Caspian with a riff on:

This week started bad. Loads of worrying, no proper sleep for a couple of days, and some kind of bug physically. In short, I’ve been far below 100%. Thursday, I got home from work. Tired. I went for a walk instead of a run. I decided that my body might do good with a short break from running, but I still need the movement. Got back to shower, and still tired. Grumpy. Moody. Feeling sorry for mysel...

Last Friday, I left work at 4 pm. I went to the grocery store to pick up a bunch of cookies, chips, some fruit and light beers. The cashier looked at me like she was wishing me a happy party. I got home, changed into my running clothes and went out for a 2 mile run. Then I proceeded to run a little more than 1 mile every hour on the hour up until 4 pm on the Saturday. (doubled the last run because...

I’m in a period of my life right now where I’m extremely disciplined. I’ve been here before and quite enjoy it. It’s very intentional, and is done in order for me to track myself against a couple of long term goals that I have. I have a flair for structure and discipline. I think it’s fun to explore, I like being disciplined and enjoy the results hugely. Hence, I’ve had questions asked about it qu...

When I was 14, I was convinced I needed 10 hours of sleep. I spoke to my mom about it, and told her that I constantly felt tired despite sleeping so much. To be fair, I was doing 6-10 sessions of football and running per week. But ten hours every night seems a bit high looking back. My mom told me that there’s such a thing as sleeping too much. I was confused, astounded and in disbelief. She then...

I remember vividly sitting in a workshop where we were speaking about our values. We’d been given a list of 60-something words to choose from, and were tasked with choosing 3-5 that felt important. After that, we were split into groups. Each person was given 20 minutes to share a story related to their word with the prompt “A time when [value word] was important to me…”. I was 20 at the time, in a...

Grit has proven one of the most important skills and traits in predicting success. That is, if you want to see who’s going to become successful, look for grit. Grit is what keeps you going when inspiration, motivation and sometimes even reason goes out the window. I’ve practiced grit over the past 6-7 years. More or less intentionally, I’ve tried to find ways to keep myself going when I don’t feel...

We all solve problems all the time. It’s natural to humans to do so. Almost everything you see around you is a solution to a perceived problem. But the skill of solving problems is hard to a lot of people. Having the right resources or tools doesn’t mean you’re able to solve a problem. You need to have a strategy on how to use those tools. I haven’t spent nearly enough time on developing models or...

I think letting someone else take care of your education, of your learning and be responsible for your development is boring. It's quite naive, and frankly foolish. It's something that you need to be in charge of. Hence, I’ve tried to take charge of these things in my life. It’s not always easy, and it’s most certainly not always comfortable. But I think it’s necessary if you want it to ha...

I’ve been a part of all kinds of networks over the past 6-7 years. Business related, large friend groups, creative hubs and online Facebook groups. All of them have had impact on shaping me into who I am and have created opportunities for me that I otherwise wouldn’t have had. They’ve also made me realise that there’s immense power in being part of a community, for a number of reasons. For growth,...

We don’t live in an information society anymore. Simply because information is virtually free and infinitely accessible. What I think matters today is 3 things: Can you find the right information and make sure it is indeed the right information? Can you convert the information to contextual knowledge? Can you convert that contextual knowledge to an action or skill? Simply put: How do you solve com...

Time and time again. This riff is a bit more practical on time than the last one I did. A bit more in depth on two theories that I heard just a couple of days ago and since have pondered happily. How we speak about time is extremely powerful. Just as I spoke about the last time around, the way you perceive time can impact your actions, behaviours and even mood. At leas it does for me. Hence, I thi...

I’ve reflected quite a lot on my own competitiveness lately. I have a reputation among my friends of being obnoxiously competitive. It’s served me well at times, just as it’s been a hindering factor to many of my relationships. Hence, I want to work on making it a choice to be competitive. It's a superpower that should be used with care. Show notes →

I’ve tried to optimise time on being productive, on fitting the most things to do in the least amount of time and on feeling the best in the moment. Right now, I’m optimising it to benefit me over time. In trying to bend time to my current will, I’ve spent some time thinking about time. The mental models people have come up with, the metaphysics of time and most importantly, how do we perceive tim...

I had a realisation last week. One of those proper ones where it seems like it came from nowhere, whilst out walking. The realisation was this: Control over emotions is a dial. In the past, I’ve seen control over emotions as something that I’m pretty good at. I can tone almost any emotion down at almost any time. I’ve got extreme patience, something I’m very happy about. The thing is, if control o...

I’ve been a fanatic in a bunch of different ways. Keeping sleep schedules religiously, keeping streaks and on mantras. And I still am, in many areas. More confidently and hopefully a bit more thoughtfully. Being a fanatic is often thought of as being religious or political, but that’s quite limiting for a behaviour that’s present in many more areas of life. Being a fanatic is, according to Amos Oz...

This episode is personal on some level. All the advice and ideas are things that I’ve experimented my way to. Hence, they might not be applicable to your life. Have that in mind. I’ve struggled with the concept of finding balance. Mostly because there’s been an emphasis on relaxation and that you have to DO relaxation in order to be balanced. I think balance can be found in many different shapes a...

This week, I speak to the topic of Trust that I've pondered quite a lot lately. Show notes are found here →

The last riff on change, for now. We’ve expanded the circle to cover more than your inner circle, extending it all the way to the world. Something I don’t touch on in the episode is why you’d want to change the world. I touch on it in the show notes, but it might have to be a future riff. I’ve had a couple of people reaching out over the past two episodes, discussing the ideas. If you’re taking th...

In this episode, I discuss the concept of changing other people. I share the advice my mother gave me, stating that we cannot change others, but we can change the way we interact with them. Emphasising again that we can only change the intersection of our relationship with someone else. I introduce the concept of "me plus you equals we" and explain that we can only control what's in...

I’ve been pondering change for quite some time I think most of us have at one point or other. As we should. I think Change is one of the most important things to ponder. It has been for me. In this episode, I speak to how I think one changes themselves. Or rather, how I at this point in time think I change myself. Because that’s what these riffs are, photographs of some thoughts I have at the mome...

I'm starting this project up again! This time, there'll be show notes. You can find them here → I’ve been pondering change for almost three months, that’s when i started thinking about getting this project going again. It started with a question from someone who’s been listening to the podcast, and for that I’m really grateful.

I’ve been doing some reflective thinking on the importance and difference in celebration lately. I recently graduated from my university studies and due to the pandemic, our graduation ceremony wasn’t what it usually is. I was reluctant to go to the live one, and even more so to the zoom version, so I didn’t. The class that I graduated with decided to throw an unofficial graduation ceremony and pa...

I decided to make good decisions, It's the best decision I ever made.  A couple of texts that might be interesting to read on the subject:  https://medium.com/@caspianalmerud/beslutsl%C3%A5dan-aa2f3d5666b9 https://medium.com/@caspianalmerud/4-things-that-will-make-you-a-better-decision-maker-e5a38b55d81 https://medium.com/@caspianalmerud/five-pointers-for-decisionmaking-c38fac362dba http...

There a number of ways of talking about pace, and a number of areas to apply it in. I think it's important for all of us to start thinking about the pace we're keeping, and at what pace we'd like to go. 

Plans seldom go according to the actual plan. That can't be the reason we plan - for plans to go accordingly. There must be another reason.  My aim with planning is to be comfortable enough to know that things are going to happen, for me to be able to get rid of the plan entirely. If I plan my week, I know exactly what needs to be done, and when it's due. I can then do my tasks in whatever or...