God is my guide
This week, I needed to change my flight to Guatemala a couple days earlier, to give myself some essential extra time in-country. But you know how these things go with changing flights, there’s the cancellation fee, the hassle and always a change in price. So I decided to give myself a cap of $100. If the change cost more than $100, I’d stick with the original flight schedule; under a hundred, I’d change.
So I prayed a sincere prayer and asked God to make it clear for me: do I extend my trip or stick with the original plan?
I got on with the airline company. We went back and forth, figured out the cost difference in flights, went through all the other details, and the net cost to change flights?
$8.
My answer was clear, so I re-booked.
Planning my high school reunion
I was recruited (happily) into the “Committee”. We’re in charge of planning our 20-year high school reunion. (To my readers who I went to school with, reach out – I have info for you).
It’s a fun project that’s helped me reconnect with some long-lost friendships. Old friends are special.
Reset bad habits: get desirable results.
We all do things for unclear reasons that don’t always turn out to be self-serving. Old habits, procrastination, self doubt or sabotage. There are a lot of reasons. The trick is becoming aware of it, whatever it is. I won’t say it’s half the battle, but it’s the first part and a big part.
If you exhibit an undesired behavior or habit you just can’t shake, or you’re getting results that frustrate you and you just cannot figure out how to break the pattern, try this:
Reframe your situation. Start with asking yourself these questions, “If I wanted to achieve these undesirable results and be an expert at getting these undesirable results, what steps would I have to take? What behaviors would I need to exhibit? What decisions should I make to get those results?” The answers you come up with to those questions will help you identify boundaries; it will highlight a pathway between a decision point and an undesired destination, allowing you to track back to that decision point.
So flip the script. Now that you have your baseline and boundary established, flip the script back and identify alternative steps, strategies, behaviors that lead to optimal results. And choose results that are identifiable, that will indicate to you you’re on the right path. For example, if you check your email, get inbox zero, feel accomplished so you pop over to social media and spend a half hour there…it might not be ideal during the workday. Becoming aware is vital. Then make yourself expert at that procrastination. What is it you do so well that makes procrastinating easy? How can you modify those small behavior choices and make a strategy that puts you off in the right direction instead? And don’t rely on your memory for this; fortunately you can track your app usage in your phone. Get analytical and document your progress so you can contrast your past, undesirable results with your new, desirable results. This is your life so manage it well.
Clickbait: Americans selling Mexican food to Mexicans
You can’t even make this stuff up. American Mexican food company Chipotle (owned by McDonald’s FYI) will open a restaurant in .. wait for it .. Mexico! Next year, this is happening. Hey, maybe it’ll be a hit. The food isn’t bad quality, just too much rice. That’s my opinion. I prefer the salad in a bowl, with the vinaigrette dressing – you have to ask for it.
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