Category Archives: Potpourri

How to Change a Habit

When someone is sending electric shocks to the hair follicles on your face, you’re apt to listen more than talk. I listened and learned about The Charge – Activating the 10 Human Drives that Make you Feel Alive.

Bev had good things to say about this latest recipe for success and while it made me cringe with its nauseatingly pat tagline, I bought a copy, taking cover under the notion that it would give us something to talk about. While it’s fair that a definitive list of life’s secrets might induce involuntary eye-rolling (I always wonder, “Why ten?”), there is no call for anyone’s tiresome skepticism here.

Upon finishing the book, I gave my copy to a friend who was in need of some insight as she navigated an unbearably dysfunctional job situation that was undermining the confidence of this otherwise competent and fabulous young woman. I thought about JoAnne a lot as I turned the pages.

It had something for me too. While The Charge is the reason why I took on some scary projects instead of lesser undertakings and while it reinvigorated – at least temporarily – the blind courage of my 20-something self who somehow ventured off to Brussels with little money, a copy of Let’s Go Europe and a plan that went as far as “Take the train to ‘Le Gare du Nord'” – I mostly liked it for its solid practical tips more than for its fleeting inspirational passages. For example, “When this, then that” can help you develop lasting good habits. The idea is to add an action onto a well-established routine, as opposed to trying to change a behavior without the benefit of context. It’s the difference between saying, “This year I’m going to eat better!” and saying, “From now on, when I finish dinner every day, then I am going to eat an apple.”

It’s not sexy, but we use the rule to keep the litter box clean. Since it’s in the basement, it could easily be out-of-sight-out-of-mind until there was a revolt. But we have forstalled an uprising by saying: “When we feed the cat in the morning, we then clean the litter box.”

The Charge is loaded with other – probably better examples of – tips that made it worth it to replace the copy that I gave to my friend. While my enthusiasm for it might have been a case of my being particularly receptive to its insights for whatever reason when I first picked it up, I suspect that the book will hold up nicely as a reference.

The Pleasure of Being Known

When I got home from the potluck, Brian had thai take-out waiting for me. I love those moments when you recognize that someone knows you. He knew that I would be too wrapped up in the meeting part of the potluck to bother getting a plate. He knew that the meeting would go well and that I would come home hungry.

Next Year I Will

If you have any extra seedlings, I would be happy to adopt them. I can use them because this year I was too swamped with… stuff… to get seeds started. Merriam Station Community Garden would also be happy to use them for their plant sale on May 4. They are raising money to pay for a water system… kind of important for a garden. I never tire of the miracle of watching a seed sprout. You might not be able to relive a first kiss or the first time you were allowed to take the car by yourself to pick up some milk, but watching a plant sprout, flower, fruit, die… feels brand new every time. Every single time. Next year. Next year I’m going to put those containers I collected to use. I won’t care about what’s pressing. I won’t care about deadlines. Now that I know the emptiness of skipping it, next year I’m going to fill up the place with trays and trays of plants for the garden.

I can’t stop looking out the window

The chick in the nest outside my window turns out to be a robin. At first he was just the tip of a beak that you could hardly see, but he’s actually quite big. Judging from the fight I witnessed this morning, he could have been a small black bird. I recognize twine from my garden in that nest. I know it’s mine because I watched (and sort of helped) a bird carry it away. I can’t stop looking out the window.

7 secrets of Starting your own Business

This morning I had an errand to run. When I saw that my normal route was blocked by utility trucks, I tried another route only to find that it too was blocked. But I persevered and eventually made it to my destination. Does this qualify me to write a book about the 7 secrets of starting your own business just 30 days? I think it does and I think I will.