SuperSonic Freedom has moved to its permanent home, www.supersonicfreedom.net

Specifically, this post is at http://www.supersonicfreedom.net/archives/fear-is-worthless

Today’s topic is fear. It’s worthless.

You might be rolling their eyes here. You might be saying:

Come on, Sonic, are you telling me that nothing is dangerous?

No. Lots of things are dangerous.

Oh. Then what you’re saying is that we should ignore the danger, and do what we want anyway.

Of course not! Prudence is a virtue. If we never have caution, we’re liable to get killed.

But you just said that fear is worthless.

It is.

But fear is caution! When you’re in danger, you feel afraid, and that makes you more cautious.

But suppose we had caution without fear?

What?

Think of an acrobat. You know, the dudes flying through the air at the circus?

I know what an acrobat is!

Great. Now think: that guy faces a lot of danger, right? He could get himself killed if he screws up.

Yeah.

So he’s got to be cautious, right? He’s got to be very well-trained and focused, he’s gotta check all the equipment before he starts, etc.

Yeah, so?

So here’s the thing: that guy is cautious, but is he afraid?

Um…

I mean sure, he might be a little nervous. But does he freak out? Does he shake uncontrollably? Does he scream or run away?

Well, no.

Correct! He’s not really afraid. And what if he was?

Then…that would be bad…

Correct again! If he was shaking, or screaming or freaking out, he wouldn’t be such a good acrobat. He’d be more likely to fall!

Well, you’re taking it to extremes here. There’s a difference between freaking out and basic nervousness.

Yes, but is it good to be nervous?

It’s perfectly normal. Even the pros get nervous sometimes.

Sure, it’s normal, but is it good?

Hm….

Here’s my point: Fear and caution are often linked, but they are not the same thing.

You can be fearful without caution. Fear tends to shut down your higher-order thinking in favor of basic instincts, fight-or-flight, etc.. This can easily cause more trouble that it’s worth, so that even though you desire safety, you’re actually less safe.

You can also be cautious without fear. Think of that acrobat again, or any other person with a similar job. Or think of yourself, when you’re driving a car. A simple mistake could be fatal, but do you panic? Are you constantly afraid of car crashes? No. And if you were, you wouldn’t be a better driver. You’d just be more afraid.

Let me tell you about a word I invented: Rumera

What is rumera? It means that, when facing danger, you are

• Non-agitated (you’re not fearful, not worried, not angry, etc.. but calm and/or happy is fine)
• Aware (you take in as much useful info as you can)
• Proactive (you try to improve the situation, avoid danger, etc.)

(Since the word “non-agitated” is kindof cumbersome, you can substitute “calm” if you like, though that’s somewhat inexact. Also, if you’d like to see my video on rumera, click here)

With rumera, we have all the benefits that come along with fear, but we ditch the fear itself. Why? Because fear itself is worthless. Fear is only good for the side-effect of caution. But if we can be cautious without fear (and believe me, we can), we find that the emotion itself has no benefit at all.

So the next time you’re in trouble, remember that fear is worthless. Try rumera instead. Once you develop that habit, you’ll find that danger isn’t quite so dangerous after all.

Let’s just think for a minute.

Everyone knows that when you buy something, you pay a price. You’re trading money for an item. If the item is worth more to you than the money, then that’s a good deal, right? What could be simpler than that?

But here’s the thing: It’s not just about buying. When you have something, you pay a price. The passive fact of having has negative consequences.

When you have something, you have to:

• Store it. (You need bigger house/apartment/whatever, which costs more in mortgage/rent, not to mention increased heating costs etc.)
• Guard it. (To protect your stuff from thieves, fires and floods, you’ll want insurance and/or other sorts of protection. The more stuff you have, the more this all costs.)
• Live with it. (The stuff takes up space, giving you less room. Moreover, it takes up mental space. Stuff can be distracting. And let’s not forget time. If you organize your stuff, you have to spend time organizing it. If you leave it all it a pile, you have to spend time digging through that pile whenever you want to find something. And let’s hope that you never move to a new house; think of all the stuff you’ll have to bring with you!)

There are ways to mitigate this. For instance, if some of your stuff is in a storage facility somewhere, you don’t have to “live with it” quite as much. But overall, you still pay a price. Or, to put it more dramatically:

When you have stuff, stuff has you.

Well, ok, it doesn’t “have” you in the sense of, I don’t know, legal ownership or something. And it doesn’t suck out your brains like a space alien (unless that’s some really weird stuff you have lying around).  Let’s return to my metaphor about buying. You should only buy something if it’s worth the price, right? Similarly, you should only have something if it’s worth the price. Add up all the indirect costs of ownership: time, money, physical and mental energy, etc., and weigh them against the actual value of the item. And I don’t mean the what-can-I-sell-it-for value, I mean the value that it has for you, personally. Does it enrich you life enough to be worth the cost of ownership? Maybe yes, maybe no. You be the judge. (And by the way, there are many ways to enrich. Some stuff might be profitable, while other stuff is fun, and yet other stuff is healthy. Try to judge by all these various attributes)

Now, some people like to put it this way: “Don’t have more than you need.”

The trouble there is that “need” is pretty vague. I mean, a painter doesn’t need her paints and brushes, does she? She’d still survive without them. But she’d be much less happy, and no one would ever see her paintings. So the phrasing of “need” doesn’t really cut it.

Allow me to propose an alternative mantra: Never have more stuff than you know what to do with.

For instance, if you own a book, there should be a significant chance that you’re actually going to read the book. If no one’s gonna read it, you should probably get rid of it. This isn’t just about avoiding bad purchases (though I guess that’s implied), it’s about dealing with crap you already have. (Note: just because you’re getting rid of something now doesn’t mean it was a bad purchase to begin with. Maybe the best thing was to buy it, use it for awhile, and then get rid of it. It all depends on the thing.)

It can be hard to decide what things to get rid of. What if you ditch it now, but you have regrets later? It’s easier just to keep it, right?

The box method:

Get yourself a cardboard box. Put it somewhere out-of-sight, like you garage or under a table or something. Then find random things that you’re not sure whether or not to get rid of. (This can been anything. Trinkets, clothing, gizmos, whatever) Put them in the box and go about your life for awhile. If you ever miss one of the things, take it out of the box. In a month or so, take everything that’s still in the box and get rid of it. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. =)

Ways to get rid of stuff:

• Sell it
• Give it away
• Recycle it
• Throw it out

There are a lot of options here, actually. You can sell to friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc., or you can put it on Amazon, Ebay, Craigslist, etc.. For giving things away, there’s also Freecycle and (if you’re in Japan) Sharemo. You might even find a Really Really Free Market somewhere. I sold my car on Craigslist – the response was really fast (though perhaps I undersold the car). I also just sold my old camcorder on Amazon. I made $100 easily. Note that, when you sell something, you still sorta have it. It’s just a part of your bank account now, so it doesn’t take up any physical space. Nice, isn’t it?

Speaking of not taking up physical space, let’s not forget the digital world. The cost of ownership is much lower (though still not actually zero). Is there anything you have that could be made digital? Home movies that could be put on a hard drive? Papers that you could scan and then get rid of? I once saw a guy (I’ll put up the link if I find it) who had dozens of martial arts trophies that were taking up space. So he took pictures of the trophies (while doing cool poses) and saved the pictures. Then he didn’t need the trophies anymore. This works for plenty of sentimental things, though of course you’ll have to decide on a case-by-case basis. Not everything works as a photograph.

Important note: With all things digital, always have a backup!! My strategy is to have almost everything I care about on a massive hard drive (currently 1TB), which is backed up on another massive hard drive, and the whole thing is backed up remotely on mozy. (Which is a great service, btw. $5 a month for infinite storage (of backups)).

I’m in the middle of a broad effort to de-stuffify my life. I’m going to Japan at the end of March (I’ll be there for 6 months at least), and I figure that this is a great opportunity to slim down. And boy, I’ve found a lot of junk. The picture you see there is all the books in my room that I’m not going to read. I mean, I’ve read most of them, but I’m not going to read them again. I might sell them, or give them to my local library, or I might use bookcrossing. And of course, there’s other, non-book stuff I have to deal with.

But you know what? This is fun! Because I’m aware of the real cost of ownership, I realize I’m not just losing stuff, I’m also gaining more free space, and time etc.! Free spacetime. Sweet.

A lot of people get attached to their stuff, even the stuff they don’t use and don’t need. This is particularly true of modern consumerist America. But when we judge things properly, we often find that we really oughta have less stuff.

Cotton swabs, also called q-tips, have a variety of uses.  The most common use is sticking them into your ears to clean out the earwax. A lot of people do this, every day, without thinking about it.

Well, guess what? It’s a bad idea.

First of all, earwax has a purpose. It helps to clean and lubricate the ear, and it wards off harmful bacterial.

Secondly, the body has it’s own perfectly good mechanisms for getting rid of excess earwax. It usually doesn’t need your help.

Third, even if you did have excess earwax, cotton swabs don’t help! Even as you extract some earwax, you’re pushing other earwax further down into your ear. This is bad for you.

The medical consensus is that you shouldn’t remove earwax without doctor’s orders, and if do remove it, you shouldn’t use cotton swabs.

And yes, I’ve tried this myself. I haven’t used cotton swabs in a long time, and my ears are perfectly functional.

So, there you have it. Potentially, I’ve just saved you an extra minute each day. Enjoy it. =)

No, not what I’m thinking. I mean what you’re thinking, i.e. you should ask yourself this question.

You might surmise that this is a post about self-doubt. Maybe you’re off the beaten trail, or planning to be, and you have some kind of panic attack. Maybe it’s all the pressure of the people who keep telling you to be more normal. Maybe you’ve encountered some problems and the “real world” isn’t living up to your ideals. In any case, you’ve suddenly started doubting this path you’ve chosen, and one way to express this doubt is with the phrase “What am I thinking?!”

Well, guess what? That’s not what this post is about.

I’m sure I’ll do a post about self-doubt at some point in the future. But this post is about asking a simple question, and asking it quite literally:

“What am I thinking?”

At first blush, this seems like a really dumb question. I mean, how can you not already know what you’re thinking? Aren’t you, ya know…thinking about it? So the question seems pointless. If I’m thinking about X, clearly I must have an awareness of the fact that I’m thinking about X, right?

Not exactly.

Your thoughts are shaped by habits. For instance, I have the habit of thinking about a zillion random things regardless of their actual value.

You have goals, right? (If you don’t, do some soul-searching and find yourself some goals). These goals, I take it, require action. And you know what action requires? Thought.

This is what we do. We think “Gee, wouldn’t it be great to do X?” and then we stop thinking about X. We get distracted with a million little thoughts that don’t matter. Like, I’ll be thinking about Eudo (that’s the book that I’m writing), when suddenly I’m quoting some random episode of Futurama. And hey, Futurama is a funny show, but it’s much less important than my book.

Seriously, people. This should be obvious. What should I be thinking about: stuff that I really love or stuff that I just sorta enjoy? And sometimes thoughts are really pointless, like when you stew all day about some random problem that you can’t (or won’t) do anything about.

You’ve got to stop and ask yourself: What am I thinking? And does it really matter? Is there something else that I would rather think about?

Random Stuff Online

I used to be a big fan of Digg. It’s a website with lots of random stuff; you never know what you’ll find. But eventually I realized that all that random stuff didn’t really matter, because it had nothing to do with my goals. I wasted like a hour a day on stuff that was only mildly interesting, when I could’ve spent that same time on stuff I really love! I didn’t visit the site because I really wanted to; I visited because it was a convenient distraction. So last month, I quit Digg. (Ok, I’ve been there once since then, but only for like 20 minutes). And you know what? It’s been great! I have all this extra time now.

(And if you don’t visit Digg, maybe you waste time on Facebook, or Reddit, or watching TV you don’t really care about. There are all sorts of ways to waste time, usually without realizing it.)

Visiting Digg is an external action; it doesn’t just happen inside your brain. But it’s a great example of how we can easily spend time on mildly interesting things, completely ignoring our better options.

Last month, I decided to write more often. I tried to write for 2 hours a day. During those 2 hours, I was not allowed to visit any websites, watch any tv, read any books, etc.. All I could do was write.

This improved my work, but not by much.

Why? The distractions were all gone, right?

Wrong.

It’s what inside that counts

I was still distracted by my thoughts. I spent huge chunks of those 2 hours thinking about other stuff.

So a few days ago, I started a habit. Every so often I ask myself: What am I thinking? If it’s a pointless thought, I get rid of it, and I think about something more meaningful. It’s helped alot! I’ve posted 3 stories in the last 3 days.

A couple of notes:

1. You have to be the judge of your own thoughts. I don’t know your goals and I don’t know what’s useful to you. Thoughts that are pointless for one person may be vital for another. All I’m saying is that you should make the effort to think about thinking.
2. Don’t get mad at yourself! The question “What am I thinking” does not mean that you should be some sort of Drill Sergent for your thoughts. Rather, you should guide your thoughts with care. Be a mentor to your own subconscious.
3. Thought without action is meaningless. (So is action without thought). The purpose of thinking useful thoughts is to set yourself up for useful action (either now or in the future). It’s not about daydreaming about how X would be really awesome, it’s about seriously figuring out how X will be accomplished. (This includes research etc.)
4. Not every thought will be directly goal-focused, because you need indirect things as well. Like, “What will I eat for breakfast?” is still useful, provided you don’t obsess over it. Figure out breakfast and then get back to your goals. (Or do both at the same time, even)

Thoughts aren’t something that just happen, thoughts are something that you do.

But if you never think about your own thoughts, if you never make conscious choices, then you’ll end up drifting along with whatever random crap catches your attention.

If you just drift along, you will never be free. So make a habit. Several times a day, take a moment to ask yourself:

What am I thinking?

There’s soap for your hands, and soap for your body. There’s detergent for your clothes, and shampoo for your hair, and toothpaste for your teeth. Those latter examples may not sound like “soap” to you, but it’s all based on the same principles.

How much does this all matter? How much is necessary, and specifically how necessary is it to have all these different varieties? Take shampoo, for instance. Practically any shampoo will clean your hair; the expensive brands aren’t much better, and the special ingredients don’t necessarily help.

There’s a lot to consider, actually. There are a lot of chemicals in these soaps. And while I’ve seen no evidence that there’s anything unhealthy about that, it does make me vaguely uncomfortable. Then there’s the environment, first in the effects of shipping and bottling and then in the effects of the actual soap going down the drain. There’s some discussion about that.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: What the heck am I supposed to do about it? This is just another one of those complicated health-environment-sustainability-waste questions that never seems to get solved.

Well guess what? I have a solution for you.

It’s called…

Dr. Bronner’s Soap

(Also called “Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap” and “Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap”, etc.)

Dr. Bronner’s has almost every advantage you can think of.

• It’s Certified Organic, which cuts down on weird chemicals
• It’s Fair Trade, which means that there’s no sweatshop labor or whatnot
• It’s concentrated, which means you get a lot of cleaning with only a little bit of soap
• It’s cheap! $15 bucks for 32 ounces. That’s like a six-month supply at least (see the preceding bullet point)
• It works on everything, from your hair to your hands to your body to your teeth, to your clothes to almost anything else you can think of.
• It’s legit. You can buy it on amazon. So you know I’m not making this up.

A couple of notes:

First, this is typically a liquid soap. (You can buy it in bar form if you like)

Second, brushing your teeth with it doesn’t taste half as good as regular toothpaste. In fact, the weird taste even lingers a bit. But it’s ok, you get used to it. (Also, do not swallow the soap.)

Third, it doesn’t really work in soap dispensers. But that’s fine, just tip the bottle into your hand.

Fourth, you may notice some really weird text on the label. It’s…vaguely similar to TimeCube. Here’s the deal on that: the original Dr. Bronner was kindof a kook. He put lots of tiny text on his soap labels to teach his philosophy. (Which isn’t all that bad…I think it’s about compassion. But it’s strange and ranting.) Despite his kookiness, the man was really good at making soap. His family is carrying on the business, and they decided to keep the kooky labels out of respect for the founder.

Now, how can I be sure that Dr. Bronner’s is so great?

Because I’ve tried it.

For the last 2 months, I have used Dr. Bronners almost exclusively. I’ve used it as hand soap, body wash, shampoo and toothpaste.(Update: After forgong regular toothpaste for 2 months and using only Dr. Bronner’s, I went to the dentist for my regular check-up. They say that my teeth are fine. So apparently Bronner’s really does work as toothpaste. Yay.) I haven’t used it to wash clothes, because I don’t run the washing machine around here. But Karol Gajda of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com tells me that it works.

What does this have to do with freedom? It’ simple. I don’t have to purchase all these various soap products. I don’t have to lug them around whenever I go somewhere, and I don’t have to worry about environmental impact. For a full month of activity, all I need is a tiny 3 oz bottle of Bronner. (Karol Gajda confirms that too, in his post on traveling light)

As I said, it’s really cheap, so it’s easy to test this stuff for yourself. Check out the Bronner website to see all the various uses.

Thanks for reading. =)

Hey everybody. I’m Sonicsuns (aka Jimmy), and this is my very first post on my brand-new blog. (My main website is at sonicsuns.net)

At the moment, I’m still putting everything together, figuring on themes and widgets and where to host this thing, etc.

But here’s a brief intro:

I love freedom.

I really do.

I also love creativity.

’cause it’s awesome, that’s why.

I could list a dozen more concepts here, but I think “freedom and creativity” is good enough for now. I’m on a quest to have the freest, most creative life possible. And as part of that, I want to help people in a lot of different ways. One thing in particular: I want to help others be more free (and more creative. Noticing a pattern here?).

So here’s the deal: I’ll try living without burdens and following my dreams. I’ll tell you what works and what doesn’t work, and you can learn from my mistakes. I’ll also connect with other bloggers and see what they have to say, and I’ll distill the wisdom of the masses to help you on your way.

Many posts will center on a simple thought, tip or lesson that you can use to become more free.

Ready?

My first thought is this:

Why do we bother with pajamas?

No, serriously. What’s the point? All my life I had the habit of changing into a different set of clothes for sleeping. These last few months, however, I basically skipped the idea entirely. When I’m sleepy, I go to sleep, with whatever I happen to be wearing. The only reason I change clothes is if they’re wet or something. And you know what? It’s worked out fine. I’m perfectly comfortable (I wear jeans, normal clothes, whatever). That’s one less thing I have to do each day. (Or actually, two, because I also get to skip changing out of pj’s in the morning, assuming my clothes are still fresh enough to wear). And that’s a couple fewer articles of clothing I need to own and store and worry about.

This may seem like a really small point, but I believe that a lot of small changes can add up to something big. If nothing else, you’ve just had a lesson in unconventional thinking. I mean, really, you’ve probably gone for years putting on pajamas every night without ever asking why.

So, that’s post number one. It’s gonna be an interesting journey.