Category: Life

There’s an app on my phone that tells me how much time I waste on social media, which is why I know I can definitely take 20 minutes and go for a walk.

For me, that’s positive. It’s movement, fresh air, and gets the blood flowing. Twenty minutes worth of inspirational Tweets ain’t gonna do that.

Tiny choices, seemingly small decisions, made and re-made over months and years and decades gets you to where you are.

I think I found this via someone’s Instagram Story, but just like all of social media, it’s hard to remember sometimes, right?

When feeling anxious, I tend to remember to pull everything back to the present moment. It’s easier in the car, since paying attention is imperitive, but really to shake off the feelings of terror and dread, and replace them with “right now nothing is happening.”

I’m not being attacked, or mauled, or threatened. In this very moment I am alive, breathing, and handsome. Hey, it’s my self-talk, dammit!

But it’s so true, as Cleo Wade points out, above; the anxiety is not you. It’s a feeling, and we aren’t our feelings. I credit the Headspace app with a lot of help with that in my life.

Wade’s new book “Where to Begin” looks pretty great, BTW.

Derek Sivers (he founded CD Baby many moons ago) wrote about traveling without a phone.

I appreciate a moment more when I know I’ll never see it again.

I have a zillion photos from Italy and Norway and Hawaii and I don’t remember the last time I looked at them. I’ve thought about those places, and talked about them, much more than I’ve looked at at the actual digital files. I wonder if I’d remember more if I took a zillion less photos?

Reminds me of this episode of the Morning Shakeout Podcast with Sally McRae. She talked about being at her mom’s side when she was passing away. It wasn’t about the things or the photos or the house in those finals hours, it was the people.

This just blew my brain wide open, from “Misogyny, male rage and the words men use to describe Greta Thunberg.”

At a deep level, the language of climate denialism is tied up with a form of masculine identity predicated on modern industrial capitalism – specifically, the Promethean idea of the conquest of nature by man, in a world especially made for men.

Naomi Schalit

Via Aaron Davis

Capitalism depends on obedience, blind trust. From churches, to politicians, to wall street, the message is TRUST US. Don’t question, don’t doubt, don’t stray.

And then Greta Thunberg comes along, or anyone that doesn’t conform, or fit the capitalist narrative, and men everywhere lose their collective shit. As if it’s a threat to very lives.

What’s the saying? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Got a nice reminder today in my inbox that moving forward sometimes taking a fresh new step.

“Remember, if you want to see new results, you need to start changing factors in your fitness routine,” says Matty. “Maybe it’s not everyday, but consider ‘graduating’ from those 5lb to 10lb weights!”

Peloton Output Newsletter

Heavier weights are heavier. More strain. Same with so many things in life, right?

The only way to get out of the spot you’re in is to do something that feels unreasonable, that’s unreasonable in the short term, that a similar person in a similar situation would say is unreasonable.

Seth Godin

Staying at 5lbs, or running three miles, or not taking that chance with a new client, or speaking up – it’s all reasonable. Stay in your wheelhouse, right? But without some risk, without being “unreasonable” as Seth Godin puts it, we can get stuck.

Thanks to the The Monthly Missive #54 from Sophie Benjamin (subscribe here) for linking this great story; “Put down the self-help books. Resilience is not a DIY endeavour.”

The article talks about having the “basics,” like income and a home and food and community support, and I like to think a strong network of good people helps, too.

Ever think about an article you read, then had no idea how to find it again?

I found this great piece, “what great inconvenience,” from the Faculty email newsletter (which I can’t link to, because it doesn’t have a web link).

In the piece Anne Helen Petersen speaks about burn out, fair wages, the hustle economy, and lots of other fantastic bits. Go read it.

The biggest point for me was this: “think deeply and consistently about how your own actions, and standards, and practices create burnout in others,” which is credited to Jonathan Malesic.

On a recent road trip I stopped for gas and got a coffee at the attached Dunkin’ Donuts. Cream, no sugar. I tasted it before I walked away, and sure enough it had cream and sugar.

I’ve seen people go off over something like this. As if it’s a personal affront, an attack on their dignity to subjected to such treatment. I’ve seen a person throw an entire cup of coffee out in the trash on their way out the door over this.

Or… just kindly state the problem, and ask for a new cup. That’s what I did, and shockingly it wasn’t very hard.

Since “No Junk June,” health goals have been my focus.

The world is a better place when we’re whole, and feeling good. Sometimes we need to divert our energy from things we think we need to attain, like the above career or relationship goals, and turn them inward.

Because once we nail the health and lifestyle stuff, perhaps the career and relationship goals will come into focus.

The music at my local gym? It’s just not for me. And that’s totally okay.

The music I do enjoy? Well, they couldn’t play that at a busy Tuesday evening.

That gets me thinking of how I only need to “endure” that music for an hour or so. Even then, I can listen to my own music if I want. Sometimes I’ll leave my headphones in my locker, just to test my mental fortitude.

“Not for me” is a good place to be, a good reference point. Because then you can mentally prepare yourself for the momentary discomfort, who do what you need to avoid if all together.

Sunday night. “Back to work,” my friend said a bit ago, after an afternoon of birthday cake and football.

I recently finished “Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory,” by Deena Kastor. So many times, through the dark times in life beyond, she just paid attention. Look at the trees, the people around you, the stuff on your desk, or the houses you drive past on your commute home.

By themselves, eh, what’s it matter? But I feel like the less we pay attention to the little stuff, the tiny cues, the harder it is to handle the bigger things. Small changes today lead to big things down the road. Get a bit off course, and five years from now where are we? And exactly what “course” we’re even talking about, well, that’s up to you.

Tomorrow is Monday, and we all have our morning routines, well worn into our early week schedules, made up of tiny thoughts and habits. But this week, let’s notice them. Feel everything that Monday morning gives us, and then maybe make some tiny adjustments.