The road to hell…
Just going to post stream of consciousness-style so I get something up this week. My “blog beta” was five per week, which I found “doable” and beyond that creatively energetic. It’s very easy to labor over these things (blog posts), and get precious and “writerly”, and my goal is simply honest communication to you dear reader. But I decided to cut that back to three per week, which somehow translated into “none” this week. My brain is a labyrinth of madness, which is why I put so much emphasis on action over thinking – for me thinking can lead to recursive loops of seemingly interesting notions – leaving me with blank pages and empty sketch books.
Anyway, just wanted to brain dump now, as proof of life if nothing else. These are the things on my mind.
Oh, before I proceed, wanted to share a great quote I heard on Paul Gilmartin’s Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast “You can’t think yourself into right action, but you can act yourself into right thinking.”
Say what you do, then do it
In the next two days you’ll be seeing posts here about my next 90 day goal cycle. I want to share my process with everyone, both to keep myself honest and to show everyone how powerful a simple set of goals can be. It’s been 48 days since I had active goals and I might as well have been shooting heroin for all I’ve accomplished during that time. My goals, no matter how seemingly banal, are designed to make me pay attention to the areas in my life that I tend to be weak in. Shockingly, when I’m not engaged in goals I find amazing amounts of time to do nothing, while simultaneously stuffing my yap with foods densely packed with calories! I’ll chalk this month+ to a mental vacation, but the truth is mentally I’m far more relaxed when I’m fully engaged.
Winter in full bloom
(NOTE: That’s an actual photo of my window).
One of the things I love about the DC area is we really don’t get bad winters, usually a couple of weeks of serious cold, a couple of snowstorms, that’s about it. I’m rarely kept from my “normal” life, or even put on long pants when I go to the gym – but brother, these past few weeks have knocked me for a loop. I won’t belabor the point, but I simply didn’t have my head screwed on right to battle the elements, and I’ve lost the life rhythm I need to be continuously creative and centered. Talk’s cheap, but just want to note I intend to be back on my game as of now.
Talking to young colleagues
The more geezerly you become, the more important it is to pass on hard-won knowledge to people you feel can benefit from it. And the old canard that when you teach you learn more than the taught is true (so as usual I’m just being selfish). I had a great conversation with a younger colleague today and it reminded me how vital it is to encourage others, particularly when they’re frustrated or just annoyed with the workplace. We all go through cycles, and one lesson I learned a long time ago is you’ve got to know why you go to work. That may sound stupid, but think about it, most of us just have a generic, vague thought about “why” we go to work; “Need money” is usually at the top of the list. But being able to say something like: “I need $50,000 liquid, I need a provable way to add value, I like interacting with my coworkers” gives you a cleaner sense of why you drag your ass into some crazy cube farm every day.
Okay, enough gibberish, just wanted to say “hi” to ya’ll, I’ll be on a three-post-a-week minimum schedule for the next 90 days so I’ll see you soon!