Persevering Through Uncertainty

Posted on May 28, 2023 in Uncategorized

Photo by Landis Brown

I found Dore’s article (below) on learning to wait – interesting.

The mental gymnastics involved in “waiting” can be intense. Those times when you vulnerably wait for good or bad news. Sometimes you are handed a reprieve and then you wait for something else – and so it goes.  

Frankly, I am not as good at waiting as I used to be: I was quite patient – even philosophical – and the patience served me well.

Now?

Let’s just say “buck up” is one of my current mantras.

So dear readers – do buck up and enjoy your Sunday!

Love,
Vicki P


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The Task at Hand. It May Be to Stop.

Posted on May 13, 2023 in Uncategorized

Photo by Karen Lau
Today I am featuring Rick Hanson’s “Just One Thing: What’s the hurry?” 
 
I realize I am harping on not missing today. 
 
To be clear, I am being far more practical than spiritual. 
 
True, sometimes we get backed up and have no choice but to enter a down-and-dirty race for a deadline or attack the too-long-ignored list of to-dos.  But how often is our compulsive behavior simply a habit? And how often does this habit have more to do with trying to prove we are worthy, than satisfying a real need?
 
If there is always a line of people beckoning, have we put ourselves in a position of being responsible for too much? 
 
If everyone IS depending upon you, who can you depend upon? 
 
Think about it and make sure you are taking care of yourself. ~Vicki

What’s the hurry?

The Practice:

Avoid the rush.

Why?

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A Quote

Posted on May 6, 2023 in Uncategorized

Photo by name_ gravity
Something to think about this week…
 
What are you chasing, and where would that energy be better served? – Nedra Tawwab
 
 
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Tricks for Being Understood

Posted on Apr 29, 2023 in Uncategorized

Photo by Product School

Alan Alda has been my “boyfriend” since Mash and when I found out he was smart and a good husband, in addition to being adorable, he entered the main room of my Hall of Admiration.

Below Kevin Dickinson outlines Alda’s rule of three for effective communication. Considering how much material we skim and try to stuff into our brains daily, using this method might actually backfire and lead us to realize we don’t know what we are trying to communicate!

Check it out and have a good Spring Sunday!

Hug

Vicki P


3 Rules to Express Your Thoughts So Everyone Will Understand You (excerpt)

by Kevin Dickinson

(…)

Whether from public speaking or just having a heart-to-heart, life is full of these types of conversations. You’ve been there, I’ve been there, and Alan Alda has been there.

Though best known for his role on the 1970s sitcom M*A*S*H, Alda is a public speaker, science enthusiast, and long-time advocate for better science communication. He has interviewed scientists as the host of Scientific American Frontiers, won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award, and founded the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.

In that time, he has developed a playbook of strategies to help people engage in conversation and voice their ideas clearly. If these tips can help biologists explain genetic drift, physicists Hawking radiation, or linguists anything about Chomskyan linguistics, then chances are they can help us express our thoughts and feelings when we need others to understand them the most.

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What’s In Your Control

Posted on Apr 22, 2023 in Uncategorized

Photo by Ben White

What’s in your control:

  • what you do
  • what you say
  • what you think

What isn’t:

  • what other people do
  • what other people say
  • what other people think

– Ryan Holiday

 

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Thinking AGAIN

Posted on Apr 15, 2023 in Uncategorized

Photo by Weyland Swart 

“No way of doing things is beyond improvement.”

I love Edwin de Bono’s quote above. Read it in the column I am featuring today, written by Thomas Oopong.

How about keeping that quote in mind so you don’t break your own back patting it?

Yes. How about: not only could someone else be doing what I am doing – better – but SO COULD I!

Don’t you just love pushing your lazy self-serving brain around? No? What’s the risk? You might change your mind?

Awwwwwwwww… well don’t look for no sympathy here.

AND…have a good week.

Vicki


How to Use Lateral Thinking to Remove Unnecessary Cycles in Life (excerpt)

by Thomas Oopong

You’d be forgiven if you think lateral thinking is something that only works in the creative industry. After all, who would need to think outside the box in real life? The answer is everyone.

Anyone can find themselves in a situation where traditional thinking simply won’t cut it. It could be a job interview, clarifying a new idea, making a life-changing decision, or another challenge you face daily.

Thinkers like Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Edison all had one thing in common: they were all masters of lateral thinking.

They were able to view problems from unusual angles, coming up with creative or original solutions that others simply couldn’t see.

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Inner Idiot

Posted on Apr 9, 2023 in Uncategorized

Photo by Torsten Dederichs

YOU ARE ACTING LIKE AN IDIOT!

The School of Life had a recent post on the “inner idiot” – the one we all shelter within. Obviously the more we accept our own idiot, the more we will accept the idiot in others.

In the coming week, when someone’s actions surprise us, we could remember today’s post and remember, “Oh, maybe I need to find the humor in this!” (Or maybe compassion.)

Good luck!

Hugs to all,

Vicki P


THE INNER IDIOT

‘The Inner Idiot’ is a bracing term used to describe a substantial, hugely influential and strenuously concealed part of everyone. An Idiot is what we deeply fear being, it is what we suspect in our darkest hours that we might be – and it is what we should simply accept, with humour and good grace, that we often truly are. A decent life isn’t one in which we foolishly believe we can slay or evade The Inner Idiot; it’s one in which we practice the only art available to us: sensible cohabitation.

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