Pulling the curtains back over the new year

I haven’t read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear yet but as soon as I have a chance, I will report back with a review (it may take me some time because I have a huge book backlog). Meanwhile, yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a review of this book as well as another book, The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll. The reviews in the Bookshelf are by Kate Bachelder Odell.

It seems James Clear focuses on mini-habits hence “atomic habits”, as do other authors.

From Kate B Odell

“Make the habit obvious…also make it easy..like storing vegetables in the easiest-to-reach part of the refrigerator. Such habits can be expanded in small increments.”

“With your phone..Don’t rely on your willpower to avoid idly picking up your phone. Make it inconvenient, out-of-immediate-reach, put in another room, which is what Clear does.”

“At some point, it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, doing the same lifts over and over again”, citing Clear.

The concept of small gains and small rewards is here to stay.

On the Bullet Journal Method, Odell says:

detailing how you spend your time helps you remember that life includes more than daily drudgery: Drinks with old friends, dinners out with spouses and other pleasures are more common than we recall at first…”

If you’d like to check out his work it seems Ryder Caroll has been at it since at least 2014 . I’ll be glad to write my comments once I have a chance to go over these books.

Meanwhile, as this New Year got started, people are still abuzz with the same old, same old…New Year’s Resolutions. (How “new” are those, really ?).

A friend called me on New Year’s to congratulate me and tell me that his NY resolution is… to to get married this year. Talking about a fish who’s swimming upstream, I guess. Some people defy all logic. For him, and for others like him, I have the folksy video at the end of the post.

Quote of the day: “It is those who have enough but not too much who are happiest.” -Peace Pilgrim

What about “becoming an alpha male” target ? Isn’t that a lofty goal ? The alpha male is a journey. It is the journey of investing in yourself as a male. It is a goal of ongoing development. If you make that your “mission”, it takes care of marriage and any relationships resolutions. Change your essence and we can talk about improvement. On the other hand, goals are to be structured in categories, i.e. fitness-health, financial and relationships and are quite tied to another. I already talked about goals before, how to set them, not too hardy -impossible to reach, not too easy either and so forth. Make sure you read those posts. Within that construct “getting married” may not be a realistic goal for 2019 at all.