Good morning,
Last month I wrote briefly about why I thought people tend to avoid making New Year’s resolutions. One reason I gave was the common explanation that good self-improvement ideas should be implemented right away instead of arbitrarily delayed until the start of a new year. Imagine if I had a good idea on January 2nd – I would have to wait almost a full year to get going! Most people I’ve heard use this reasoning accept the logic of The January 2nd Example to some extent and explain that they don’t make resolutions because they prefer to apply good ideas right away.
I generally agree with this reasoning and try to live up to its ideal. The best example of how I apply it is my list of daily reminders. I take about a minute to read my daily reminders when I first log into my email account on a given day. These reminders are essentially a list of guidelines or principles I want to incorporate into my behavior, perspective, or decisions. I feel that reading this list every day helps me organize my long-term self-improvement projects and reminds me to get back on track whenever I stray from the course. It’s the closest thing I have to New Year’s resolutions because this living document renders moot the exercise of coming up with resolutions.
In a couple of days, I’m going to start going through each item in my daily reminders and briefly explain what the note means to me. I’ll keep each post short – around five to six hundred words – and I’ll post it on the third of each month as an extra piece of proper admin. Since the full list might take a few months to get through, today I’ll include the list in full below for anyone interested in seeing all of my daily reminders right away.
I think the big question about this list is how I determine the difference between just another good piece of advice and a thought that is important enough to reread every day for an indefinite length of time. A significant aspect of it is what I speculated on last month – the underlying sense of shortcoming, failure, or guilt that I suspect serves as the foundation for our New Year’s resolutions. As I reread these thoughts, I can see how each represents a certain wisdom learned and earned from three decades of failures. The self-directed advice is there to serve one purpose – prevent me from repeating my own mistakes – and the way I’ve framed each thought is intended to serve as forewarning of when I’m going down the same fruitless path again.
Here is the list in full as of January 12. We’ll be back in a couple days to start breaking down each line.
Daily reminders…
-> Be bigger than you feel...
-> 1) when it takes the least time 2) ASAP 3) don’t bother
-> Don’t engage on irrelevant POSITIONS- find common INTERESTS
-> Feedback is about what you did, not who you are; listen to verbs, ignore nouns
-> Isolate feedback / prove yourself wrong / one problems means one solution
-> Nothing good happens after 10pm / no computer within 2 HRs of bedtime…
-> Why are you eating? Eat slower, let food sit, and drink more water / 2-2-1-1-1...
-> No one cares - coach your team / work 45 to 75, rest 10 to 30
-> Be who you needed when you were younger / be who you’ll need when you’re older
-> Self talk means ‘I will, I will…’ / for bball: ‘flick, stick, and get inside-out’
-> Not best - enough / label negative thoughts / am I really trying my best?
-> HALT - know the base rate / underestimate affinity at your own risk
-> Accept invitations, but protect time
-> Try to win short games, avoid losing long games
-> An artist must make time for the long periods of solitude
*Be a good steward to your gifts
*Protect your time
*Feed your inner life
*Avoid too much noise
*Read good books
*Have good sentences in your ears
*Be by yourself as often as you can
*Walk
*Take the phone off the hook
*Work regular hours
