Discardia_ More Life, Less Stuff - Dinah Sanders [97]
Put pen to paper
Put your friend’s and family's addresses in something small and easy to carry (e.g., a mobile phone or a teeny address book). Make especially sure that you have the complete addresses of any person who is either under the age of 20 or over the age of 60. If you have old blank postcards around, grab ’em and a couple of pens with which you like to write. Buy more postcards if necessary, or find amusing ones among displays with free advertising, which often turn up in restaurant hallways by the bathrooms. You can also get a bunch of postcard-size pieces of blank paper and draw doodles on them instead of the usual pictures.
Walk down to the post office and buy a packet of postcard stamps. Sit in a nice café or teahouse and write quick notes to everyone, just saying hi. Mail them and make sure that you still have more postcard stamps to carry with you. Next time you see a nice postcard—especially one of those free ones—grab it and take a couple of minutes to brighten someone's day.
Get sweetly messy
If it's raining, bake something—even you noncooks! Go down to the store and get something ready to bake, like biscuits or cinnamon rolls or cookies. Take some to a neighbor and get acquainted. If it's not raining, plant some flowers—a windowbox, a curbside planting area, your garden, or an elderly neighbor's garden. Get some dirt and life into your senses.
Whatever you do, choose to do it instead of falling into a dull, autopilot rut of dissatisfaction. Make sure you have enough fun in your week. I'd write more about this, but it's time for my Dungeons & Dragons game!
Symptom #40: Dream Duty
Solution #40: Be True to Yourself Now
I have decided: I cannot get everything done. This comforts me greatly.
—Amanda F. Palmer, musician
Today’s me
The ups and downs of life, both the big and the small, are easier to ride out when you acknowledge that you're made up of many selves with different moods.
Accept that you are who you are, in the mood you're in today. Recalibrate to that current baseline and try to do the things that today's me does best.
When you define your top few goals, it is often worthwhile to choose two supporting projects for each, which reflect very different skills (for example, “writing the book” and “selling the book” or “planning the new office layout” and “cleaning out the old boxes under the shelf in the back”). This can allow you to move ahead on the most important things in multiple moods.
Not only will your mood and strengths fluctuate from day to day but, over time, most things about you are going to change. No one should expect to keep the same tastes their entire life. Times change and people grow as they are exposed to new ideas, cultures, and subcultures.
Who are you now? How have you changed since you last asked that question?
Are you doing projects based on the old you's available time, energy and interests?
Do these projects still fit you?
Run through your mental list of “I really ought to get better at …” goals.
Do they still fit you and the you that you want to be at the end of this year?
Are your expectations of yourself up to date?
Is your job still right for you?
If a person doesn’t stay the same their whole life, there’s no reason to assume that the same work will always be the best fit for them. Skills grow, interests shift, opportunities open up, and needs rise and fall; in other words, we change. Our work can change with us; the age of the monoculture career is over. The job that makes you happiest will involve something you love, so do what you can hardly help not doing. Go where your whole-hearted engagement matters.
Be you
Which roles or responsibilities have you perhaps held