This is the October 2024 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. I stopped posting on X/Twitter back in 2023. I didn’t like what Musk was doing on the site, so I downloaded my activity and left my profile there. The profile had links […]
How Often Do You Change How You Act Based on New Information? Read More »
I’m slightly obsessed with making the most of my days. I have grand ambitions and goals that each require enough time to fulfill. Mine include books to write, places to go, and interesting people to work with. While I have no family “goals,” I want to spend enough time with them that they enjoy me—and
How Can We Know When the Direct Path will Take Longer and Be Less Effective? Read More »
We moved into this house ten years ago, so Things Are Breaking. Our garage door sounded sick a couple of months ago, but I’ve learned to wait until the spring breaks before fixing it. The Last Responsible Moment for fixing occurs after the spring breaks. (Very few garage door people will replace the spring before
When Do We Realize the Last Responsible Moment Whooshed By? Read More »
An amazing thing occurred in the recent French elections. After the first round of voting, the third-place centrist-left candidates dropped out and asked “their” voters to support the other centrist-left candidate. That’s how the center-left overwhelmed the far-right candidates. Yes, the third-place people stayed committed to their principles but did not stay attached to their positions.
How Can We Be Committed to Principles, But Not Attached to Positions? Read More »
My twenty-year-old pillow died several years ago. Instead of supporting my neck, my head just plunked down. That led to back pain and insomnia. I needed to sleep. The manufacturer is out of business and there was no straight replacement. That’s when I started to experiment. I bought many pillows. The image on the left
How Can We Realize the Experiment is Over and It’s Time to Clean Up? Read More »
Johanna Rothman’s Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter for June 2024. We use boundaries to choose who’s in or out of our families, our work, and our lives. Those choices help us decide our responsibilities to the people inside and outside our boundaries. However, those boundaries are not particularly static. The boundaries evolve as we move
What Responsibilities Do We Owe People In or Out of Our Boundaries? Read More »
I could tell when my parents had overdosed on their favorite news channel. They said things like, “Kids these days…” Because I’m a bad, bad daughter, I used to ask, “Which kids? Can you name two or three? Do you mean our children?” (Their grandchildren.) “No, not our children,” they said. Their next favorite saying
How Can We Postpone Old (Age) Thinking and Create New Ideas? Read More »
In the past few weeks, I’ve read several nonfiction books that promote how women can improve their standing in the world, to create more parity. That’s great, but the writers surprised me. That content was not part of the title or the blurb—and that’s not why I chose to read the book. I’ve also listened
How Should We Confront a Lack of Fairness to Make the World a Better Place? Read More »
In general, I’m willing to extend a fair amount of trust to other people. For example, when driving, I trust other drivers to stay in their lane. However, when drivers swerve all over the road, I stop extending that trust in an instant—those drivers broke trust with me. That’s because they broke the social contract
How Can We Clarify the Social Contract, Trust, and Betrayal? Read More »
International Happiness Day occurred this week. While I’m normally a fairly happy person, I cannot express how much I hate this holiday. I hate, hate, hate this holiday. Happiness puts too much pressure on people to be happy. When we’re happy, supposedly, we smile until our faces hurt. Or we’re jubilant and joyous all the
How Can We Create Alternatives to Happiness as Our “Best” Goal? Read More »