A few Measly Steps a Day

Hello and Welcome!

A few longtime members of Barbara Sher’s forums are “migrating” to PsychCentral to continue our Daily Steppin' Thread. Barbara closed her site May 1 and after a long search we decided to move over to PC.

By announcing you’ll take a few measly steps every day towards a goal, you’ll make steady progress. And win a lot of encouragement. As you go you can vent, rage, complain, and sigh at the slow pace here, too.

Here are the paltry Guidelines:

1. Announce any number of steps you plan to do in the next 24 hours.
2. Return the next day and share how much you did.
3. Rollover the steps that still need doing, add more if you like.
4. Add any rants, quotes, or comments.
5. Repeat

You can also post your Ta Da! wins—steps you made that “just came up” or felt suddenly right to do.

At any time you can offer inspiring quotes, like

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Edison Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait.

(no apologies, Tom, for the pronoun changes. I think you would understand).

Membership action: post your first Measly Steps.

Revu2

Just watched

. The Designer of nearly all of the Air Jordans, and other shoes, for Nike.

"If people don't love—or hate—your work, you haven't done all that much."

This is my maxim. Do what I need to do. Recently, I took on a task for my condo board and one of the board members expressed doubts. Thanks for the support. And I was able to get the engine of change rolling. We're not out of it yet, but it's in motion.

For people close to anyone's action, or, to use I, to my actions, I prefer support or that you quietly step aside. Support, help or get the h*** out of the way.
Revu2

Lyndon here. Steps for next 24 hours:

Explain what/why the Trueasiteverwas name.

Work on Stone Soup game for Diane and grandsons.
And explaiin what that is to.
Saturday activity for "worked enough" is to get game chat tested for GramCat (Diane) and a character sheet done.
And explain Diane's use name.

Things to limit: Stay under 4 hours of "work, work" jobhunting studies today. Didn't do much this week -- but resting is a better weekend activity than working myself into working not-smarter.

Find a quote to share.

Get my intro to board up in New Members.

To be continued!

Lyndon

Me too. Positive comments please unless I specifically ask for a complete critique.

Ta Da! Got my first of two shingle vaccine shots. I'd been waiting for a lull in my schedule and noticed that from Friday to Monday I didn't have much booked.

Ta Da! Friday was a listless day. I had to restrain myself from making just a few notes.

Today: already I've completed week 6 of the well-being class on Coursera. Next is four weeks of picking one of her rewirements and keeping at it for a month. Here's the list:

• Signature Strengths - using your top character strengths in new ways
• Savoring - taking time to savor the things you enjoy
• Gratitude - (List and/or Letter) - expressing gratitude for the people and things in your life
• Kindness - increasing your acts of kindness
• Social Connection - making connections with strangers and acquaintances along with scheduling time for the people in your life
• Exercise - increasing your physical activity to at least 30 minutes a few times a week
• Sleep - making sure you sleep at least 7 hours a night several times a week
• Meditation - meditating for 5-10 minutes if you are a beginner or increasing your time in meditation if you already meditate regularly

I think I'll roll with gratitude, but I want to sit with this decision a day before committing.
Revu2

So I used zoom, and got an email. The subject of the email was my zoom password. The email threatened me. I didn't read the whole email, but I probably should have. rats!

California is going to stay sheltered for another month, but they're loosening some of the restrictions. I have to read them more carefully. I'm still supposed to stay inside because I'm over 65 - at risk. Given that I've worked haz mat for 20 years, and that I've been ducking cold germs for five years, I feel pretty good about going out into the world and staying safe. Still, nothing's 100%, and when I worked in the lab, I did horrible things to my respiratory system.

Most of my steps lately are out in the garden. I've done a little writing, but I'm feeling "what's the point?" about it.

That's my steps for today.

Take care and stay safe.

I am convinced you always have to change direction when things are good.

Time to rotate that password, Delightful. One tactic I have is use a different email+password pair for every site. These hoodlums are sending out thousands, or perhaps missions of these so really, its not personal. They wait for any impulsive enough to respond and then their fun—and our grim—begins.

For keeping track I use Password Wallet, but there are many other password management apps out there.

My goal today is to clean my living room. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but my whole apartment has descended into chaos. So one room at a time.

2nd goal. Find all my papers for taxes. I haven't done them and if I don't I might not qualify for another stimulus check is they do that process again. I don't need to do the taxes. Just find the papers in the paper piles!

I mis-typed a word a couple of posts back: it seems "missions" came through my fingers, when my thinking was "millions."

Work call @ 10. Practicing WOOP: Wish Outcome Obstacle Plan as I learned from the Well-being course on Coursera.

Wish - Calm acceptance that I have opinions that through hard thinking few other people will automatically share. Get through my meeting with a level demeanor the whole time.
Outcome - Fist pump! I can do this. dissolve a bit of early training by my father who ridiculed my ideas, that is, laughed at them.
Obstacle - verily, I rename thee "inner obstacle" because that's where the technique takes me. I have fast rising hackles. They probably make me feel bigger than I actually am. I guess as a child facing an adult, they did.
Plan - when I feel my hackles rising, I reassure them internally that I will hold to my points of view. I breathe, I smile, and ask a single probing question after starting, "That's interesting. Mind if I ask ... "
When I do these three simple, doable, steps, I'll make a mark in my score box in my favor.

I did get some work done on the living room, but it's not "done". I decided to do my old trick of setting the timer for 10 minutes and just do 10 minutes in each room. Chipping away..........

I did find a pile of papers that included some tax stuff, but I haven't sorted them. I also found my census form and plan on getting that done soon.

I'm feeling really sad today about my procrastination. I know everyone deals with it, but my procrastination affects my life in really huge ways. I don't feel any way to approach it today.

Today's goals:

• clean window for later painting (muck out, vacuum, wipe clean).
• Vacuum a bit around apartment.
• walk with a friend
• trim off some email files

About that last one, I had a whole folder of maybe 1000 email messages I had filtered out of my inbox. All were pre-pandemic. Trashed.

Letting myself breathe and rest, knowing this too will pass.

Revu2

HI, everyone,

I'm so glad to see all of your posts.
Most of the time, I don't really mind staying at home. I'm surprised. I thought, I'd get depressed not seeing my friends. But today, I got really squirrelly. I took off in my car, just for an attitude adjustment. Said "hi" To my auto repair friend (from the car - I didn't get out. And now I'll get a little bit of work done on my novel, and then maybe clean up a bit of my garden.

I figured out how to do the fire pit. It's a ring of attractive rocks, and there's a place in the middle for the ugly but safe and legal metal container which I can hide in the wisterias when I'm not using it. I wish I could have someone come over.

Happy stepping, everyone

Unaluna, I love your log on.

Scout2, did it feel strange to be posting here instead of Barbara's Boards? I'm glad you made it. I know it's really not much different here from the Boards, but it took me a bit to get used to it.

Getting threatening emails really jolted me. It took a couple of days to recover. Funny - I used to be so calm. Nothing bothered me. I could do almost anything. I couldn't understand how people got so nervous about little things. Now I understand. My mind knows there's nothing to worry about, but I wish someone would tell that to my nervous system.

I do have some steps for today.

1. Finish my mini-story for my writers' group.

2. Work on my fire pit before it gets too hot.

3. edit.

See you all later.

All steps completed.

So slight a line, all steps completed. Like Cheers for that!

Today I ticked off how much I've managed since about December 2017. Back then I was in the middle of a project that eventually would test my skills about as much as my patience. The recladding of my condo was mired in complexity that later would be shredded by the lack of involvement of owners and had to be rebuilt fresh; I didn't know how I might continue to consult to supplement my retirement savings, and I wasn't playing nearly enough bridge.

I eventually wrote up a report of that project that the client never released; the residing is in it's 4th week of a 6 week project to be followed by redoing our roof; for my client I've written two grants—one has already been awarded and the other is under review—that will keep me busy till 2023; and with a goal of playing bridge 9 times in 2020 I got in 10 games before the parks department shut everything down.

So, what now? Having finished my will in 2019, I'll work on my health care directive. Mine is complicated. I suspect an Indiegogo campaign of fraud and so will be writing pieces, blogs, and letters to get my money back or the thieves brought to trial so we can get the facts out of them.

All of that will keep me busy till about Thursday next, then what?
Revu2

Revu2 I remember the siding saga. It was a long haul. Congratulations.

Me - I did a couple of minutes of editing and a lot of procrastinating.

The path leading from the street to my front door was seriously overgrown with ivy. I had a great gardener take care of it the last time, but I couldn't get hold of him, and it needed trimming. I used to be able to clean up the whole front of the house in an afternoon. Today, I got the path cleared - not completely but well enough that the poor mailman wasn't risking his neck to deliver my mail. And that was it. You'd think I ran a marathon. I was exhausted.

I'll try to get a couple more minutes of editing in tonight, and then I'll goof off shamelessly.

Hi steppers. Thanks for the congrats.

Getting to the Advance Directive (A D) took a bit of search. As in, where is my more recent draft? I couldn't find it on two computers, so resorted to my back-up disk and it was there. I think I last worked on it on a file on a stick drive. In 2008! Which is actually good news as the last printed draft before that I found was from 2004.

A few of the references suffered "link rot," meaning they are no longer live. For one I found the replacement site, for the other, perhaps the most interesting one, I found several medical journal articles but just a few measly links on archive.today that didn't say much. So I took the reference out.

Reading over my instructions to my Care Team teared me up. Essentially, I say if I am in a coma contact this set of experts & try 4 times to establish communication. Then, "I accept the consequences of what happens if the body that once was me should not respond that fourth and final time."

Curtains, kiddo!
Revu2

Today:

1. two conference calls
2. a recording to get transcribed
3. posting or getting as close as I can to posting something on linkedin

This linkedin piece is interesting. I am the harmed party, defrauded $129 in a crowdfunding scheme that raised $2.7 million dollars. Yet, a few of the voices in my head caution me, "don't do this, people will call you a fool and laugh at you."

Isn't that something? Someone tricks over 20,000 thousand people into sending them money for a product they have no intention of making, but it's the 20,000 that a few bullies will attack. Well, I guess the scammers are sliding bullies their cut to keep the discerning at bay.
Revu2

Kudos for standing up for what you justice. And on finishing your advanced directive. (It made me feel a bit weepy, and I've never met you in person. I have day dreams about getting published and going on book tours, and visiting all the people I know who don't live near me.)

But I digress.

My steps for today - an online doctor's appointment, and some editing.

Got my linkedin piece done. Disabled the comments. R

I'm starting to get a bit squirrel ish from not being around my in-person friends for so long. I have a zoom group in a couple of hours. I'm going to brave zoom again. If all they can do is send emails to me with attachments that shouldn't be opened, I'm okay. Plus I think hosting the meeting was what triggered the threats.

Meanwhile - the doctor I talked to deals with sleeping disorders. I haven't slept well in years. So the thought of a lot of good nights has me hopeful.

Otherwise - same o same o.

Happy stepping along.

On Monday felt, oh, this is a new decisive mood.
On Tuesday, I put calling dental surgeon on my list.
On Wednesday, I looked over my biorhythms to find my strongest days.
On Thursday, my companion and I mapped out open times.
On Friday, I made the appointment.

Ta Done! x 5.
Yuck list stuff, as I'm not going gentle under the knife.
Revu2