Do you keep lists of work to do? If you’re like me, you have the work-list, the home/personal list, and the honey-do list. (The honey-do list is for my honey (husband) to please do.) I also have a potential list, which I don’t pay much attention to. I purposely do not call this a backlog. […]
What’s on Your “Done” List or How Do You Recognize Your Accomplishments? Read More »
CAL Newsletter: How Do We Plan for Both Cascading Effects and Catastrophic Success? I learned new words this week for events I’ve seen many times: catastrophic effects and catastrophic success. I’m sure you’ve experienced catastrophic failure. Here’s an example that’s happened to me too often over my career: a disk drive fails, taking all my data with it. I
How Do We Plan for Both Cascading Effects and Catastrophic Success? Read More »
This week started the Days of Awe, as some Jews call the Jewish New Year. One prayer I particularly like on Rosh Hashanah is Rabbi Jack Riemer’s A Time for Turning. Here’s a highlight: … takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means breaking with old habits. It means admitting
How Can We Break With the Old and Create a New Season? Read More »
Have you ever left a bandage on your arm too long? If you leave it on too long, you feel anywhere from discomfort to pain when you pull it off. Does that change your choice—do you choose to rip the bandage off as soon as you realize that? Or do you choose to leave it
How Do You Choose Between Short-Term Convenience and Long-Term Pain? Read More »
I went to the dentist this morning, for my semi-annual cleaning. The only interesting parts of the visit were their COVID questions and the piped-in music. They asked me about my vaccine and disease status 4 times: when I made the appointment; when I confirmed it by email; confirmation the day before by phone; and
When Do You Choose to Embrace the Past, Present, or Future? Read More »
I spoke with a writer the other day. He said mean things about himself—that he was a bad writer. (Not true.) That he didn’t make time to write. (True.) That no one would want to read his articles. (Definitely not true.) Sometimes, we give ourselves too much leeway for our mistakes—we are too kind to
When Are You Kind to Yourself and When Are You Not? Read More »
CAL Newsletter: Where Do You Choose to Draw Your Boundaries? Sometimes, people ask us for more than we want to offer—or can reasonably achieve. When people ask us for more than we want to offer, we have many options for responses. Each of those responses reflects our boundaries. That means we need to know how
Where Do You Choose to Draw Your Boundaries? Read More »
I’ve been shopping for a dress to wear to my younger daughter’s wedding. (I’ll call her YD because that’s definitely not her name.) I have many criteria for a dress. Aside from flattering me, the dress has to work with my rollator. That means the dress can’t be chiffon. At OD’s (Older Daughter) wedding, I
How Do You Judge How Good Something Is? Read More »
Aside from death and taxes, we can depend on change. Change occurs whether we want it to or not. We have big choices: when to embrace or reject these changes. I don’t see just one extreme: embrace or reject. Instead, how can we create options that help us through the changes so we can embrace
When Do You Choose to Embrace or Reject Personal Change? Read More »
The recent news about Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka made me sad—for them personally, for their potential accomplishments, and for us as a society. How much pressure do they feel, that they needed to stop competing at the highest level of their sports? When I feel extraordinary pressure, I rely on my support systems. It
Who’s Got Your Back? Pressure and Resilience Read More »