#Fortitude

Jan 12
2 min

The Good Life - 01/12/2023 - Beyond reason *

Yesterday was momentous at work. It was like when climbing a mountain when we reach that ledge or ridge just below the summit and we realize we are almost there, have almost reached the top. Today, the team and I will attempt the summit. Everyone is checked in, geared up, roped and ready. It’ll be a very long day up to the top. And if we make it—well, then there’s six more summits to climb after that before this expedition is complete. But that’s why they call it work.

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Kurt Bell

Jan 9
2 min

Day 46 ocean swim

So incredibly cold! This wind! And that sky! I can’t type for the shaking of my hands. Beautiful! Just love it! #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Fortitude The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. Learn more about The Good Life at my website GoingAlone.org or by reading my book Going Alone. And visit our Discord at: https://lnkd.in/gFgfGmY6 OB

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Kurt Bell

Jan 9
2 min

The Good Life - 01/09/2023- Consciousness rather than a soul *

I’ve been imagining sunlight lately. I can see the light of the sun in my thoughts. And I can feel the warmth of sunshine, even dull light coming through the clouds, just by thinking it up. It’s like I‘m carrying the light home with me from the beach. I never once did this when I lived at the beach in college. The sunlight was its own thing then, something to experience in the outdoors to then be lost as soon as I went inside. Now though, the light sneaks inside with me

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Kurt Bell

Jan 8
2 min

Day 43 ocean swim

I missed two whole days jumping into the sea. And boy did I miss ‘em. It’s like skipping a necessary meal, or missing sleep, or forgetting to tuck your child into bed or neglecting telling your loved one that you do. I won’t miss this again if I can help it. And help it I can. #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Fortitude The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of

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Kurt Bell

Jan 3
2 min

Day 41 ocean swim

I really tried not to go to the beach today. I invented a half dozen good reasons not to go. I shook my head no crossing the sand. I agreed I should go back. I told myself, promised myself this was a bad idea and I wouldn’t do it. No way. Forget about it. #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Fortitude The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference. L

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Kurt Bell

Dec 27, 2022
3 min

The Good Life - 12/27/2022 - Alone for donuts

I built a sandcastle at the beach yesterday. It was a silly thing to do at my age, but I was very cold after my swim, and I wasn’t ready to leave the beach or to put on a shirt. So I ran for a bit up and down the sand, which warmed me a little, and then I made a sandcastle, which helped even more. I worried the efforts of running and digging sand might flare my arthritis, but it gladly hasn’t; in fact, my joints feel good—and better still, my body feels healthy, youthfu

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Kurt Bell

Dec 18, 2022
2 min

Day 28 ocean swim

Three days missed… And now, even a relatively warm winter day like today feels quite cold. Just last week I was coming here in the wind and rain and near dark and running and plunging without a second thought. This goes to show the power of routine and habit in inuring us to what might otherwise be perceived as hardship. I wonder how far this power might go? A well trained and disciplined soldier can run straight into death. A martyr the same for their cause. How about

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Kurt Bell

Dec 5, 2022
2 min

Day 22 ocean swim

Winter’s here. The beach is deserted. It feels good running down the sand towards the waves. A little voice inside yelling, stop!! But afterwards, that small voice is silent. Because what’s fearful inside always departs, just as soon as it knows I mean no. #GoingAlone #TheGoodLife #Fortitude The Good Life Meditation is my daily recitation and reminder of personal objectives and principles used in pursuit of a purposeful life in spite of a universe of seeming indifference.

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Kurt Bell

Dec 5, 2022
2 min

The Good Life - 12/05/2022 - Forcing it *

My adult sense knows that Monday won’t last more than today, and that I can push into it with the same quiet resolve I’ve used with nearly every Monday I’ve met, until the work week is underway. Resolve is like that. It’s like swimming underwater from one end of the pool to the other, ready to burst from the water at the other side having made it. And it’ll be good once through, once on the other side, another solid day of good work complete. Another good, adult day don

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Kurt Bell

Nov 28, 2022
2 min

Day eighteen ocean swim

Teeth chattering today. It feels like winter now. There’s no one at the beach. This feels like a challenge, but it’s not. It’s rehearsal for when life really gets hard, and I push through without complaint, like a difficult day at work—like today, in fact. But, I got through the workday, just like the rest of the adults in the room. Heck, I only complained once, and that was to my wife, but that’s what we’re there for each other for. This cold plunge in the sea is nothi

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Kurt Bell

Sep 18, 2020
2 min

STOIC POETRY | Nailing a job interview

Responding to a viewer who asked me to make a video sharing tips for succeeding at a job interview.

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Kurt Bell

Sep 18, 2020
1 min

STOIC POETRY | MULLY kissed me

Recalling a time with another community and another way of life.

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STOIC POETRY | Yelling at a deaf and mute girl

Kurt Bell

Sep 18, 2020
1 min

STOIC POETRY | Yelling at a deaf and mute girl

Reflecting on how I might use Stoic principles to handle a challenging moment.

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Kurt Bell

Sep 18, 2020
1 min

STOIC POETRY | Live with Emily

An impromptu vlog with my daughter, Emily. We were out for a day long motorcycle ride running errands and visiting family...

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Kurt Bell

Sep 18, 2020
1 min

STOIC POETRY | Why I gave up Japan

I began this live stream to discuss the reason I seemingly abandoned my connection to my friends in Japan from the JVLOG community.

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STOIC POETRY | Emily asked me to make this video

Kurt Bell

Sep 18, 2020
1 min

STOIC POETRY | Emily asked me to make this video

My grown daughter asked me to make this video in order to share a little about what’s happening in our lives and to perhaps kick off...

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Kurt Bell

Aug 29, 2020
2 min

STOIC POETRY | Sand or coal?

The opportunity to stay or to go. I say always go. Especially when we are young—always go. For the wonder of what we have left behind is like a dull lump of coal possessed against a moment's need of warmth should life turn cold and dark and possibly alone. We remain behind to not give up the little we already have, in turn for the guarantee of nothing should we leave; a bargain hardly equitable to a reasonable mind. So, I'll stay. And I will settle in. And I will remain with

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STOIC POETRY | The beginning of Going Alone

Kurt Bell

Aug 28, 2020
6 min

STOIC POETRY | The beginning of Going Alone

I remember when I first thought up the idea of Going Alone. My family and I were living then in Japan, and I was making YouTube videos for the Walking in Japan and Abandoned Japan series. I was active at that time on social media, and among the questions I answered from viewers were periodic requests from people who planned to visit Japan, and who asked if they could join me on an adventure in the mountains. Such arrangements only rarely worked out, as the logistics of visiti

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Kurt Bell

Aug 27, 2020
3 min

STOIC POETRY | No more free will

I once imagined I was steering my own life in a very full and meaningful way. Full control. Nearly complete, adult, and independent self-management of my direction and course of being. Such a fool I was—grasping at the controlling wheel which I'd imagined for myself, steering left at will, and then right at will, and again right, and then left, on and on, every day and night even; driving away my life in pretend that, though I could certainly make any decision I like, I could

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STOIC POETRY | To walk alone among ghosts

Kurt Bell

Aug 26, 2020
3 min

STOIC POETRY | To walk alone among ghosts

I was never very afraid of the dark, or the things which come out after the sun goes down, to wander, and slither, and creep, and fly across and over the darkened landscape around me—hunting prey with wide eyes and snuffling noses and darting tongues and feelers probing for scent and a lead to the kill. Though I sometimes must take a deep breath before I go out alone among them, I can always nevertheless set out into the dark by myself, without a light, or a map, or a compass

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