Contemplations by RG

This post was last updated on the 16th of September, 2026.

Video version here.

Note: All below is insightful despite free will being an illusion. Strange, I know.

*** This is a system, not a script!! The goal is not perfection. It's deliberate, reasonable progress. One change, one improvement, one better decision at a time. Little wins add up and multiply into worthwhile change for the better. Adapt the guidance to your unique circumstances. Make it your own. What's essential is not rigidity, but intention. Flexibility encouraged! Keep evolving! ***

The Foundation: You're screwed if you think this first list is "unrealistic" or "impossible." Step by step, it is up to you to improve your habits and lifestyle... or not. One day at a time. You decide if you want to live a high quality life or not (unless you were born into a North Korean concentration camp or something like that). The habits below are CRUCIAL. This system will help you live more intentionally and deliberately. To be more intentional is not about being rigid or "too strict." To be more intentional is to empower yourself to lead a more enjoyable, higher quality, meaningful life. To live the best possible life available to you! This sincere journey is not just good for you. It's good for society. Live for genuine progress, not regression.

1. Writing, note taking, and journaling (critical thinking practice)
1a. Reflecting on and reviewing your notes, writing, journaling (introspection and effortful recall)
Note: When an individual is more thoughtful and capable of original insight, he or she is much more likely to work hard in the right direction. Rather than work hard blindly on the wrong things. He or she will adapt as needed. No one is a god. No one has a magical crystal ball. Fundamentally, figuring things out is up to each and every individual to do for himself/herself.

Read: Precision (Choose your battles wisely)

2. Reading nonfiction paper books (to practice learning deeply + increase attention span)
Suggestions: Print out this post or handwrite it on paper. Mark it up with your own notes. Tape it up on the wall.
Get the physical version of The Chimp Paradox by Dr. Steve Peters.
Read the summaries of Cal Newport's books, Deep Work and Slow Productivity.

3. Observing your thoughts with patience, and without judgement (mindfulness)
3a. The ability to tolerate "boredom," offline blocks, silence, imagination, and deep thought
3b. Sitting by the window, looking outside, and just letting yourself think
Watch: Daron Larson's talk on mindfulness.

4. Wearing earplugs to cancel out noise distractions (doesn't have to be daily)
5. Using lists just like this one to focus, prioritize, and organize your mind
6. Walking and/or running outside in the sun
7. Keeping your home organized, neat, and tidy
8. Eating healthy sources of protein/fat for sustainable energy throughout the day
8a. Delay coffee to at least 40 minutes after waking up (or don't use caffeine at all)
8b. Drink enough water
8c. Do not consume added sugar on a daily basis
9. Use algorithm/ad/site blockers on your computer (Unhook, uBlock, LeechBlock)
Note: There is a paid software called Cold Turkey Blocker which I highly recommend for advanced tech users.

10. Eliminate/minimize multitasking
Note: Unnecessary context switching and information overload is a massive waste of brain power. Task switching cost is exhausting for your mind.

11. Get enough sleep

Read: How to sleep well?

Additional worthwhile habits:

1. Listening to classical music
Note: Or piano, lofi, ambient sounds, binural beats, meditation music to help you think and reach the flow state. No lyrics.

2. Watch documentaries and/or educational videos about history, psychology, philosophy, etc.
Recommended: Einzelganger has some good video essays to watch or listen to.
StudyMD (Dr. Jimmy Kang) has an excellent playlist on study tips. Check out his channel.
CrashCourse has countless educational videos to learn from.

3. Use bluetooth, noise cancelling headphones for focus (especially in public places)

4. Put your phone away in a different room, and put it on silent
Note: Don't depend on your phone for things other than call/text. For instance, I use an iPod for playing classical music on my bluetooth speaker. I use an iPad for digital, handwritten journaling. I have a Kindle for digital books.

5. Tape up important documents, writings, reminders on your fridge and common areas
6. Use Anki and/or index cards to practice spaced repetition
7. Do gratitude journaling

Read: How to do gratitude journaling?

8. Record videos/audios of yourself reading something interesting, or thinking aloud
Note: Could be your own writing, a book you are learning from, an article, etc.

9. Enjoy deep, meaningful conversations with authentic people

Read: Surround yourself with authentic people.

10. Guided meditations

11. Fasting (voluntary discomfort)
Note: On days that I fast, I drink water in the morning, and then coffee/caffeine sometimes. By the time I get to a meal later in the day, I have a simple meal. This practice is helpful for focus, gratitude, and resilience. This doesn't have to be a daily thing, but I've done it a good amount, as needed.

12. Have a printer, and use it to print out and mark up important documents

Bad habits I notice in most:

1. Algorithm and "cheap dopamine" addiction on platforms such as IG, TikTok, YouTube, etc.
Note: Also known as over stimulation, brain rotting, or doom scrolling.

2. Entertainment addiction (Netflix and so on)
3. Greed (addiction to excess, status, power, money, etc.)
4. Drama and toxic behavior addiction

5. Reading or watching the "news" way too much
Note: All corporations that are overly profit and engagement driven are misleading and sensationalist. They put out clickbait, rage bait, irrelevant culture wars, exaggeration, excessive negativity, etc. Most content on CNN, Fox, NBC, Newsmax, and so on is overly stimulating, profit driven, manufactured garbage.

6. Motivated, misguided, and led astray by comfort and pleasure (I call this being "dopamine sick")
Note: Also known as hedonism. Chasing cheap dopamine release, comfort, pleasure, and short term gratification is a subtle trap that trades long term fulfillment for fleeting, meaningless relief.

Very bad habits I notice in many:

I do empathize with those who struggle with the following, but I'm strongly against the behaviors listed. I'm not trying to shame people who are struggling. Like I said, it's up to the person to do better when he or she knows better. The habits below are very bad and destructive by definition. The behavior is very bad, and I'm not calling every person struggling with alcohol or nicotine very bad. It's separate. 

1. Alcohol addiction
2. Nicotine addiction (ecigs and cigarettes)
3. Hateful, sadistic trolling or conflict seeking (malicious intent)
4. Complaining and/or being pessimistic all the time
5. Abusing, neglecting, and/or exploiting people for your self interests


Relevant posts below!

The Way of The Virtuous Outlier
The Flow State (How to reach the deepest levels of concentration/focus)
Greed & Addiction (The best pleasures in life are inexpensive)
Don't Overthink
Dots (You can't predict the future 100%)
Breakthroughs (Substantial turning points in your life don't happen randomly)
Don't Rush

Full list of posts: https://rgessays.com/archive

This world is full of people chasing things that will dissolve. Wealth, status, and power all collapse in the end (psychologically and experientially as time is an illusion). The billionaires who corrupt policy and buy influence will be remembered as addicts. Their greed will consume them. The mediocre, who indirectly or directly follow blindly without questioning, will fade into irrelevance. Both groups are trapped in the same delusion. The absurd conscious or subconscious idea that external accumulation can outlast the limits of time.

Nothing lasts. Not wealth, not privilege, not authority. Not even the bodies that carry us. The corruption that transferred trillions upward while leaving billions behind cannot be undone. The collapse is visible for anyone willing to see. Yet most remain distracted, pacified, and dependent, still waiting for rescue that will never come (search "bread and circuses").

Nothing external secures meaning. No amount of control, consumption, or manipulation changes the fact that it all ends (psychologically and experientially). The billionaires who believe they can buy immortality are as delusional as the masses who believe propaganda will protect them. Both are exposed by the same reality. Time reduces everything to nothing.

What matters is how you live while you have the chance. Strength of character matters. Integrity matters. Discipline matters. Courage matters. Clarity matters. These are the only real assets. Everything else is a meaningless passing act. The corrupted and the complacent will eventually face the same end. Their illusions will be stripped away.

So...

I choose to live in alignment now. To act with character. To avoid the shallow traps of greed, ego, and false comfort. I don’t need illusions. I need reality (intellectually honest anti-distortion). Nothing lasts, but how you live defines the quality of the only life you have.

Read: The "United" States of America, Hedonic Adaptation

Apathy is one of the greatest dangers. If you don’t care enough to do actual good for your own life, those you care about, and the world around you, then you’re a lost cause. This isn’t meant to be harsh. It’s meant to be a clear reminder of reality without distortion. At some point, you're either contributing to the good, or letting everything fall apart around you while pretending it’s not your problem. That’s not neutrality. That’s being a coward. And cowards are hypocrites. Cowards are losers (regardless of their wealth, status, looks, or whatever).

Life was never meant to be fair, but it makes no sense to make a bad situation worse than it needs to be. Just because the world is broken doesn’t mean you should be outwardly or privately toxic, degenerate, or corrupt. You still have the ability to respond like someone who actually cares. The absence of fairness isn’t an excuse to give up. It’s a reason to have courage.

If you don’t have morals, why should anyone have morals for you? If you hurt or exploit people, why do you think you’re entitled to honesty, respect, or compassion? You reap what you reinforce. And if you don’t care about your own integrity, you can’t expect anyone to hand it to you.

The same goes for empathy. If you don’t have empathy for yourself, how will you empathize with anyone else? If you constantly numb, avoid, or suppress your own pain, how will you ever sit with someone else’s? Apathy toward yourself becomes apathy toward everyone. And that’s how relationships fracture. That’s how families break. That’s how entire societies at scale collapse and decay.

"You've gotta feel it to heal it."

Why expect to be treated well if you treat others without any deep sense of care? If your default is shallow interaction, superficiality, overly selfish thinking, and emotional distance, don’t act surprised when people reflect that back to you. The world mirrors what you model. Authentic people pull authenticity. Toxic, unhealthy people pull misery.

"Misery loves company."

Apathy is a disease because it kills the will to make sincere, worthwhile progress. Once you stop progress, you stop living for the better. It’s not edgy or cool or smart to “not care.” It’s just weak and pathetic. And we live in a society that seriously needs people who actually care. If you want to rot away in misery, go ahead. But what a waste of life and health that would be.

You don’t have to fix everything. Perfection is impossible. But you do have to care. One hour at a time. One day at a time. The world needs more light. Not more darkness. Ignorance is not bliss.

Read: The Foundation of Strong Character

Most try to improve their lives by relying on "effort." Though, effort without the right environment (and direction) fails catastrophically over time. What actually shapes quality outcomes is not how hard you push, but what conditions you create around yourself.

Behavior is mostly automatic. What we think of as conscious choice is often a probable response to cues, patterns, and triggers in environment. This means that actual improvement comes from influencing those patterns, not from forcing "discipline" in the moment.

By adjusting and evolving my environment, I am not trying to guarantee success. I'm focused on increasing the probability of meaningful progress. Conditions are how you influence probabilities in your favor. This applies to everything. Focus, discipline, calm, clarity. These characteristics don't appear because you demand them. They appear because the environment supports them. You're responsible for designing your environment.

This is why I value stillness, solitude, flexible structure, and reflection. Why I eliminate overstimulation, information overload, distraction, and unnecessary suffering. Why I don't tolerate toxic people. Why I write and think critically often. Why I value undisturbed rest and healing. These habits are obviously not impulsive or random. They are part of an intentional system that substantially improves the odds of me becoming the person I need to be.

You do not control everything. But you can control the system around you. The better your system, the better your probabilities. This is why it's up to you to live up to the highest quality life available to you. No one is coming to save you. So save yourself and live well.

Read: Participate in Your Own Rescue

Authentic people are rare. Most are pretending. They follow trends. They say what they think they should say. They avoid real opinions. They hide their doubts. They seek attention. They want approval. They don't speak honestly.

When you spend time around authentic people, the difference is profound...

You feel calmer. You feel peace. You don't have to filter your sincere thoughts. You don't have to impress anyone. You can think clearly. You can be fully present.

Authentic people are not perfect. They are self aware. They are curious. They actively listen. They tell the actual truth even when it's uncomfortable. Always respectfully. They are not reactive. They are not trying to "win" in any way. They are not trying to be liked. They value integrity more than social approval. They ask real questions. They don't hide behind excessive nonsense. They know who they are and they respect who you are.

Most do not know how to do that. It takes a certain kind of character. A certain kind of maturity. A certain kind of stillness. And it takes effort to become someone who can appeal to those people. You have to filter and curate. You have to let go of shallow connections. You need firm boundaries. You have to walk alone sometimes. You have to value quality over quantity.

I know what it’s like to feel alone because of my past. I know what it’s like to talk to a hundred people and feel completely misunderstood. But I also know what it’s like to meet someone authentic. Someone grounded. Someone honest. Someone who sees you. Someone who speaks from the heart. And those people make everything worth it.

Authentic people gently and respectfully challenge you. They don’t flatter you. They hold you to your standards, help you remember what matters, and support you without trying to control you. They want your best without pushing their own ulterior motives. Being around them makes you more of who you really are.

That’s the kind of life I want. That’s the kind of person I want to be. That’s what I give to the people I care about.

I need real connection. I don’t need constant entertainment. I need depth. I don’t need people who agree with me all the time...

I need people who are honest and kind with me.

If you want peace, growth, and clarity, look at your environment. The people you talk to daily affect your mind. If you're constantly around people who lie to themselves, you'll start lying to yourself. If you're constantly around people who numb themselves, you’ll start feeling numb. If you're constantly around people who think everything is a joke, you’ll stop taking your own life seriously.

Choose wisely. Protect your time and attention. Stay kind, but firm. Let go of anyone who pulls you away from your values. Welcome those who bring you closer to reality. Live the highest quality life available to you.

Life is too short to waste it pretending. Strive for authenticity and excellence. Be around people who actually care. It’s not always "easy." But it’s always well worth it.

Read: We only have so much time, energy, and attention.

Historically, human suffering was a direct result of external conditions. The primary struggles were for survival against tangible threats like starvation, predators, and environmental hardship. Today, many people live without these immediate threats, yet experience a different form of suffering. This distress is not caused by external reality, but is created internally through the mental process of social comparison.

Social comparison makes no sense when you consider hedonic adaptation. This is the observed human tendency to revert to a stable baseline level of contentment, regardless of positive or negative events (which is mostly not in your control). A person who acquires significant wealth or status experiences an initial increase in contentment. Though, this feeling is temporary and fleeting. They soon adapt to their new circumstances and their emotional state returns to its original baseline. The "happiness" that one might envy in another person is therefore not a permanent condition.

The existence of death functions as a final equalizer. All accumulated wealth, status, and competitive advantages are terminated at the end of an individual's life. Since this outcome is the same for every person, the lifelong pursuit of being "ahead" of others is an ultimately pointless activity.

The act of comparing oneself to others is also fundamentally illogical. For any single attribute (wealth, intelligence, physical appearance, or skill) it is a statistical certainty that another person exists who possesses that attribute to a greater degree. It is impossible to be superior to all other people in all respects. To engage in social comparison is to sabotage oneself with insatiable pursuits.

The only reasonable comparison for progress is one's own past self. Evaluating personal improvement over time is a useful and inspiring form of measurement.

Given that the perceived "happiness" of others is temporary (hedonic adaptation), that the end result for all people is the same (death), and that someone somewhere will always be better in some way, the emotions of jealousy and insecurity that come from social comparison are based on absurdly flawed ways of thinking. Suffering unnecessarily is an unintelligent and unproductive use of human consciousness.

Living fully isn’t a destination. It’s the continuous process of becoming. And that’s where the highest quality of life is found. Not in what happens to you, but in who you choose to be.

Read: The Foundation of Strong Character

Life will never be fair. I'll be clear that I'm not excusing or justifying the absurdity and disorder in society. Though, keep in mind, the imperfections do provide some meaning in a universe that is inherently meaningless. What value would bravery, sincerity, courage, love, focus, and wisdom have in a world that had no problems? Those who fight for justice are heroic because the fight is a fight. This reality reinforces how a high quality life is built from the inside out. Not from the outside in.

This post was last updated on the 16th of September, 2026.

Tension and release is not just a principle for music, literature, or art. It's the rhythm of a meaningful life. Pressure followed by peace. Effort followed by stillness. Struggle followed by joy.

To live well is not to escape tension, but to master it. To live well is not to cling to release, but to savor it. Together, they create a rhythm worth living. In reading my posts carefully, you'll notice this tension and release.

Temperance has been crucial. I don't overindulge in reward. I preserve and protect an exceptionally high baseline. I create the conditions for daily intentionality, flow, and presence. I preserve and protect momentum. The deep life is the best life. The deep life, in all circumstances, is the highest quality life!

Related: Hedonic Adaptation, Greed & Addiction, Complacency, Precision

I'd like to share with you all the remarkable video below. Enjoy!

Seong-Jin Cho – Chopin Nocturnes, Op. 9 No. 2 in E Flat Major. Andante

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions."
-Albert Einstein

The gratitude for what is, flaws and all.
https://rgessays.com/a-reminder-for-gratitude

The fulfillment that ends the restless chase.
https://rgessays.com/im-at-a-point-where-theres-nothing-left-to-chase

The peace earned through surviving life's storms.
https://rgessays.com/i-genuinely-love-my-life