The thing I’m listening to: Revisionist History

This obsession as spawned after attending a discussion with Malcolm Gladwell in his new book Talking to Strangers (next up on the reading list). Now, it ‘s safe to say that I am a huge Gladwell fan. So I was dumbfounded to have never heard of this podcast before. In each episode, Gladwell and his team take the listener on a journey to revisit, reinterpret or simply explore something from the past. It’s the perfect podcast for anyone who loves to learn. Gladwell’s personality shines through. You can check it out here.

The thing I’m reminding myself: Show Up

The more you progress in anything, habits, self-reflection, art or otherwise the more you want to push yourself to the next level. Advancing in quantity and/or difficulty is the seemingly obvious progression towards our goals: “I did 20 minutes of sprinting last week so this week I have to do 25.” Inevitably, however, our ambitions and our expectations outpace our energy or ability, and we crash. Soon we start to dread the activity, feeling trapped in the plateau or fearing we’ve fallen further from the goal. This happens to me constantly. But it’s important to remember that the goal is nothing but a threshold to something new. The thing to focus on is not the goal or the quantity, or even the quality. What’s important is the attempt, the act, and showing up again and again.

The thing I’m developing: Extroversion

Since coming back to school from my summer away I’ve become more and more aware of my need to socialize. I’m not sure where it came from and frankly thats not really what I’m interested in. I’ve always been more or less an introvert. Some occasions would bring about my more social side of course but never to this scale. Maybe its an anomaly or maybe it’s a new development. either way, I’m rolling with it. Sure doesn’t hurt to get to work on my communication in this way.

The thing I accomplished: 4 Weeks of Posts!

I think this weekly roundup is still figuring out what it wants to be but I can say that as a practice it has been one of the most difficult yet rewarding things to produce.