Throwing My Hat Over the Wall

by Avi on January 29, 2008 · 8 comments

in blogging,psychology

In his Harvard course on Positive Psychology, Tal Ben Shachar talks about the idea of throwing your briefcase over the wall. The sentiment is that sometimes the only way to achieve a goal is to commit yourself entirely. Within the analogy the desire to retrieve the briefcase motivates you to overcome whatever obstacle the wall presents. In the last episode of the first season of The West Wing, President Bartlett references the same idea though the imagery there is of soldiers throwing their hats.

My hope in starting this blog has been to throw my hat and briefcase as far into the void as I can, setting my aspirations high, so hopefully I’ll learn something retrieving them. In this exploration I aim to document some of my discoveries, learn more about my disparate interests – the web, social media, and fun tech tools and nonprofits, social entrepreneurship, history and psychology. With any luck I’ll learn something about the intersection of these two worlds and meet some interesting people along that way. Feel free to get in touch or just say hi, I’m friendly :)

  • Big Sexy

    I like it. It’s hot.

    <3
    JP

    P.S. I have your mather paraphernalia that you threw over my fence.

  • Big Sexy

    I like it. It’s hot.

    <3
    JP

    P.S. I have your mather paraphernalia that you threw over my fence.

  • Big Sister

    Looking forward to reading more Kaplan meshugganeh in the future!

  • Big Sister

    Looking forward to reading more Kaplan meshugganeh in the future!

  • http://meshugavi.com Avi

    Thanks! I hope to stay consistent :)

  • http://www.avisamkaplan.com Avi

    Thanks! I hope to stay consistent :)

  • http://www.avisamkaplan.com/2008/07/persistence-and-the-role-of-brick-walls Persistence and the Role of Brick Walls | MeshugAvi Blog

    [...] a great attitude. I talked about something similar in my first MeshugAvi Blog post ever. There is no doubt in my mind that Tal Ben-Shahar would have shown a clip of Randy talking about [...]

  • http://www.avisamkaplan.com/2008/11/new-blog-posting-schedule-and-comment-policy Announcing a New Blog Posting Schedule and Comment Policy – Kicking Myself in the Pants — MeshugAvi Blog

    [...] a year ago in January, in my first blog post I said I was throwing my hat over the wall. The sentiment is that sometimes the only way to achieve a goal is to commit yourself entirely. [...]

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