If you need to be motivated....

And you have ADD, this should take care of you....

Interesting insight

Here's an interesting insight....

Someday Lesson: Happiness does not exist in autopilot mode. It only exists when you’re aware of it. Everything else is merely comfort.

It comes from the great blog called "someday syndrome" which is about procrastination, but really about the fact that we all hold ourselves back far more than the circumstances surrounding us do.

But I had never thought of the differences between being happy and being comfortable. When I read the seven habits, I took the little test they have in the back for what is at "the center" of your life, and there was no doubt, I was living a comfort centered life. Most decisions were pointed to what would make me most comfortable....or, least uncomfortable.

And, tying a bunch of things together, you need to live an enriching life, which is about bursting through your comfort zone and making decisions which let you "make and do" great things.

Thursday Update

Working my way through my Christmas list. Not a great day, though. Disappointed myself by not showing more energy at work...I'm feeling so lethargic. And everyday it seems like I hear about someone else losing their job. And, someone disappointed me today, and I suppose I didn't react real well to that.

I'm happy with how I am spending my time at home, and I'm doing a lot of thinking about my writing, which is a good thing, too. So, those are good. But I've got to be able to figure out how to stop wasting time at work and get things done. I just couldn't feel less motivated.

Making my way

Not much to post lately. On Monday night, I had some pretty strong anxiety, but I re-committed myself to a step-by-step, action by action walk through what needs to get done, and things are seeming better. I'm not certain I'm fully in touch with everything that's going on right now, hiding inside the action, but a few things on my mind are:

• I listened to Into Thin Air on a long drive Monday, and really enjoyed it. I know it has been controversial, but it was a great story. Very compelling. I personally think it was fair. There are no accidents in a situation like that, and people's actions do contribute, even in difficult circumstances.
• I am continuing to think through my goals for next year, along the lines of Merlin's "done and made" and the Brandon "enriching life" motifs.
• I need to figure out how to bring energy to what I am doing. This remains a difficult challenge at work.
• Economic doom is literally everywhere, and closer than normal to me. I guess you just don't think about it, right?

The Christmas Tree is up....

And I love it...and its all mine.

Talk about a Reality Check

Merlin Mann is someone who I enjoy a lot. He has a very enigmatic wit and has a nice sarcastic edge to him...which I like. Anyway, he's been on a bit of a rebirth lately, taking a look at the proliferation of tips, tools, techniques and wondering if they are getting the way of people actually doing great things. And, were the changes being made sort of junk food changes rather than real, live, painful change.

A couple of passages seemed really relevant.

We can’t get good at something solely by reading about it. And we’ll never make giant leaps in any endeavor by treating it like a snack food that we munch on whenever we’re getting bored. You get good at something by doing it repeatedly. And by listening to specific criticism from people who are already good at what you do. And by a dedication to getting better, even when it’s inconvenient and may not involve a handy bulleted list.

If this strikes you as fancy talk, may I suggest that you approach the woman in your life who most enjoys sexual intercourse, and, in the nicest way possible, ask her whether she’d prefer to have congress with:

1. a confident partner who has had a long career of safe and mutually-satisfying romps with a range of people who liked different things; or,
2. a 50-year-old virgin who likes reading blogs about sex tips.

You know the answer, and so does she. There’s probably more than one reason that poor #2 is still just a well-read dilettante, but a strong candidate for the top spot would be how he’s allowed his ardor for acquiring “tips” to take the place of getting started in the actual, complicated, and sometimes very confusing craft of making ladyparts happy.

He says we need to look for evidence of things we have "done or made" to see if things are helping, or just contributing to the "ass print" on our couch.

Good stuff. The doing it angle is right in line with what I recently read from Malcolm Gladwell. You have to do something, he says, about 10,000 hours to get good at it. No short cuts, no quick fixes. Either you are the Beatles playing in Hamburg seven hours a day, or you are not.

New Traditions

One of the things I want to get back is the holidays...the last few years have been anxiety ridden and depressing, and not as happy as they should be. I've worked hard to be happy, and I know not to expect too much, but I know I can expect more. Not that it was awful before...just that there is room between what there was an unattainably perfect.

So, my son and I went out and got some decorations for the apartment. Modest, but festive, and when the tree gets here...and it will be starting to look like Christmas.

Here are some pics....