taking?

I’ve had this pain in my knee for at least three years. I’ve done minimal work to get rid of the pain. Clearly I don’t want it to go away that badly. But I can change that.

Kiubon

7/14/20

9:56am

#73

What’s your dream job? Why is it just a dream? If it’s just a dream and you’re not doing anything to bring yourself closer to it, then you don’t want it badly enough. If all my plumbing in the house is completely destroyed, and there is not a single drop of water in any container in the house, yet I am unbelievably thirsty, you bet your ass I’m going to start taking actionable steps to get some water. Because I want it badly. Even if I’m scared that there might not be water anywhere, I’m still going to try. Fear is not an excuse. Take actionable steps every single day towards your dream, and it won’t seem so far away. Write down your goals. Here are some of mine.

• First Screenplay sold by 2025.
• 100k business income in 2026.
• Conversational (at least B2 level) in French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Cantonese by 2027
• First Asian American best director and best picture by 2036.

These are fat lofty goals. What am I going to do about it? What actionable steps will I take?

• watch at least one french video and one Portuguese video alternating every other day
• at least 15 minutes of practice for whatever language I’m learning everyday
• write a three page screenplay everyday or add three pages to what I’m working on
• read at least thirty minutes in a book everyday
• at least ten minutes of video skills everyday (pulling focus, glide cam, gear familiarity)
• Meditate for at least ten minutes a day

These goals will stay on this page forever unless I actualize them.

These steps are quite small and might not seem like it’s enough. But look at the Grand Canyon. Drip by drip.

Kiubon

7/13/20

9:32am

#72

Will you remember? If not, why not? Do you remember yesterday? Or the day before that? Probably not. So then what’s the point? Why are you doing what you are doing? As we grow older, we will learn that Time is our most valuable resource. So why do we flaunt it so haphazardly? What can you do today that you will remember? We just float through life, wasting all of our days. That’s the easy route. But that’s not the route we desire. So why don’t we do something about it? I sure as hell don’t.

Kiubon

7/12/20

9:08am

#71

Don’t jump the gun, but shoot your shot if you see an opening. Stop waiting to “feel ready.” If there is an opening, and you know you want it, but you don’t know if you’re ready, I don’t know what you’re doing. Just shoot! Why wait? Your readiness will not change. We constantly overthink these opportunities and before we know it, it slips away from our feet. And we are left beating ourselves up for having lost it. If we lost it, and we are glad and relieved, then we know that shot wasn’t mean to be taken. But if its lost and we are all pouty, then we know we messed up. But we’re not going to let it get there. Because we’re going to shoot our shots.

Kiubon

7/11/20

10:03am

#70

The one quality that determines success, work ethic, relationships, essentially all aspects of life is enthusiasm. It can get you through pain, hardships, lead to better times, etc. Why is it so hard to be excited? It’s not. It’s just hard to be excited about things we don’t care about. So we have to stick with the things we do care about. And be excited for it. Then things will start to change.

Kiubon

7/10/20

12:19pm

#69

My new ID came in the mail today. I put it side by side my old ID to compare how much I’ve changed. Physically a lot is different. It’s crazy how different I look. The ID’s are five years apart. There’s a paradox there. Five years from now seems so far away. Yet five years ago just seems like yesterday. The future is closer than we think. What change is going to happen five years from now? All that change is my responsibility. I can either stay stagnant, or get a new ID in five years and see all the growth. My choice.

Kiubon

7/9/20

9:00am

#68

You are the average of the five people you associate with the most. Not my quote, but who are your five people? Are they ambitious? Do they challenge you? Do they want to see you grow? If not, there might be some changing to do. You are at a significant disadvantage if the people around you are not lifting you up. We all need friends. But the right ones will propel us. The wrong ones will stagnate us. Where do you want to go? Who do you want to be? And who will be there to witness it?

Kiubon

7/8/20

8:56am

#67

I could buy a $200 Cole Haan shoe vs a $40 Amazon knock off version. Which will make my feet feel better? Let’s say the Cole Haan’s are significantly better. Maybe not quantifiable to $160 more, but significantly better. Would that justify the $200? Or should you just suck it up a little bit and buy the $40 pair and hope it works out. If they feel just as good, then you’ve got yourself a steal. But people buy the $200 pair all the time. Because the value of the shoe to them is equal to or greater than $200. They don’t need to think twice. They just buy the shoe. How can you create more value for people so the cost doesn’t matter? Would it matter what price the Cole Haan’s were? I think not. They have created a product that creates so much value, they could up the price by $50 and people would still buy it. How can we do that in our own lives?

Kiubon

7/7/20

9:07am

#66

What makes you unique? Name all your skills, quirks, etc. Does anybody else you know have those? Probably? Why are your friends friends with you? Do you bring something different to the friendship? Or do you bring something that everybody else brings? If that’s the case then that friendship isn’t going to last long. That friendship is probably out of community rather than love. I’m not saying you have to be a clown or be storybook weird. But stop living in the norm. Dive deep into the things that really make you who you are. Don’t be afraid of what other people think. Because other people just have the same ol boring friendships. And if you bring something new – that’s just one more reason to keep you around. What makes you different?

Kiubon

7/6/20

9:59am

#65

That thing you wanna buy, do you need it? Do you truly need it? You already have so much clothes, so much gear. Do you really need it? Or do you just want the thrill of spending money? Or do you just want a new thing in your life that you think will satisfy you? You don’t need it. But how do you satisfy your wants? Be grateful for what you already have.

Kiubon