[Revu2]

Hello, I'm bringing an thread here from Barbara Sher's forums that began—I want to say—around 2002. Basically, you commit to a limited number of small steps a day towards your goals.

The way it has evolved, sometimes it looks like a daily chore or todo list, tidy up, take a walk, call a doctor sort of thing. AND, the top most goal is to live a decent life, and those add to that, list them, please.

This thread serves as our accountability checker. Come back and tell us of new steps and whether the prior ones are done, in process, delayed, procrasted, overrun, etc.

Steve Wozniak created a checklist for how to become a genius:

1. You must clarify your goals,
2. gain knowledge through spaced repetition,
3. preserve health,
4. work steadily, [that's where this thread comes in]
5. minimize stress,
6. refuse interruption, and
7. never resist sleep when tired.

Step steadily,
Revu2

[unaluna]

Well i got step 7 down pat!

I am a big fan of barbara sher.

[Revu2]

Today sold my MacBook Air G4 through craigslist. Got a letter sent to my credit card for a chargeback on a scamming indiegogo campaign. Also cc-ed a muck raking journalist interested in crowdfunding scams and frauds, my state's attorney general, and the department that watches over financial institutions. Then kept reading up on this phenom.


Sad morality of the mismash of motives in modern life.

Over & out, Revu2

[unaluna]

Finished folding clothes.
Did some recycling.
Didnt overeat.

[Revu2]

Tues. 3/10/20 Steps (most of which I didn't do today).

1. Prepare a calendar for a year of a project I help run.
2. Prepare my own personal calendar.
3. Continue my coursera class on Well-Being, Week 2.
4. Get to my client's board meeting and take notes.
5. (not too enthused for random reasons) organize my several binders related to my main client's work. Should take about 60 minutes. I'll start around 11 am. I'll prime with part 1 of 10 videos on using binders to organize work. Never watched, so I'll tell you Wednesday how I rate it.

Now, to sleep, perchance to dream,*

Revu2
* William Shakespeare

[Revu2]

Check to all items from yesterday. Today, a bit busier.

• Continue class.
• Edit and send work notes.
• Draft edits on legal agreement for lawyer to review.
• Put work on thumb drive due to ...
• Back up computer. Done
• Take computer in to Genius Bar because it's not shutting down/waking up right.
• Breathe, walk, smile,

Revu2

[delightful]

Hi, I'm also an expat from Barbara Sher's Boards.

My projects are:

I'm finishing a novel. This sounds so cliche '- it seems as if everyone is writing a novel. But I did, I like it, and I'm going to self pub.

My other project - My neighbors have great parties in their back yards. I want that. I'm fixing up my back yard as well.

Step for right now - I'm picking up a sushi for dinner.

I don't take comfortably to change. Barbara's Boards will go down May 1st. I need to get used to posting here before that date. I guess that's project number three.

[Revu2]

Hi Delightful, good to see you are dropping in. Today, I have on my life scan essays, ease, computers, and research. Funny enough, ease is the hardest! It's easy to dream, put nothing on paper, promise nothing, avoid commitments. Easy means idle, puttering, allowing my attention to flit about like a flutterby (my name for butterflies—it just makes more sense).

Easy also bumps against realities. Easy means making choices: do I want the ease of writing on legal pads in pencil then I have the harder work later of typing it into a computer. Do I enjoy the ease of composing, then I face the harder editing and harder still polishing steps. I make known errors such as having its for it's and the other way round.

It's easy to read, harder to write. Easy to listen, harder to persuade. Easy to eat, harder to shop and cook and clean. Easy to meet, harder to arrange. It's easy to go on like this and harder to move on.

In the wider scope of life at the moment, it's easy to cancel and forbid, harder to lift restrictions.
Today: open a folder for my next major research effort on home insurance policies.
Join a video class on Zoom conference calls.
Walk a mile to get our raw milk delivery.
Reach out to some friends.
Revu2

[delightful]

Shock! Barbara Sher and I got into an Internet disagreement about gratitude!!!!! Shock! Yes, I admit it. Note - this happened years ago.

I agree with her on two points - If you're really miserable, and you pretend to be happy, you'll go crazy. And yes, sometimes you need to rant - to get it off your chest and move on. As most of you know, I have posted a lot A LOT of rants.

BUT - and here I need to switch from "you" to "I" because I can't speak for other people. If I ignore all the good things and only focus on the bad, I dig myself into a black hole. So, when I'm ranting and feeling like everything is hopeless, I try to end the rant with some gratitude. Interestingly enough, this is where psychiatry is heading these days. After my surgery, my surgeon sent me, via the Internet, recovery posts including ten-minute guided meditations on dealing with post-surgery pain and feelings of depression. The messages - the pain is there. Don't add to it with your thoughts. Similar the the famous Serenity Prayer - "God grant me serenity to accept what cannot be changed, courage to change what I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Apparently, this works well short-term, and it works for people who are depressed because of current problems. It doesn't work well for people whose depression is rooted in childhood trauma. I don't know how it works on people with chemical imbalances. Like I said - this is about me not about anyone else.

Also, Barbara came from the age of EST and other gurus who maintained that if you REALLY believe in something it will happen. Or if you pray hard enough. And yes, that kind of thinking can drive you crazy.

I'm posting all of this because I'm grateful for the Boards. Without them, I wouldn't have created "Temporary Address" or "The Molly Chronicles." Especially "The Molly Chronicles" because Square Peg taught me what I needed to know photographs, and downloads, and his dog Shadow who featured prominently in the baseball segment. And Lynx and Inspire, who encouraged me when I needed that. And I wouldn't be this far along on "Through Unfamiliar Waters" without you guys. So thank you.

I'm grateful. Sorry, Barbara.

[unaluna]

Today i took an uber to the pharmacy, took the bus back home. So that was a chore done, a shower taken.

[delightful]

Love uber!

[unaluna]

Took out garbage, recycling. Had groceries delivered. Emailed doc about med refills re covid.

[delightful]

I'm feeling like a newbe here.. I guess because I am a newbe. I'm off to do some editing.

[Revu2]

Hi steppers,

Facing a medium hard step currently as my 9 year old MacBook Air is beginning to show signs of imminent failure. My 'e' and 'o' keys have taken to only working when they feel like it. If it were the Q key or even the Z key I mightn't mind as much.

So today, I'm trying out using my Mac keyboard. So far, I'm loving it. Don't have to distract with worrying about typing e or o.

Here's the deal, sandwiched between 2015 and 2019-2020, Apple changed their laptop keyboards. They tried a 'butterfly' design after long use of a 'scissor' design. The newer idea needed less space so they could make the machines thinner. Customer response, not so great, and beginning last fall Apple switched back to the scissor design.

So for maybe $1500 or $1600 I can wait to get the latest, greatest 2020. OR, for less that $1000 I can get a 2015 model both with the classic keyboard. As I see I wear out keys, the keyboard is important. Crucial now is the ability to keep up with OS changes, and 2015 models have that capacity.

So, writing this out has helped. I'll look for vintage refurbished 2015 models for under $1000 with a warranty. Make a little tracking/comparison table, and see what shakes free.

Step wisely,
Revu2

[unaluna]

Worked up a sweat on the Cubie last night. Its not actually a cubie, its a wonder core, which is more like a mini tiny um maybe stepper. It doesnt go around, it just goes down and up at an angle. Anyway, if you are out of shape, you can gain some fitness from it. Its a (re)start, again. This thread is helping.

[Revu2]

unaluna, very thrilled our corner of psychcentral seems to be helping. Keep cubing. [Is that something Picasso would say?]

Whoosh! Time gone. Have some serious writing to do the next 14 days on a grant due 3/30.

And I'm working away on mulitfamily earthquake property insurance. To compete with our current policy which is draining our budget dry.

Plus, the daily anxieties about the c-virus. I dared a look at my IRA share price. Down 25%.

Had a meal out tonight, to support the local eateries. Now the Gov'nor closes them all after 12:01 AM Tuesday.

Paradoxcially, I know I need to get to bed earlier and set clear brackets for my "office hours" to get through this stretch.

Done it before, will do again.
Revu2

[Revu2]

"Office hours" today roughly 8:40 am to 5 pm.

1. Zoom call
2. Property insurance
3. grant research and writing
4. connect with assistant to see if she has time
5. random acts of research
6. moments to breathe
7. monitor updates of c-virus
8. stay positive enough

Ta-ta, Revu2

[delightful]

i wish I had something really exciting to post here. I keep wanting to make up a good story (Yes, I'd admit it was fiction). You'd think, as a writer, I'd be able to come up with something good.. Alas . . Maybe with the net post.

One thing about fiction - in the good stories, the exciting stories, bad things happen to good people. A story about people being happy just isn't very interesting. Maybe I'll try to write a happy intersting story as a challenge. maybe. Maybe. Big talk. but I could do it. I have the time.

[Revu2]

Hi steppers,

Back here after a few days with my focus on getting a good enough draft of this grant thing done. Well, did it and shipped it to our consulting coach for her looksee. Even then, spent nearly 2 hours over about 50 words this morning. Getting them right. As Mark Twain said, the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Or like that quote attributed to lots of people: worked hard all day—spent the morning putting in a comma, and the afternoon taking it out again. Mark Twain? Flaubert? Oscar Wilde? The winner is: Oscar Wilde!

One of my distractions is reading books about writing. Right now it's The Way of the Writer by Charles Johnson. In one essay he speaks to the important of creating good exits from scenes in novels. This idea proved very handy as it helped me sharpen the close of the answer I worked up this morning.

Also, in the depth of this amazing turn of society due to the c-virus, I stepped up and bought my next computer so I can get it set up before the one I'm working on decided to give up the ghost with a logic (mother) board failure.

Going with a Macofalltrades early 2015 MacBook Pro 13 inch, with 16 GB RAM, 420 GB storage, 3.1 Ghz Intel Core i7, and 1 year warranty. $1100. I barely understand what difference the i7 makes over the i5, or 3.1 Ghz makes to 2.9 Ghz, still higher is better and to step up just added $100. The other model had just 8 GB RAM, so getting 16 is great on its own.

I hope,
Revu2

[Revu2]

Have an annoying pattern. Style myself relaxing, yet when I get home I had to face a couple of bills, then I learn someone didn't consult their calendar when agreeing to a meeting on Tuesday that will take precious time to reorganize. Then the real trajectory of this c-virus thing getting more surreal by the hour ... and I developed a serious case of the cranks.

This relax to cranky pattern is very frequent. Not sure how to kick it. Would rather come back from relax with "whatever" as my attitude. Instead I feel like all these things are hornets disturbing my peace.

Whew. A Rant. A

.

It's always darkest before the dawn.

Whatever,
Revu2

Revu2 thanks for introducing us to Barbara Sher with this thread! I am definitely going to read her books to see if I can glean anything from them. I am on the entrepreneur path at the moment, without a clear goal or path so I'm glomming on to as many entrepreneurial resources that I can get my hands on.

Steve Wozniak created a checklist for how to become a genius:

You must clarify your goals:

Find a clear path that leads to a career with a good income.

gain knowledge through spaced repetition:

Research other women entrepreneurs for inspiration and direction.

preserve health:

daily meditation and walking is all I can muster right now.

work steadily, [that's where this thread comes in]:

Currently unemployed.

minimize stress:

With the Covid-19 virus and social isolation that's a challenge.

refuse interruption, and never resist sleep when tired:

I can't refuse interruption. Sometimes, I welcome interruption. And sometimes, my insomnia wakes me up and I can't resist sleep when tired b/c I think that's unhealthy. I sleep when I'm tired.

[delightful]

The rain stopped, my garden is beautiful, and I can't share it with anyone. The birds are pointing out that my bird feeder is empty. Today, I edited about fifty pages. It's time to do something else. Most of my friends have clean houses and apartments now, because they have so much time to clean. I, on the other hand,. - well - With no one coming over, I've let things slide. So it's time now, to get some chores done that I've been putting off, fill up the bird feeder, and write some cards. I started working on the messy house yesterday, and made a little headway, but there's still a lot to do. Where did all that motivation and energy go????

I hope the next time I post, I'll have a list of completed items.

[Revu2]

Hi threaders,

You're welcome Motts. Her forum is going for about 5 more weeks if you want to search around. The quotes people have posted through the years are simply amazing.

I'm draggin' … my biorhythms run down to zero tomorrow around 8 pm. Oh man, truly bottoming out. Just have to wait it out.

Revu2

[Revu2]

Hi steppers,

My dear biorhythms are cratering down to Zero tonight around 8 pm. I can feel it as a draggy body, dull mind, and indifferent heart. Would prefer to take the whole day off, but can't allow that or I'll break the chain of work on this grant and some other research.

So, a notch up from a day off is "a day down." Simply get one foot in front of the last step.

I'll report tomorrow how it goes.
Revu2

[Revu2]

Long night of sleep. Good thing as I wasn't much us for anything else. Today, more grind out with grant, but due date extended a month and I'm allowing myself the time to stretch out. No cabin fever yet from covid-19 'shelter in place' order. Taking good but not extreme precautions.


To the page,
Revu2