Friday, March 30, 2012

Conversations Between a Heart and a Brain

Some happy Friday thoughts...

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I love this and wanted to share. Thoughts for all of us to feed on over the weekend!

Hope you have something nice planned!


Wednesday, March 28, 2012

"If Happiness Is on the Other Side of Success, Your Brain Never Gets There"

Why do we always think of happiness as an end goal? Why can't it be the goal now?

I've caught myself saying, "Once I ______ (insert goal here), I'll be happy." What if being happy now was the fuel to my success, allowing me to reach my goals faster?

Working and working for something, thinking that, in the end, we'll be happy, is the reality our culture has created. But will doing something that you hate, over and over again, really make us happy?

Happiness can come first. And, in the end, happiness fuels better work...and success.

Check out this video below that talks about reversing the formula - be happy to work well.


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

What Are You Working On?

Do you have something you're working on? 

Is it meaningful to you?
Do you find it fulfilling?

I think we all have a need for 'meaningful' work. We're always doing things, working on something - or many things. But is the work meaningful? To you, to someone else, or for many others?

Right now, we're writing a book. We're keeping track of facets, decisions, and details. It's creative, somewhat rule-less, and pretty much our baby right now. It feels good to be working on it. It feels bigger than us and it's definitely our biggest challenge yet.

"Meaningful work is work that is autonomous, work that is complex, that occupies your mind, and work where there is a relationship between effort and reward - for everything you put in, you get something out..." - Malcolm Gladwell

(Speaking of challenges, I don't have a P52uesday photo for you today or one to make up for last 2uesday. Sorry. But as it's a self-imposed challenge, I guess I'm ok breaking the rules.)

When I tear myself away from writing our book, (it's easy to tweak, and fuss, and edit, and move things around all day long), I'm trying to keep on top of a few other tiny things - and they may seem trivial, but they make diving into the book again every morning a bit easier:

-keeping the kitchen clean - somehow the day always looks up when the counters are clear and the sink is empty.

-staying on top of emails, phone calls, and letter-writing/card-sending. It feels so much better to just reply right away or call right back - what do we wait for? It takes almost as much time to write these things on a to-do list as it does to just do them. Of course, I add them to the to-do list after they're done just so I can cross them off - I can't be alone in this? And it feels good to send some love out to friends and family when there's a birthday or an anniversary to celebrate - a little way of saying, 'we know today isn't just an everyday for you.' 

-picking up around the house - putting laundry away after it's done (like 'back in drawers and closets away'), keeping the constant rotation of shoes at bay, eliminating the tumbleweeds of dog hair that hide in crooks and crevices of the house, and keeping up with the sorting/tossing/filing of the volumes of paper work and other 'stuff' that come in and out of our house.

Our day-to-days.

Well, back to work.

Do you have something you're working on? Is the work meaningful to you?


Monday, March 19, 2012

Blogging from...

These messages are brought to you from...

the back deck!
Yes, that's a snow shovel in the background...we've left it out for the moment...just in case
It's March and we're outside! And it's just wonderful.

Just wanted to drop into the blog to let you know we made good book-related progress this weekend. I'm fleshing out, today, what was discussed over snacks and cold beverages on the back deck yesterday.

And I've reclaimed my spot on the back deck to do it. And, never fear, Juno is at my feet enjoying the early spring day too!

Hope your week is off to a great start as well!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Mid-Week Cake Break

Break up the week with cake!

Delicious Apple Cake
4 cups diced apples (we use Macs and Galas)
2 cups sugar (yowza!)
1/2 cup oil (we use canola)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
Pour into a greased bundt pan and bake at 350 ˚ F for 1 hour.

Enjoy with the beverage and company of your choice!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

P52uesday WEEK 11

Back again (on the right day!) for another week of P52, our photo-a-week-for-a-year project. You can read all about the series and self-imposed challenge here.

Here we go with week 11:








Depressing, ominous, shadow-y photo? I THINK NOT! This photo is a darn cause for celebration! 

Because...

there is no snow left on our deck!!! We can see wood and grass and deck rails. 

This, my friends, is fantastically exciting when you live in a climate of six-month-winters! 

It's kind of like winter winter winter winter winter winter...springsummerfall. So we're heading into springsummerfall! Woohoo!

Hope you're all enjoying everything March is bringing you too!

Happy 2uesday

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Enacting A State Of Extreme Focus

I've been MIA this week, mostly due to exciting developments on the book front. We've really streamlined our concept, have edited the socks off of it, and are enacting a state of extreme focus in an effort to really get this thing hammered out.

This...
is really happening!

We're going to have a book published...
Holy reading copy Batman!

Stay tuned for more updates.

And in honour of today's post, and a missed P52uesday post this week, here's Juno demonstrating our 'state of extreme focus'. She's in on it too.

She takes her assignments serious people.

Oughta' do the trick.

Friday, March 02, 2012

Speak With Conviction

Are we "the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since, you know, a long time ago?"

Speak. With. Conviction.

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And, maybe write with it too.

Happy weekend.