#Discipline and Focus

[wromchannel]

From Shadows to Spotlight: The Power of Servanthood

Have you ever felt like you’re stuck in the background, serving faithfully without recognition? You’re not alone. Many have walked this path, only to be catapulted into their greatest assignments. Servanthood is never a demotion – it’s a preparation.” This truth is beautifully exemplified in the story of Joshua. Joshua: From Aide to LeaderJoshua was introduced as Moses’ loyal aide, but little…

[angerieque]

You don’t have to force a whole new personality, but reintroduce patterns and ways of existence.

[vintage-tigre]

[anghraine]

I know it's well-understood at this point that Kirk/Spock is much more of a nerd4nerd ship than a nerd/jock thing, but it's just been kind of percolating around my mind that both of them aren't just space nerds but space nerds who were personally bullied.

Like, 18-year-old Kirk was targeted by an older bully who combines "total asshole" with "the most grating man in existence":

MCCOY: Well, yeah, I'm beginning to feel a little bit picked-on, if that's what you mean. KIRK: I know the feeling very well. I had it at the Academy. An upperclassman there. One practical joke after another, and always on me. My own personal devil. A guy by the name of Finnegan. MCCOY: And you being the very serious young— KIRK: Serious? I'll make a confession, Bones. I was absolutely grim, which delighted Finnegan no end.

This was five years after Kirk survived a genocide, btw, and likely well before his stint as an Academy instructor known to be strict and demanding (which is the period the "stack of books with legs" description of him comes from). By the time he's 33, fifteen years after all this, it turns out one of his deepest fantasies is just beating the shit out of his bully, but only if he can do it According To The Rules (the replica of Finnegan sneers, "Always fight fair, don't you? True officer and gentleman, you").

Spock, meanwhile, is viciously targeted by his Vulcan peers for being biracial from at least age 5; he's described as being tormented by other boys by that age, and "at home nowhere except Starfleet." I think he'd have been 18 or 19 when he left for Starfleet and it's... the least bad of his options, but he seems to have spent his entire career among humans and being persistently subjected to raw racism and profound disrespect for his culture at every turn.

Like, their histories of being metaphorically shoved into lockers are not identical or anything, but I think it's interesting that they both have them.

[animatormentata]

Momento autostima 👍🏻

[surelysilly]

just take me to the beach 'cos my heart is cold enough 🧊🔥

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 (here)

[ursiday]

may i ask how you've gotten to the level of skill you're at with your art when you're studying another field? like obviously you studied lots but how did you go about finding out what and how to study to hone your anatomy, painting, animation etc. skills?

If you crack this please let me know because I'm struggling lol. Honestly when it comes to studying art I'm not the person to ask, my technical skill is quite far behind where I would like it to be, I've never really studied art in a dedicated way and moreso backed into learning things just by doing stuff I feel like working on. Most of my drawings fall pretty squarely in my comfort zone and I don't do a lot of time-consuming projects, like it's probably obvious I haven't done much animating since starting grad school lol

The reality though is that I choose to spend time on art at the expense of a lot of other things (including my school/research/teaching work... I am not a disciplined student). I can't say I recommend that approach necessarily buuut I think the best advice I can give is to think about what's important to you and what you personally want to get out of making art, if you want to enjoy it as a hobby then I think you should do whatever whenever you want that feels fun. That's what I've been doing, but it's starting to wear on me a lot because I do want to build a stronger body of work and work on more ambitious projects. If you do have a specific goal in mind then whatever that is will direct the kind of things you'll want to work on and practice. But be kind to yourself because that's a difficult thing to do even without having to split your time and energy

[a-path-by-the-moon]

[thepersonalwords]

Entrepreneur, become so disciplined that even your distractions become focused.

Onyi Anyado

[rainyfestivalsweets]

5/2/25

Haven't been posting much. Haven't had time. And definitely haven't had time for people's opinions, so there is that.

So the sad news is that my weight loss has been pretty stagnant since my last anniversary 😢 I will have to check the numbers but yeah, it has been a year again.

Don't get me wrong- maintaining is a HUGE Win. But I am still in the 190's most days and I am only 5'5".

So I have not been keeping a deficit over time.

Now I know. I am checking that box with no shame and moving on. Here is to the year I turn 45 and hit my elusive goal weight!

It has been a mixed bag and there have been ups and downs. Many of them. But, I keep pulling up those bootstraps and moving on.

There have been many wins!

Unboxed and started using my walking pad

Learning to eat to satiety not overstuft

Continually tweaking of problem areas

Started Jiu Jitsu

Started biking outdoors again

Started running! Mufaka whut?!

Stayed employeed

Mom is still kicking

House is still standing

Started watching tiktok

Started Pokemon again! Great for extra walking but sucky for other activities because nothing else counts for much.

Not wins-

Used to workout more. A lot more.

Tired often, even tho I keep trying for earlier bedtime

Still struggle with night eating

Still struggle with afternoon snacking

Stopped my conqueror challenges, which was really supporting lots of biking & elliptical miles

Here was my latest meal:

Afterwards I did a Listerine strip. Which I knew about 20+ years ago. Why have I not been using them?

All right you hawt bitch. Let's go!

Time to level up!

You have done a great job making aire your lifestyle is sustainable over time. Let's GOOOO!

[throughdoegaze]

Doing the task for 20 minutes is better than thinking about it for 20 hours

Overthinking, over-planning, over-preparing won’t get the work done, it never did. Action does. Over time, even the “insignificant” one

Sitting down and starting—no matter how small or messy—is always better than letting fear and doubt hold you hostage

20 minutes of effort is breakthrough. It’s momentum. 20 hours of thinking is just a spiral, keeping you stuck in the same place

So stop waiting for motivation. Put the timer on. Start the task. Even if it’s imperfect, even if it’s just a little—you’re moving forward, and that’s progress.

[silent--symphony]

Your Focus and Energy are your currencies.

[vintage-tigre]

[lightningidle]

Fig's line "I don't think I'm an artist, I think I'm just a good friend" has not left my head at all. Just...

You're Fig Faeth and your horns came in over the summer and you pick up the bard class as a form of adolescent rock 'n' roll rebellion, and it works! It's exactly the outlet you need! You give a guy you just met drumsticks and you start a band and it's good enough that within a year and a half you're touring. You are, in every sense, good at being a bard.

And then, finally, your junior year, you start to take it seriously. Your art goes from an outlet and a form of rebellion to a practice. A discipline. (Can rebellion exist within a discipline?) Your classmates know what they want to do with their work. They all have a thesis statement. And yeah, there's cohesion in the music you make, but you've never had to think about why you make it. You've never sat down and dissected what it is about bass that speaks to you. You've never poured over your lyrics to pick at any deeper meaning. Why should you? You don't play music for a grand design, you do it to... huh, why do you do it?

(Your art is the one form of self-expression that feels as safe as Disguise Self does, because even if you're pouring your heart onto the page and then screaming it in front of thousands of people, it's not like you're really making yourself known. You can sing I'm lonely, I'm scared, I'm furious, and your fans will sing it right back, and there will still be the distance between performer and audience to keep your heart safe.)

Now you're being asked to look inward to explain the artistic choices you're making, and you can't help but recoil at that, because you'd rather do anything than look inward. Meanwhile, your classmates have no problem with it, so you start to wonder if you're a real artist at all. Can your art be authentic if it only exists to bolster a thesis statement? Has your art been unauthentic this whole time because you've never really thought about a thesis statement before? Is that what makes it art, and not just the next track on somebody's teen angst playlist?

You can't think about yourself— acknowledging your own existence makes you want to puke. So if your music is an extension of yourself, (and it is, even if it's just because the spotlight reveals only what you want it to,) you can't think about your music. You can't. You have to. Your grade depends on it.

You're Fig Faeth, and you keep multiclassing because you'd rather be a good friend than a great artist. If introspection is what great art demands, then fuck it. You must not be a bard at all.

[in-tenebris-et-in-solitudine]

Stay Safe Online

[croc-odette]

the lumon thinking too of like... 'you need to behave according to these rigid extremes and destroy/berate/obliterate the parts of yourself are unseemly. in exchange you will JOIN KIER' is giving christianity it's giving catholicism it's giving puritanism. it's probably definitely giving scientology but i'm afraid to learn about it to check. you should be ashamed of being a human being with desires and personality traits and you will let your life on earth be micromanaged to the atom by people who say they can grant you power and immortality. well!