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       Stardate: 20190820.2111
       Location: Home Office
       Input Device: Gemini PDA
       Audio: Air Conditioner
       Visual: Not so messy desk.
       Energy: 40%
       Mental: 35%
       Emotional: Tired, full.  
       
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       Moar self-reliance writing from... 
       31 Journaling Prompts for Building Greater Self-Reliance[1]
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       Self-Reliance: Day 7
       
       Day 7
       Ultimately, we come to self-reliance by forgetting ourselves. 
       It's the kind of self-trust many new parents feel because 
       they finally have this thing outside themselves that matters 
       much more than themselves. We can access it by caring about 
       anything properly (a project, a movement, an idea, a person, 
       etc.).          
       
       Milton Mayeroff describes this dynamic in On Caring:
       
       "Direction that comes from the growth of the other should not 
       be confused with being 'other directed,' where this refers to 
       the kind of conformity in which I lose touch with both myself 
       and the other. Rather, by following the growth of the other, 
       I am more responsive to myself, just as the musician is more 
       in touch with himself when he is absorbed in the needs of the 
       music." 
       
       Ironically, no matter how physically self-reliant we become, 
       if we never truly care for something
       outside of ourselves we'll never become self-reliant.  
       
       What do you care most about? As in, what do you give yourself 
       to most freely? How could you care for it a little more 
       perfectly? How does caring for this thing outside yourself 
       actually help you trust yourself more?
       
       My response:
       
       This one is an easy one.  I give of myself most freely to my 
       family...not so much my extended family, rather my immediate 
       family, my wife and kids.  I make myself available to them 
       and usually don't work on my own things if they are at home 
       or awake if it does not involve them.  Most of my projects 
       happen when they are asleep or unavailable.
       
       Unfortunately, sometimes I give to the point of being 
       unhealthy...putting their needs ahead of mine and sometimes 
       even using them as an excuse or hiding behind them.  I have 
       been guilty of using them as an excuse rather than commit to 
       someone else's request for help, which is not so good.  I 
       need to keep myself in check more when it comes to those 
       kinds of things.
       
       Caring for my family helps me trust myself more because it 
       puts me in a position for growth and gives me opportunities I 
       would have never had if  I did not have them.  Being 
       responsible in that capacity has not been easy for me, but it 
       has helped me grow up.  I think   lot of me growing up was a 
       direct result of me having to be responsible for people 
       besides myself  Left to my own devices, I probably would not
       have gotten this far.
       
       That's 20.
       
       
 (HTM) [1]31 Journaling Prompts for Building Greater Self-Reliance
       
       
       
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