First Newsletter Issue!
I just clicked the button to send my first monthly newsletter out into the world. I’m a little nervous. Help me learn how best to help you. Tell me what you liked about it, what bugged you, what you already knew and have found successful in your life.
What’s that? You haven’t subscribed yet? Well, click here and sign up now!
Here’s a snippet from the first article:
Have You Caught the Fix-It-All-Now Flu?
Recently a woman emailed me because she wanted to make the jump from a job she hated to self-employment in a field she loved, but she was scared. She wasn’t sure how to go about it, so she started with reading books to try and fix her fears.
Rather than helping her, they were making her fears worse. Read more.
Tell me about a time you succumbed to the Fix-It-All-Now Flu. Did you give the practice steps a shot? How well did it go for you?
Let me know!
Is this a joke?
Okay, I just came across something called Bacon Salt. The creators claim to be on a quest to make everything taste like bacon. Now, I’m not against that, in fact it was just Sunday, after climbing Middle Sister that I was heard saying, “mmmm, everything’s better with bacon,” while stuffing a bacon, cheeseburger down my gullet. Bacon’s good in my book. But really. Is this for real?
And in the oxymoron category, this stuff is vegetarian (!) and kosher certified (!!). Hmmm, I guess it probably also has a disclaimer that says, no actual pork was harmed in the making of this product.
Surprised by Habits
I don’t know if any of you have ever had the opportunity to move to a place that’s an exact mirror image of your old place. Recently we moved from one side of our side-by-side duplex to the other, and did just that. It didn’t occur to me that it would be that different. But then I started just living my day-to-day life.
It’s weird! Everything is reverse. The fridge is at the wrong end of the counter, and so is the silverware. You face the “wrong” way in the shower (and I thought I had no sense of direction!). Plus, there’s all the times I went to the basement door, when I wanted to go upstairs, and opened the screen door to the other unit to go in, when I don’t live there anymore. Luckily the new tenants haven’t moved in yet.
I’ve written about this before and this has really been a reminder of just how many unconscious habits and patterns make up our daily lives. So, next time you wonder why you can’t change something through sheer willpower, look a little deeper and see if you can make all the associated habits and patterns conscious and start there. And what if you could use this power for good? Creating habits and patterns that bring happiness and peace to your life?
Now, anyone want to come help me unpack boxes?
Perspective
A week ago, I was planning to climb Mt. Hood with a Mazamas group (motto: We Climb High. I’m not making that up.). My first climb post graduation from their basic mountaineering course. Since Mt. Hood climbs have an alpine start, which means in the middle of the night, 2:30 am for us, we decided to stay at a little village just down the mountain from our starting point. So we’d get an extra hour of sleep before the climb.
Anxious about the conditions, we’d been hit by a heat wave, we were talking to all the climbers we could that. As a tired-looking guy went into the room next to us, we asked him if he had climbed. “To the top? No, no, is that what you’re going to do?” he asked, a shocked look on his face. He was impressed that we were planning it.
“So what are you doing,” we asked, because he clearly had been doing something active.
“Oh, walking across the country.”
HUH?! Now we were the ones that were shocked. Turns out that Mattias, from Sweden, started walking in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 15, 2007. He housesat for a new friend in Brooklyn for a month, and wintered over in Montana. But other than that, he’s been walking. He tries to get in about 25 miles a day, and fools his mind into it, because he thinks in kilometers, and doesn’t do the math to convert.
I found a short piece on him, from when he was walking through Wisconsin.
It’s funny how perspective works. We gave Mattias our contact information, and offered him a place to stay when he reached his ending point in a couple of days (Oregon City — end of the Oregon Trail) but we didn’t hear from him. From the few hours we spent with him, he joined us for dinner that night, I know he’s having a great time and meeting interesting people.
So, while my climb ended up getting canceled because of severe avalanche conditions, I had a great experience.