There are a lot of amazing humans in the world. People who inspire you, People you want to learn from. People who live under their own philosophy. One that is more important than any other, a philosophy created through researching, learning and more importantly living it. In the last couple of years I have read a couple of dozen books, full of different ideas on how to navigate life. Pages full of stories that helped me to understand difficult moments in my life. Words that slowly are reminding me to take all that amazing information that life is creating and create my own philosophy.
It might sound selfish, egocentric and a little bit pretentious to think that you are better than all the information that is in books. That is not where this is going. I am trying to remind you that the only Pedro that exists is this one, well my two brothers and my dad are also Pedros. C’mon, I guess you are getting my point. We are unique beings with unique perspectives. So it might be practical to have unique ways of living. And for that we have to be very brave and humble to understand that we do not know it all and that we are defective as much as we are perfect. I used the word perfect there so you do not feel offended and also because it brings the paradoxical reality that we need to create in order to find our path. Most concepts and ideas started like personal endeavours, well summarized in concepts that later were presented in books. I do not tell you you need to write a book but it could be a good idea to take into account the actual concepts that rule your life.
This Pedro, who is writing for you, couldn’t write like this 5 years ago, let alone in his second language. However, I dedicated a few years of my life to learning the language, clearly I am still learning it. In addition, in the last 9 months I have been writing for about 30 minutes, at least 3 times a week. Today, I am capable of organising some ideas and putting them on paper in a way that some people can understand. I needed to believe that it was possible, I needed to start putting myself out there. I needed to accept that I am enough to write. I create my own philosophy and ideas of what a writer is. I believe in it and it allows me to be here writing. I use this skill as my main example because a lot of people will read my words and they will say, you can not call yourself a writer. And that’s ok and in their eyes I am not one. Yet in my eyes these pages are just the beginning of a beautiful love story between me and the paper. Well me and Google documents.
There are many self help books full of ideas and ways of living. Many of those ideas are super practical and they can be applied in everyone’s life. Indeed, I roll my clothes like Marie Kondo explains in her book Tidying up, I meditate everyday using Waking up Method from Sam Harris, I also sometimes practice Ho’oponopono like the Hawaian Dr. Ihaleakala Hew len preaches. I am a mix of practices that I acquired over the years. And I have a lot of other things that I practice daily. All of them became mine in the moment that I made them part of my life. First, I read about them, then I learnt them, they go through a trial period and after that I made them part of my routine and know they are part of my way of living. They all have a purpose and they have their own space and time in my life. It happened only a couple of months ago when I decided to stop consuming books for the sake of saying I read this many books, but reading them with respect and practice, thus I was able to assimilate their content. As a result, I could really apply their teachings in my life.
Once those Ideas become yours, it is important to always organise your concepts and make them applicable so you can practice them daily. Practice is what makes any concept real. That way your understanding of them becomes part of the story that you are trying to tell. Maybe, you can even share them with others like those people that wrote the books you love.
This is not a new reality for me, no wonder the book atomic habits is so important to me. I have always thought that having a philosophy guiding your life is a way to consistently grow towards what you want. However, most of the time I kept adding and shifting philosophies, so I never got to develop any of them. You need to go beyond just practicing those concepts. It is important to stick to them to the point of mastering. Of course not everything, but what you really want to be guiding your life. I added so many concepts, not stopping book after book. Basically ignoring the importance of practicing what I do. I believe I did the same repeatedly in life, even in my way of teaching. Evolving and always pushing forward, which is great but it is also foolish because you lose the opportunity to really learn things. As a salsa dancer my routines were always pushing beyond my capabilities, so I never performed as who I really was at the moment, like what I am was never good enough. It is important to create a balance between exploring and mastering, because mastering is what tells you what you are made of. I still believe it is important to keep pushing and learning but it is also important to show who you actually are.
So today, 10th of september of 2020. I am 35 years old, almost 36. I have the opportunity to create practice towards what I want. I am looking forward to structure these concepts that I call my philosophy. I might be able to teach them to people. I would love to keep adding to my days all the things that really matter for me. Trying to see how I can do those things better and better. It is very exciting to be feeling this. The space where you are capable of creating beyond dancing or maths. Creating about life, about the things that I mastered over the years. Trusting all the knowledge that I accumulated over the years. All those things that you really practice.
Pedro Gonzalez
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