Nathan Brooks Thompson -
  • About
  • Life Advice
  • Mixtapes
  • Everything Else
  • My Favorite Books
Nathan Brooks Thompson -
About
Life Advice
Mixtapes
Everything Else
My Favorite Books
  • About
  • Life Advice
  • Mixtapes
  • Everything Else
  • My Favorite Books
Life Advice

Build Roads

“Sometimes, you need to step outside, get some air, and remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be.”

Too often we forget there’s a big world out there, instead, drowning in our own details.

We hoard and protect. We build walls, constructing our own cages. We stage our lives so well our chosen reality becomes boring and oppressive.

But what if we forget about the walls and pave roads instead?
We could pave roads to people we have never met, places we have never been.

Roads could give us something to look forward to. Events to attend, goals to achieve, pursuits.

September 18, 2015by Nathan
Life Advice

Life Is Hard and Other Non Trivial Truisms

If life is what we make it, I’m going to need more duct tape. – Nathan

I love a well-written “25 Things I’ve Learned in 25 Years” post.

In them, some brave soul attempts to distill a lifetime of experience into a curated list of lessons.

It’s a daunting task if you consider the experiences themselves count for only a fraction of what people take from life. There’s the entirety of their inner thoughts and emotions to consider. All the connections and meaning a person attributes to their interactions. Even if they find a way to synthesize and communicate these thoughts in a succinct way, it’s usually not enough to make a person stop and think, and even more rare for them to believe and take action.

Because single thoughts rarely impress us past grade school. What started as deep insights turned into tired clichés. And clichés make us believe we still know things we’ve forgotten. We hear a cliché, something we used to know, and brush it off because it doesn’t seem new or valuable anymore.

But true insights cut away the meaninglessness that’s grown on top of an important idea, revealing the value underneath. And sometimes this understanding, or reminder, can change everything.

The trick is knowing which insights are still sharp enough to get the job done. One woman’s trash is another man’s gold and what not. So sift through these little nuggets I’ve collected. Maybe you’ll be reminded of something you used to know.

I take no authorship of these thoughts. Like anything worth a damn, I paraphrased, misquoted and outright stole them in my quest for rhyme and reason.

For best results, pause to add thinking to each before continuing on.

1. There are two reasons why people don’t talk about things; either it doesn’t mean anything to them, or it means everything.

2. The biggest obstacle to the next great thing is the last great thing.

3. You either get better or you get worse; you never stay the same.

4. Day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different.

5. We don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are.

6. If you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.

7. So often travel elongates the conversation, not broadens it.

8. The people who are the hardest to love are the ones who need it the most.

9. Even disasters that strike those we are closest to only reach us filtered through our own colossal egotism.

10. Words are only symbols for the things they represent, often making the unreal seem real.

11. It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

12. And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

13. We find our strength deep in the valley of our fears.

14. Discipline is remembering what you want.

15. You are not your thoughts.

September 15, 2015by Nathan
Life Advice

For Better or Worse

We’re never the same as we were.

The person you are today is not the person you were yesterday. And the person you’ll be tomorrow will not be the person you are today.

With every action (or inaction), we’re either getting better or worse.

In business, companies either grow or they die. There is no business as usual. New technologies disrupt markets. Changes in marketing channels introduce new competitors. Customer demands change as people change. Businesses don’t get to be the same year after year. Businesses either adapt or they die.

In health, how you exercise and what you eat either makes you stronger or it makes you weaker. As you age, your body loses its ability to fight off your bad habits. Metabolisms slow. Injuries persevere. Hangovers really hang over. You either treat your body well or pay the consequences.

Even relationships are subject to this truth. To grow healthy relationships requires continuous effort and investment. Distractions, our own selfishness and “priorities” will all erode a relationship if left unsupervised. You either invest in the relationship or invest in its end.

The message isn’t to go fight for the same. It’s to fight for better. Be deliberate in your thinking. Be deliberate in your actions. Choose what to improve and what to let die.

Because, for better or worse, you don’t get to stay the same.

September 14, 2015by Nathan
Life Advice

Stream of Consciousness

I said I wanted to be a writer. They told me I should be ready to bleed.

I’m battling a bout of writer’s block.

To get something to paper, I thought it would be interesting to capture a stream of consciousness. And to be honest, the resulting word vomit turned out a little weird, a bit dark and somewhat incoherent. But as an act of vulnerability, I decided to let it fly.

Maybe it will convince you to share your own thoughts in a more vulnerable way.

Continue reading
February 8, 2015by Nathan
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Better yet, if you find yourself in the wrong stor Better yet, if you find yourself in the wrong story, leave.
“People tell you who they are, but we ignore it “People tell you who they are, but we ignore it because we want them to be who we want them to be.” - Don Draper
"There are risks and costs to a program of action, "There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction." - John F. Kennedy
When you struggle to stay motivated, remember, the When you struggle to stay motivated, remember, the debt you owe is not to yourself. Our potential is the product of all the people who have influenced, guided, and believed in us. Prove them right.
"Sometimes magic is just someone spending more tim "Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect." - Teller
"It is always in my mind, still, that I can crush "It is always in my mind, still, that I can crush anybody. If you don't believe you can win tournaments anymore, then you can't do it." - Roger Federer (Ranked #3 Tennis Player in the World 22 Years After Turning Pro)
Success is not final in the same way that failure Success is not final in the same way that failure is not final. It is the courage to move on from past successes that keeps yesterday's winners from becoming today's losers.
"He who is not courageous enough to take risks wil "He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life." - Muhammad Ali

“We do not write in order to be understood; we write in order to understand." - C.S. Lewis

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