“If not now, when?”
Hillel the Elder
Author: chungwipff
Holiday Gratitude
I am grateful for the opportunity to blog and have readers who provide feedback. I’m thankful for the WordPress community and for the wonderful blog posts I’ve read the past few years. Befriending fellow writers from Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and Australia has been a phenomenal experience.
Here’s to a healthy 2017 with lots of presence.
Creating Space
I was practicing handstands the other day. I didn’t move all the furniture out of the way. Coming down, my foot hit the corner of a nightstand. Hard.
I’m sure the toenail will grow back.
The irony was not lost on me.
Yoga is all about creating space: space between the vertebrae, space in the heart and in the mind. The physical exercise creates room in bodies and meditation creates much needed gaps in thinking.
Space is good! It fosters a better posture – both literally and figuratively.
Money Is Only a Tool (Ayn Rand)
What are your beliefs about money? That you’ll never have enough? That only greedy people are rich?
Money is energy. You receive it in return for your work. If your work is valuable, you will receive currency. Focus on the giving and the rest will take care of itself.
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. –Winston Churchill
Funds (like people) escape those who squeeze too tightly. Do good work, serve people generously, and wealth will come.
Shoot High, But Ship It
Work like mad.
Give it your all.
And then deliver it, knowing it’s not perfect and never will be.
Teens and Talent
“I’m procrastinating,” my daughter said. She was just hanging out with me. With all her chores done, the last item on her list of “to dos” was to practice her violin.
“I don’t get it. You are so good at violin. You seem to enjoy it. Why do you always put it off?”
“I love playing. I don’t like practicing. It’s hard and it’s boring.”
“Well, it’s the practicing that makes us like listening to the playing.”
“You’re so mean,” she says as she opens her case.
2 Factors for Joy
How happy are you? Your age might be correlated to the level of your happiness. And acceptance might be the key to joy.
According to a study by Nielsen, people ages 18-21 are pretty happy, but the level of self-reported well-being goes on a decline until it hits rock bottom at age 50-53. This is due, in part, because people in this age bracket are preoccupied with money concerns: kids’ college tuition and their own retirement funds. But then, the level of contentment goes up on a steady trajectory for a high into the eighties. The reason?
As people age, they accept their aging. THIS is the key to contentment.
Perhaps we should all accept our present condition, no matter the age? Wouldn’t this naturally lead to more joy?
http://www.businessinsider.com/age-people-are-happiest-2016-5
The Practice
One of the 5 ways to increase your grit is practice, practice, practice. By this, Angela Lee Duckworth means to practice deliberately. For example, let’s say you’re a musician. It might be tempting to play that piece that you know so well, the one everyone compliments you on. But you’re not going to get better by doing that. You need to practice that four octave scale you haven’t nailed yet. You need to go slowly, hit each not just right and start over when you get it wrong. Boring! Tedious! But so critical.
This is grit.
It’s hard and it’s boring and you need to do it every single day. You need to be consistent.
That is how you get better.
By the way, you can substitute anything for practicing violin: football, soccer, dance, writing, drawing, painting. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing extremely well.
Honesty
‘Tis the season!
We receive holiday cards, mostly from friends and family but also the occasional acquaintance.
We received a card with one of “those” letters in them. You know what I mean, the ones that review the entire year for every family member in 8 very full paragraphs in 8pt font. Everything that happened was fantastic. Each family member is on his/her way to great success.
This card/letter came from a family with whom we don’t have a personal connection. We never speak on the phone, we never meet up. We are not even Facebook friends. They happen to be real estate agents in the community.
2016 is almost over. I’d like to see some authenticity happen in 2017.
Communications (email, phone, social media, etc.) are time-consuming, both for the sender and the recipient. Wouldn’t it be nice if every attempt at reaching out was genuine? Do you really care to forge a relationship with us? Then be real. Invite us for a meet up. Call. Even an email invitation is acceptable these days.
But please, don’t send a generic “personalized” letter and assume we care. Why should we?
5 Ways to Increase Grit
Grit – the persevering drive to achieve one’s goals – is identified as one of the most powerful factors for success, even more than talent.
A big part of my job is to preserve perseverance in my students. As a mother, modeling and maintaining grit is central to my parenting style. We can raise talented, very smart children, but without resilience, they won’t create and maintain satisfying, successful careers and lives.
Perhaps you’ve found your own passion and you can relate. “I love writing/painting/coding/etc. but I often fail to complete a project. How can I develop grit?”
Angela Duckworth, a noted psychologist, author and recipient of the MacArthur Genius award for her work on grit, identified 5 research-based ways to increase your grit level:*
- Pursue your interests – obviously, if you’re intrinsically driven to pursue something, you’ll be more apt to stick with it through thick and thin!
- Practice insanely – consistent, deliberate practice not only makes perfect, it also increases your perseverance.
- Find purpose – if your long-term objective is to help your community or others, you’re more likely to stick with the work than if your objective is to save up for that dream Ferrari.
- Be optimistic, have hope – truly believe and expect that tomorrow will be better than today. So if you’re still learning and making mistakes, know that you’re just going to get better and better.
- Join a Gritty Group – Have you heard the saying, “You’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with?” It’s true. Stick with diligent people and you’ll be persevering too.
*Source: http://theweek.com/articles/624204/5-researchbacked-ways-increase-grit
Kismet 