Things I have learned • 16 March 2011 • The SnowBlog
Things I have learned
This is not one of those face-palm, god why do I still do things wrong posts. This is a smug post, listing a few things that I have learned, and act upon, which improve my life.
Thing the first: you're going to have to repeat every task. Even when I think it's a one-off, 90% of the time I end up doing it again. This is just life. What makes it tolerable is that as a result I tend to automate, at least in part, every task I do when I do it for the first time. It's a lot less soul-destroying to revisit something if it takes a fraction of the time the second time around. It's taken me a long time to learn this lesson but it's finally sunk in.
Thing the second: feed your demons. A friend gave me a book called exactly that. It's a different approach to dealing with inner conflict - rather than repressing or disliking bits of you that are negative (anger, guilt, stress etc) you face them head on, figure out what that part of you actually wants and give it to yourself. Then the demons turn into daemons - a friendly sort of ally. I am fully aware that this reads like a load of hippy clap-trap, but it works and it's wiser than self-hate.
Thing the third: don't hold back on the coffee. Of all the vices in the world, it's not so bad.
Here endeth my list.
Emma
This is not one of those face-palm, god why do I still do things wrong posts. This is a smug post, listing a few things that I have learned, and act upon, which improve my life.
Thing the first: you're going to have to repeat every task. Even when I think it's a one-off, 90% of the time I end up doing it again. This is just life. What makes it tolerable is that as a result I tend to automate, at least in part, every task I do when I do it for the first time. It's a lot less soul-destroying to revisit something if it takes a fraction of the time the second time around. It's taken me a long time to learn this lesson but it's finally sunk in.
Thing the second: feed your demons. A friend gave me a book called exactly that. It's a different approach to dealing with inner conflict - rather than repressing or disliking bits of you that are negative (anger, guilt, stress etc) you face them head on, figure out what that part of you actually wants and give it to yourself. Then the demons turn into daemons - a friendly sort of ally. I am fully aware that this reads like a load of hippy clap-trap, but it works and it's wiser than self-hate.
Thing the third: don't hold back on the coffee. Of all the vices in the world, it's not so bad.
Here endeth my list.