Hello friends! We’re now one week into 2021. How are you feeling? The atmosphere in America is heavy with anger, hatred, hypocrisy, and division. I won’t get into politics, but I do fear that the media will continue to pit member of the political parties against one another and prevent any semblance of national unity. For the second time, Arizona is the top “hot spot” in the world for the coronavirus with levels twice that of our June high, and our governor has been completely absent. I feel deeply sadden and disappointed by the behavior of my fellow human beings, but am also feeling excited for my own personal 2021 projects.
I don’t have any plans for the weekend or coming week, though I’m hoping to squeeze in some type of creative project over the next few days. I may also visit my parents’ backyard to collect some fall produce (broccoli, brussel sprouts, snow peas, carrots, parsley).
I hope that your 2021 is off to a promising start, and that you and your loved ones continue to stay safe and healthy. Here are a few links from around the web. Feel free to share anything interesting you’ve stumbled upon in the comments.
- “That moment of waking is an incredible opportunity, and it’s quite a tragedy if you go straight to your to-do list.” – David Whyte
- 100 Tips for a Better Life. Despite the click-baity title, this is actually a great list. Items I am in full agreement with: 1, 12, 17, 34, 46, 79. New ideas I hadn’t considered: 4, 30, 55, 68, 92, 100.
- “Proper breathing technique begins with understanding how your mental condition affects the way the body uses oxygen.” I found Eric Matthies’ guest post on breathing for Why is this interesting?
- I enjoyed this interview with Hugh Jackman on Best Decisions, Daily Routines, The 85% Rule, Favorite Exercises, Mind Training, and Much More. On The Tim Ferriss Show podcast.
- “Our life is filled with projects. We invest time, effort or money, and perhaps we get a result.” A simple 4 x 4 for choices from Seth Godin. Also, from Seth on Infrastructure: “We need to plant our trees before we want the shade, and fix our systems before they break.”
- 100 things that made my year (2020) from Austin Kleon. I really like this idea and may try to implement for myself in 2021.
- On why you should probably wear your underwear out of the store by Ella Ames on Not Enough Middle Fingers. “If how we do one thing is how we do everything, I could see the too-special-to-use stickers trickling down into all aspects of my life. And well it was all very kind and thoughtful of eight-year-old me to save those stickers for twenty-eight-year-old me. I can’t help but think I would have had a hell of a lot more fun with them before puberty hit.”
- “Modern life can feel too frantic for books. Use these habit-building strategies to carve out time for the joy of reading” How to read more books on Psyche.
- Why Small Habits Make a Big Difference from Farnam Street: “Those who understand compound interest can make it work for them and those that don’t understand it spend much of life trying to get out from its shackles. When we think of compounding, we typically think of finance and positive returns, as in ‘good compounding.’ But compounding just reinforces what’s already happening — good or bad. There is no judgment. And compounding works outside of finance. So while we can compound money positively and negatively, we can compound ourselves as well.”
- One of my intentions for 2021 is to get back into storytelling. I randomly picked up one of Matthew Dicks’ books at a used bookstore about twelve years and it was great (Something Missing, the story of a burglar who steals small and worthless things that will go unnoticed by the owner). Though I’m not currently interested in spoken storytelling, I’m re-learning a lot about how to write a strong story through the listening through his performances and podcast, Speak Up Storytelling.
existential ergonomics 