I have so many great memories listening to John call the Yankees. The ‘96 through ‘01 years particularly stand out. I spent many a night through that period falling asleep to Sterling and Michael Kay narrating the dynasty. Sterling in particular brought such a joy and passion to each and every game. Rest in peace.

The more machines there are to replace men, the more men there will be in a society who are nothing but machines.

Louis de Bonald, as quoted in Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth

Excellent opening from a chapter on discipline in Brad Stulberg’s book The Way of Excellence:

When I asked [Layne Norton] about his stick-to-itiveness, he told me it comes down to “disconnecting how you feel from what you need to do. There are times when you are going to feel very motivated, and that’s great. But discipline is: You are going to do the things you need to do, regardless of how you feel about them… “As humanity has advanced, we have been able to devote more space for our feelings and indulge them more. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It has produced more compassion and empathy and those are good things,” continues Norton, who also holds a PhD in nutritional sciences. “But in some ways, we have given too much space to our feelings. Many people end up completely governed by feelings, and for them, life can be pretty hard.” Your emotions can change on a dime and often not for any good reason. It takes self-reflection to sit with emotions and ask whether or not they are reflecting truth or something else-before acting on them. But many people believe that just because they feel something, it must be the same thing as truth. One of the most common questions Norton receives is “How do you stay motivated?” “The answer is I don’t,” he says. “But I also don’t worry about being motivated all the time. I often do not feel like training. Sometimes I don’t feel like working. Sometimes I don’t feel like brushing my teeth. But I still do all those things consistently. Why? Because I know that if I don’t do them, I will not achieve my goals. So I do them regardless of my feelings. I’m not saying to not have feelings. I’m not saying to not pay attention to them. I’m simply saying that sometimes you need to disconnect your immediate feelings from the things you know you need to do in order to reach your goals and build a great life.

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