Week 5 (of 52): 10% Happier?

Hello again! Thanks for checking in!

At this point—I’ve been five weeks out in the wild. Five weeks out of the 52 that make up the year. Which roughly translates to .096 percent—really, really close to 10%. 

10% doesn’t seem like a whole lot when you’re looking at those thermometer fundraising goal posters that someone dutifully colors in with worn Sharpie markers but yet when it comes to my own weeks ticking away, I sat straight up and mentally shouted, “I’VE ONLY GOT 90% LEFT”! 

Thankfully, my self-soothing, optimistic other self piped in. “Hey! You. Calm down. 90% is a LOT. A lot of time. A positive lot of time!”

Now, not that negative can’t be good—in artwork and in design, negative space can be magical. You may see things differently. Or see another version of something appear. The invisible becomes visible. Your eyes and mind work together to draw conclusions and connect dots that aren’t physically connected. Negative space is important. Like pauses in music, those measures of rest allow you time to appreciate what’s happening and create distinctions.

The FedEx logo is a classic example. (Hint: look at the white space between E and x…)

But hey, back to that 10% which brought to mind the book 10% Happier by Dan Harris that my fellow positivity enthusiast nephew and his ever-wise wife introduced to me. 

After a panic attack on live TV, author Dan Harris eventually found meditation to help him focus and become happier. He’s gone on to create a terrific blog and podcast series focusing on mindfulness and getting happier.

The 10% Happier podcast “A New Way to Think About Your Time” with Ashley Whillans explores how intentional you are with your time is a key to happiness. In it, Whillans describes her research which led her to radically reevaluate how she spends her own time and how to move from “time poverty” to “time affluence” by exploring:

• how to do a time audit
• funding time, finding time, and reframing time
• the surprising extent to which prioritizing time over money predicts happiness—and what to do if you usually do the opposite
• the value of canceling meetings

I hope this post has been a positive use of your time and made you at least 1% happier! And here’s a little visual treat to enjoy. Something negative (besides a Covid test result) that’ll make you smile. 

The Weekly Wrap Up (Monday vs Friday)

So, how’d I do? Here’s a few highlights and takeaways 

• Goal: finalize resume. Amazing how agonizing putting yourself on one page can be.
• Outcome: thrilled to have this checked of my list with invaluable help from my resume coach DeeDee at Right Management. Also learned to customize resume according to the roles for which I am applying.

• Goal: create online portfolio
• Outcome: not perfect but progress! It’s up, living, and now I’ve got a place to upload things as I find them. The portfolio app from adobe is user-friendly and gorgeous.

• Goal: practice some “Life UX”. Essentially, make improvements in daily life by identifying a challenge, seeing what worked, what didn’t, and addressing the pain points.
• Outcome: I love time in the car with my son and drive my son to school every chance I get. Our middle school has an incredibly well-orchestrated drop-off system which involves filling the horseshoe-shaped driveway with two concentric rings of cars two times. After the first cycle is filled, kids get out. This depends upon a choreography of hand signals, shouts, and movable parking barriers. It’s an effective system and ensures safety. For the first time ever, we didn’t make it into the first cycle! By one car! We had to then wait for all the cars to leave. Although, we were the first car in round two, we had to wait for the whole repeat cycle. My son, like me, loves a buffer to get settled before sprinting into the day. And never being in the late ring—my son worried he’d be counted as late even though he was there! As a real rule abider—I wouldn’t let him jump out. (It’s also dangerous!) So that night we reviewed the morning to see where we lost time—hard-to-tie Vans sneakers, my grandma-driving, and tangle of backpack straps and seat belt needed efficiency. We’ve made it into cycle one every day since. My husband (embodying his Formula 1 fanboy self) took the challenge to a new level and is determined to get cycle 1, ring 1, number 1 position—but much like Mr. Bean and his three-wheeled Robin nemesis, the same car always beats him.

Hope to see you next week! Subscribe and stay in touch!