A few Measly Steps a Day

Revu2 · Apr 30, 2020 at 10:54 PM

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:

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

Revu2 · May 01, 2020 at 05:41 PM

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

Trueasiteverwas · May 02, 2020 at 01:22 AM

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

delightful · May 02, 2020 at 02:04 AM

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

Revu2 · May 02, 2020 at 12:55 PM

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

delightful · May 02, 2020 at 05:51 PM

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.

Revu2 · May 02, 2020 at 06:57 PM

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

Revu2 · May 03, 2020 at 09:40 AM

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.

scout2 · May 03, 2020 at 02:20 PM

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!

Revu2 · May 03, 2020 at 04:24 PM

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

Revu2 · May 04, 2020 at 11:15 AM

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.

scout2 · May 04, 2020 at 07:53 PM

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.

scout2 · May 05, 2020 at 05:58 PM

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.

Revu2 · May 06, 2020 at 10:33 AM

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

delightful · May 06, 2020 at 08:29 PM

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

delightful · May 08, 2020 at 11:11 AM

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.

delightful · May 08, 2020 at 05:46 PM

All steps completed.

Revu2 · May 11, 2020 at 01:36 AM

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

delightful · May 11, 2020 at 09:23 PM

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.

Revu2 · May 11, 2020 at 10:03 PM

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

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A few Measly Steps a Day

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delightful Member Member Since Feb 2020 Location: United States Posts: 445 4 13 hugs given	May 02, 2020 at 02:04 AM #4 Me too. Positive comments please unless I specifically ask for a complete critique.

Revu2 Grand Member Member Since Aug 2013 Posts: 855 11 4 hugs given	May 02, 2020 at 06:57 PM #7 I am convinced you always have to change direction when things are good. __________________

scout2 Junior Member Member Since Feb 2020 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 15 4 2 hugs given	May 03, 2020 at 02:20 PM #9 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!

Revu2 Grand Member Member Since Aug 2013 Posts: 855 11 4 hugs given	May 03, 2020 at 04:24 PM #10 I mis-typed a word a couple of posts back: it seems "missions" came through my fingers, when my thinking was "millions." __________________

scout2 Junior Member Member Since Feb 2020 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 15 4 2 hugs given	May 04, 2020 at 07:53 PM #12 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.

scout2 Junior Member Member Since Feb 2020 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 15 4 2 hugs given	May 05, 2020 at 05:58 PM #13 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.

delightful Member Member Since Feb 2020 Location: United States Posts: 445 4 13 hugs given	May 08, 2020 at 05:46 PM #17 All steps completed.