Hi all,
Welcome to my first breakdown of my daily reminders, a list of thoughts I read each morning to help guide me throughout the remainder of the day. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I’ll work my way through a few lines on the third of each month until we get through the entire document.
Be bigger than you feel...
This comment guides my thinking during emotionally challenging situations. It helps me retain calm, poise, and patience by acknowledging my feelings without letting those overwhelm me. It means I can be offended without necessarily taking offense.
When I train new hospice volunteers, I almost always mention some version of this thought. A hospice volunteer’s singular role is to help a patient get the most out of a given day. I’ve learned that failing to harness my emotions properly challenges my capacity as a volunteer to serve the patient and I use this reminder as a way to keep myself focused on the role during a difficult situation.
1) When it takes the least time 2) ASAP 3) don’t bother
I use this relatively new line to help make the most of my time. I try to avoid automatically doing something just because I can do it right away and instead consider how I can fit a task into my schedule to minimize how much time I need for it. If I can’t determine when a task will take the least time, I’ll take care of it ASAP. And if an action doesn't fit either category, I’ve found it’s almost always OK to skip it.
Don’t engage on irrelevant POSITIONS – find common INTERESTS
I realize in hindsight that I used to waste a lot of time debating. I see now that debate is limited in how it encourages incomplete, inconsistent, or impermanent worldviews. Debates also create a false duality of ‘one or the other’ that pits potential collaborators against each other and limits the potential for cooperative accomplishment.
A discussion about interests is much preferred. Those who engage over interests are concerned with compatibility and get far more accomplished than those who worry about positions. A discussion about conflicting interests is more like a puzzle than a fight and the win-win focus in those conversations fosters cooperation rather than competition.
Nothing good happens after 10pm
I wrote this down one morning after I acknowledged how anything I did after 10pm ran counter to my basic financial, health, and productivity goals. When I made waking up at 6 AM a priority, I found this thought was all I really needed to keep on track.
No computer within 2 HRs of bedtime
I added this thought after I noticed that late night computer use made it difficult for me to fall asleep. There are lots of other factors that go into getting a good night’s sleep but for me this is easily the most important – if I’m on a computer close to bedtime, I might as well go out for a drink because I’m sure to be awake for a couple more hours.
