October 22, 2023: Don't link opinion to identity and use your head instead of your hard disk to save your data
October 22, 2023. My mother opened the living room door at five in the morning before she went to the early shift.
“Sascha, can you turn on your phone? Laura isn't feeling well, she might call you.”
I, still half asleep, responded slightly irritated, “Then she can call an ambulance if she's not feeling well. Or Dascha and Tobi, they at least have a car. Besides, Elliah is with her."
"How could you. Your sister ... I have to go to work."
"Okay, see you then."
I woke up just before 9. I heard the wind rustling. The sky was slightly cloudy. Somehow, after a long time, I felt a bit sad as I lay there in bed and looked around the room. I couldn't explain why I was sad. Why I felt this inner emptiness. The Harry Potter part from yesterday was still in my head, but much faded. That certainly contributed to my sadness, but it wasn't everything. Maybe because I was alone and didn't hear or see any human voices. Or because I didn't turn off the last light until after midnight yesterday to go to sleep. Or because I felt sorry for reacting so insensitively to Mom's request today. And all of this was intensified by my Enneagram type. It was probably several factors.
I knew exactly how to quickly get rid of this kind of diffuse sadness in the morning. I just needed to stand under an ice-cold shower and wash it off my soul.
As the icy water flowed over me, I felt an intense feeling of happiness come over me. I felt so good that I even laughed to endure the icy stream of water on my warm stomach. After that, I felt like I was reborn.
When I looked in the mirror, I felt like my gray hair on the sides had receded again. As if it had decreased again. Then I looked at my receding hairline, which Tobi had recently talked about. And I thought: What if the body intentionally causes this hair loss so it can better absorb Vitamin D? The body makes the head bald so that the sun's rays can reach the skin in this way. Because otherwise, it's not possible, since I wear too much clothing. When I think of documentaries about indigenous peoples, I don't see people with circular hair loss - it even seems odd to me when an old Native American has a bald spot on the back of his head.
Then I thought about dark-skinned people who come from sunny regions to live in Germany. The sun shines much less here than in the equatorial regions. Dark skin better absorbs UV rays, thus inhibiting Vitamin D production. Wouldn't they quickly develop a Vitamin D deficiency?
Then I thought about my facial hair and the butt joke from the book "Genial Vital," where the butt is compared to the face. Why does the buttocks stay young in comparison to the wrinkled face in old age? The butt is less exposed to the sun and always protected by clothing. That led me to the decision: never to shave off the beard completely, as it protects my face from external influences and keeps me looking younger in the face.
My thought about hair loss and Vitamin D seemed plausible to me, so after breakfast (four toasts with cucumber, tomato, and vegan substitutes, and two toasts with chocolate spread, spelt coffee), I went out onto the balcony to expose my head to the sun, which occasionally breaks through the clouds, and read the book "Think Again."
I read about confident humility, achieving an optimum level of self-confidence and competence. In other words: having confidence in one's abilities (i.e., being capable of achieving one's goals), but still questioning one's opinions, knowledge, and methods used to achieve one's goals.
I applied this insight to my website. I revised my description on the website to make it a bit more modest and less boastful.
Even the title of my biography "Getting 1% Better Every Day: My Journey from the Rat Race to Superman" seemed a bit arrogant. Perhaps I should just rename it to "Alexander Fufaev and How I Got 1% Better Every Day" or something similar?
After eating apple pie with Dascha, Tobi (yes, they actually came despite Julien), Mom, and me (Laura was sick in bed), I went to the hospital with Julien, Laura, and Mom because Laura was feeling very unwell.
I was dropped off at Hildesheim station, and when I went into the station and wanted to take my smartphone out of my pocket, it was no longer there. It wasn't in my backpack either. It had fallen out of my pants pocket in the car... Nevertheless, I wanted to go to Hanover, but then I realized that the ticket was on my phone. Then I thought that I could ask someone to call my phone if it was in the car, then the others would hear it. But then I remembered that I had turned off my phone. I couldn't call my mother, Julien, or Laura either because I didn't know their mobile numbers by heart. What should I do?
Fortunately, I remembered that I had cash with me, so after half an hour of waiting, I was able to take the last bus back to Borsum.
During the wait and also during the bus ride, I thought about the extreme dependence on the smartphone, on which not only my ticket was stored but also all the numbers I didn't have memorized. What if I didn't have this smartphone? Then I would probably save the QR code of the train ticket on my laptop. And if I had lost my phone somewhere outside? Then I would have lost a lot of money because an iPhone is very expensive. And I would also have to set up access to the bank on a new smartphone.
I was also very glad that I had the house key from Borsum with me. If I hadn't taken the little bag with me back then, the key would have stayed in Hanover. So I always have it in my backpack. Of course, if I lose my backpack, I lose everything, but I think it's more likely that I forget something than that I lose a whole backpack.
When I got home, I decided that as soon as I found my phone, I would immediately memorize my mother's number so that I could call her if I lost my phone and met other people on the street.
Then I also saved other important numbers on my MacBook. If the phone is gone, I still have the MacBook. And if that's gone too, I still have my head. So that I don't forget the numbers, I've integrated them into some passwords. This makes me less dependent on phone books because the phone numbers are stored in my head.
Learnings:
- Enjoy discovering one's own mistakes. Let go of the past. Do not link one's own opinion with one's identity!
- Use the brain (instead of the digital device) to store important information. Reduce dependence on the digital device.