Weekly Intention: My weekly intention this week is to spend some time getting some of the big rocks moving at work. It’s no meeting week and besides Tuesday when I have a LOT of meetings, I expect it to be quiet. I would like to use that time to think and plan.
This month’s intention is:February: Yes to the Unknown: Be open to new things this month. Listen more, watch others. Be willing to take some steps into the unknown and assume the best. Be brave. As we walk into the last week of February, I would love to think about where in my life I can be a bit braver this week.
One way I will leap this week: i am hoping to make some leaps at work, let’s see if I can.
One boundary I will set this week: I am going to try hard not to setup meetings and really honor no meeting week.
One area where I will go deeper this week: personally journaling, professionally figuring some next steps for the big rocks.
What do I need to sit with this week? i still didn’t do this: the stories I am telling myself. I want to write them down. let’s try one more week and i’ll stop.
I am looking forward to: no meetings, let’s see if it sticks.
Focus onCore Desired Feelings (lighter, kinder, enough, magic, wild): hmm this week I want to focus on feeling lighter. how can i unburden myself a bit.
This week’s challenges: i really really would like to move some big rocks instead of getting lost in email. I hope I can make it happen.
Top Goals:
Work: write up the 3 for L and 3 for D, sort out advocates, talk to R, maybe talk to A, figure out next steps for analyst+pgm.
Personal: get back to drawing and journaling, and see if you can up the bike to 30 mins.
Family: take walks with J. do one thing with N and do one thing with D.
This week, I want to remember: slow is okay. let yourself slow down enough to hear your thoughts.
This book started as a 5-star book for me and ended somewhere near 3 stars. So I averaged it out to 4 stars. It’s a super fascinating read around many topics that pertain to supermarkets (and a few that don’t tie in as closely). I loved the section about Trader Joes the most. But this book is packed with interesting and fascinating stories. Truckers, the fish trade, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and then Amazon and Whole Foods, cars, wine, there’s all that and more.
This sweet genre-bending novel is about Faye, who lost her mom at a very young age and still yearns to be with her so when she stumbles upon a magical way to be with her, she has to choose between getting to know her mom and putting the current beautiful life she’s built at risk.
This novel focuses on motherhood and marriage and there are some lovely characters in it. I enjoyed the sweet, quiet novel and I really liked the mix of scifi and contemporary fiction. I liked that it was a bit unpredictable. I really enjoy magical realism and this felt a little like that.
This book is about being open minded, reassessing your beliefs/thoughts/convictions. He highlights the importance of listening and really being curious about other person’s thoughts/arguments. Being open to other viewpoints. Being willing to be wrong. Adjusting and learning. He also talks about the complexity of most issues and how we like to oversimplify and make them binary and that leaning into the gray is more valuable for learning, growing and listening. Especially by leaning into areas of agreement.
There’s a whole section about careers and being willing to be open and experiment that really resonated with me. I am certainly doing something I knew nothing about in college and wouldn’t have been able to imagine for myself. He talks about the importance of experimentation and checking in with yourself and making sure what you thought was/is making you happy is still the same thing.
While there wasn’t much earth-shattering in this book (except that the boiling frog story is not true!!) I still enjoyed the reminders to be open minded and that most issues are more complex than not. that there’s always some common ground. that fewer arguments are stronger and better and it’s always always a good idea to reevaluate regularly.
I read this book in one sitting and really enjoyed my time with it. It was like one of those comedies where you know one thing after another is going to be misunderstood and go sideways and it just keeping building on itself. The audio was excellent and this book came exactly when I needed it so I really enjoyed it.
I want to say so many things about this book. It was recommended to me by someone I respect. They said it really inspired them. And I do think there are many inspiring points in this book. Some great stories and some solid advice and some good learnings.
But, for me, his tone/personality/writing got in the way so much that I couldn’t really enjoy any of these at all. Even the stories of when he messed up were still full of hubris.
He references being the “Jackie Robinson of barbecue” and adds rap lyrics in the beginning of every chapter for reasons that I just couldn’t figure out. The references to he vs she in the book stand out and feel awkward throughout. His story about his first date with his wife that’s meant to make him look principled or not sure what, felt awkward and a bit weird.
There were so many instances throughout the book that made me dislike him so much as a person (or at least the way he wrote this book and painted himself in the book) that it was really hard for me to connect with the advice itself.
Which, I will say, was solid in many places and if you can get past the things that drove me insane, you might indeed enjoy this book a lot.
In this funny story of a polygamous household full of are secrets, power structures, unkind and kindness, generosity, love, and competition. Even though it was hard for me to keep some of the women apart in the beginning of the story, I really loved reading each of their back stories. They were unique and different and each strong and weak in their own way. The only character that was almost comical and maybe two-dimensional was Baba Segi himself. I could see the twist coming but I still enjoyed this unusual story from beginning to end.
This story packed in a lot. Racism, Class issues, motherhood, marriage, and more. I found myself moving in an out of connecting with the story at different times. At its core the story is about regret, going back and trying to see if a life choice can be changed and also about what we pass from generation to generation. Decisions we make and how it feels to live with them. How things we push down will eventually come back up and we will need to deal with them. There are many ways to relate to this story and it’s beautifully told.
The Best Part of this Week: The best part of this week was taking a little time to get away with my boys.
I celebrate: just feeling content at the moment.
I am grateful for: my new admin who’s helping me have lunch everyday and helping me stay more sane in general.
This week, I exercised: I did so much exercise this week! 40 mins of core exercises, 40 mins of arms exercises, 60 minutes on the bike, 20 minutes of yoga, 20 minutes of stretching, and 3 hours of hiking/walking and I went climbing!
This week, I said yes to: taking a short vacation.
I said no to: still not drawing and journaling unfortunately.
I honored my values (love, learn, peace, service, gratitude): taking a vacation is a step closer to honoring all of my values.
Top Goals Review:
Work: made it through nbu review.
Personal: did not really get back to drawing and journaling
Family: took walks with J. did one thing with N and D.
My mood this week was: a bit rushed since i only had two and a half working days.
I am proud of: taking time off when it’s so hard for me to do so.
I release: that i didn’t get all my exercise done this week.
Here’s what I learned this week: i really need to remember to spend my energy and time on what matters most.
I find that my brain is constantly jumping back and forth between thoughts.
There are contradictory thoughts and dormant thoughts that pop up like popcorn at random times especially if I’m on vacation of some sort and thus relaxing. why aren’t you doing this? why don’t you want to do more of that? You really should be doing this other thing.
My brain tells me what to do and it reprimands me about all the things I’m not doing. It’s constantly striving constantly optimizing and constantly judging.
This is one of the reasons I am trying to meditate more and rest more so that I can learn to quiet my own brain. So I can let those thoughts rise and then disappear. This is the only way they don’t take up all the space.
Taking a bath is another way I can slow down and pay attention to the voices and tell them everything is going to be okay.
We came home from our trip today and all I could think about was how I wanted to go climbing.
usually when we’re back from a trip like this all I want to do is rest and be alone. But now we have our Sunday routine and I really miss the climbing when we don’t do it.
So I told my introvert itself to be quiet, took a little nap and then a shower and went back out to do some climbing.
Of course it was worth it because it’s worth it every single time. And now I’m resting in a bath, grateful for this day.
There’s always magic in going out and doing the thing.
