Category: on life

the right question: take out the shoulds

Posted on by jplatt27

I often wake up thinking “what should I do this morning?” and on weekends it’s “what should I do today?”

These questions make me feel totally overwhelmed and set me up for failure.

This is essentially like asking “what am I supposed to do today?” OR “what pressure can I put on myself today?” OR “what obligations can I create for myself today so that when I inevitably don’t do them all I feel bad about myself?”

In response, I’ll start to think about all the things I could do: chores, business tasks, people to call, things that I should do because I live in the city and I should take advantage of them. And then I think about all the reasons why I don’t want to do those things or why I can’t do those things.

It’s pretty terrible actually. It makes me feel terrible and almost paralyzed.

I realized this morning that I do the same with blogging.

I’ll think “what should I write about today?”

Then I start listing possible topics followed by the reasons they’re not the right post for the day or why I can’t or don’t feel like writing that today. And then I just shutdown and don’t write anything.

In my opinion weekends should not be about shoulds. 

And blogging shouldn’t either.

So I’ve come up with two new questions:

What would I like to do today/right now? | What would I like to share on the blog today?

Are there areas of your life where you’re asking questions like these? If so, where and what’s a new question you can ask yourself?

P.S. Part of the reason these questions give me so much trouble: Janice has a field day with them.

daring greatly: a must read

Posted on by jplatt27

I finished Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown last weekend. I’m still trying to process it all, and actually plan to go back to the beginning to re-read the parts I’ve underlined and maybe compile a series of posts here, but I wanted to share this first.

Daring Greatly

This book is a must-read.

This book is a must-read for anyone in a position to influence others, ie everyone. This book will be especially powerful for teachers, managers, and parents.

Brené Brown is a researcher that focuses on shame and vulnerability. While based in years of academic research, the message of this book is practical and accessible to everyone.

To get a preview of what Daring Greatly is all about, watch Brené’s TED talk.

Have you read Daring Greatly? What was one ah-ha moment you had as a result?

 

i don’t finish every book i start

Posted on by jplatt27

I was reading The Dinner recently. Even though I was more than half way through, I just wasn’t into it. I was bored. And even though there is supposed to be a twist or something interesting happening at the end, I didn’t really care to get to the end.

One of my core desired feelings (Danielle LaPorte, anyone?) is to be engaged. To be excited and pulled into something. And this book just wasn’t doing it for me.

So, I let it go. I closed it with no intention to pick it back up. And honestly, that small decision made me feel powerful.

Life’s too short to do things that don’t make you feel good. Life’s filled with too many opportunities for things that make us feel good to hang on to arbitrary obligations. So I try not to do that anymore.

Ok, talk to me in the comments:

What’s something in your life that’s not grasping you in the way you’d like? What would it be like to let it go?

What’s the last book you read that you could. not. put. down??

 

failure to launch

Posted on by jplatt27

I had big plans for the launch of my new blog. Fireworks. Lots of buzz. Lots of excitement.

But honestly, I have no idea what that meant. And I wanted to start writing again. To start sharing again. That’s why I blog–to share. Not to get famous or have people cheering and whistling.

So I decided to just go ahead, get a few things re-organized, update some pages and click publish. Nothing big, nothing crazy. Everything not perfectly figured out.

Sometimes you just have to do that in life. Make a move without everything perfectly figured out. Just get started.

So, hello again.

It’s been a while, and I’m happy to be back. 

Want to help me celebrate? Pick your favorite post and share it on social media.

go at your own pace: what to do when you have two

Posted on by jplatt27

A while ago I wrote about going at your own pace in life and not comparing where you’re at with others.

It hit me this morning that we often struggle to find a good pace within ourselves, that this conflict is often an internal one.

As I mentioned in this post last week, I really want some down time right now. I’m really happy with that realization and am enjoying the space I’m giving myself.

But as I went out for a walk this morning, I thought “oh, I should email so-and-so” and “I need to look over that page on my website.” I’ve also had thoughts like “I want to read this book” and “I want to write that post” and “I want to reach out to this group.”

One part of me is like enjoy this time, space is good, relaxing will help you create. The other part of me is more cautious and saying “go, go, go” and “do, do, do,” fearful that if I don’t take action, if I don’t think about these things every single minute, that nothing will happen.

It’s hard to go at your own pace, what I’d call your soul pace, when there’s that voice in your head saying “hello, what are you doing?”

Here’s how I’m going to handle it: I’m going to keep going at the pace my soul wants to go while acknowledging the voice in my head by saying: “I know you’re looking out for me and want to make sure I get what I want. Thank you for that. But trust me, I know it’s coming. This pace is just fine.”