The problem with a new year carrying so much weight – or for us to assign so much weight to them – is that any faltering is just seen as an overall failure. Another broken resolution.
Yes, the new year comes only once every twelve months. But each day is a new day to start over. To reinvent yourself. And so if you falter today, tomorrow’s a day you can succeed.
The consistent struggle I engage in daily is the battle of stuff. What I identify most with is a collector. I collect things, and as my interests expand, so do my collections. And number of collections.
Sometimes I feel jealous of minimalists. I have a brother who is able to keep an immaculate house. A friend of mine can let go of things just as easily getting his hair cut, and so his apartment is always in flux – new things in, and older things out, even if they aren’t really old at all.
In this post-Christmas season, I think many of us deal with new items in the house. And while of course it’s good to let go if you can, it’s also important to hold onto things that make you happy.
Don Miguel Ruiz wrote a book called The Four Agreements. I was gifted this book about seven years ago, and it was one of several things that got me through a tough time. But I always come back to the four agreements you make with yourself:
Whether or not I think about these things, I always carry them with me. And that last one, always do your best, is a call to action each and every day. Your best may change from day to day. You might not have as much to give today as you did yesterday. But still do your best.
That’s why each morning is a new baseline for your life, and you can make anything happen. One day at a time.
If you get up everyday and do the same thing, is it habit? Are you in a rut? Is there a way to decide?
Certainly you can find yourself locked into one way of doing things. Maybe that closes you off. Of course, you could just as likely be open to new possibilities. And it may be better to try something new, or the common could work just as well or better.
I’m not sure what a rut is, really. It could be something fundamentally different than habit. Or, one man’s habit could be another man’s rut. I suppose that it is all relative, and how you view your life really dictates whether those habits give you opportunities for fulfillment, or detract from a meaningful life.
One thing that I’ve been focused on since being out in LA has been to flesh out my network. Contacts in the film and television business that I had somewhat in Atlanta, but did not here in Hollywood. So, it’s been all about meeting people.
Or, rather, I’d like to say that was the case. But it hasn’t been that so much… for this and that reason.
So, now in the New Year, it is a large focus of mine to actively pursue new contacts. Not only people I’d like to work with, or who may want to work with me. But a friend network. A support group. A community.
Because no matter where you are, it’s incredibly important to have a supportive community that you can turn to.
Where just days ago it seemed that Grammarly was working on WordPress, now, there’s no spellcheck to be seen. What happened? Did I surreptitiously do an update and messed with it? Or, was it one program or the other or both – deciding that, no, they really didn’t want to play with each other.
One thing to make writing on the platform just a bit easier on the user, and not it’s gone away.
Will it ever come back?
Writing for a daily posting means keeping up with a practice. It also means keeping your eyes and ears open, so that you can come up with topics or posts for every day.
Thankfully, the world is full of potential. If you pay attention, you’ll never run out of things to write about. Then it’s just a matter of doing it.
I used to hate flying. But now, usually, I love it. It’s a promise of a new adventure every time. Sure, it can be cramped. Really, just a bus in the sky.
But… That flying bus is going somewhere maybe you’ve never been before. And that’s worth it.
Some days, it’s just so easy to be excited by the smallest things.
I started writing on WordPress probably ten years ago, though maybe a bit more. Not consistently at first, but it’s been something I’d come back to from time to time. Then, in an effort to find an outlet to deal with some things that I had going on, I began writing as a practice.
So, in 2016, I began keeping up with this on a regular basis (which I’ve tried to keep up these past six years, though it’s admittedly been spotty at times).
In 2016, WordPress included a native spellcheck. I found it very helpful. One of its subsequent updates negated this tool, and I was mildly perturbed. However, I was introduced to Grammarly which, as an add-on, worked fine. That is until another update caused it to stop working with WordPress as well.
Thus, I moved all my writing to Google Docs, where I had a central scratchpad document.
Now, though, I see that Grammarly is once again functioning on the WordPress site, and it is all to say that I am very delighted with that fact.
Know thyself. This ubiquitous phrase, the first of three Delphic maxims inscribed leading into the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, as recorded by the Greek writer Pausanias. The two maxims that follow “know thyself” were “nothing to excess” and “certainty brings insanity”
Setting aside the two latter maxims, it is important to understand yourself so that you can understand your daily flow. Me, I am so easily distracted that, if I’m not rigorous in my attention to my schedule, I’ll run amok. I could be late to appointments, skip a few hours of creative work, or miss an important phone call.
Thus, it’s good to schedule some time for whatever may hold my attention at that moment. And then it’s just as simple as sticking to the schedule. (Which may or may not happen, but I do try.)
Michael's Musings 