November 2014

I'd hoped to have published more this month. Heck, my first post this month--exactly 30 days ago--talked about my new target goal of writing and publishing 150 words. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten about setting that goal until I reread the post while compiling this end-of-month review.

Terrible.

Or is it? As I wrote a few days ago in There's Always Tomorrow, it's important to recognize that tomorrow may not come, and that's okay. There's no point in beating ourselves up. We should recognize how we can improve and then take actionable steps towards improving each day. But to do that, we need to review. We need to take notes and keep track of what went right, what went wrong, and what we can do better moving forward.

That's what this new monthly review/summary is about. It's a way for me to help myself stay accountable by showing up at least once a month to review what I've published and to share a few thoughts about how the past month went.

For now, this monthly review/summary will focus on what I've published here on this site, but it may evolve into something more.

Back in 2011 I was publishing monthly Frugal Travel Reports where I reviewed my income and expenses for each month. I may start doing that again. Another idea for this monthly space is to share interesting links, articles, and even snippets from books that I've read that month.

A note for email subscribers

As part of this new monthly summary, I've modified your email subscription a bit so that instead of sending out emails every day when I publish something new, you'll only get one email each month: this monthly review/summary, which contains a full copy of every post I've published this month.

If you would prefer the old way--receiving an email the same day that I publish something new--please click the link at the bottom of the email to update your preferences.

Everything Published this Month

What follows is a chronologically ordered copy of everything published in the month of November 2014.

Unfolded Note

Published November 1st, 2014

Some time ago I came across Unfolded Note, a project by Satya, a mother who lives in California with her husband and two young sons. Something had brought me there and I subscribed immediately. I cannot recall what it was. Every now and then as I'm going about my busy life I'll get an email on my phone with a simple unassuming subject line: Unfolded Note: #295. What's inside the email? Who is this person? Why did I subscribe?

For the past two years I've been struggling to share bits and pieces of my own life through my published writing, as had been doing for so many years prior. The struggle began when I learned that I was going to become a dad. How do I put into words all of these new thoughts, feelings, and emotions? How do I provide enough context and backstory so that my readers will know what's going on? What if I say too much, or too little? What if things are taken out of context? What am I trying to say with my writing anyway?

The Unfolded Note emails are never more than a few paragraphs, one or two hundred words at most. There's no backstory, and often very little context. When I subscribed I knew nothing about Satya and yet each time I see that subject line, Unfolded Note: #300, I'm pulled inside, curious what tidbits of her life I will hear about next, what thoughts or insights or stories she might be sharing with me in this new email.

So I'm going to try something new. One hundred and fifty words. That will be my target. I have so much inside that I want to share, so many insights, so many thoughts, so many stories. My goal from now on will be to not concern myself with sharing everything, but rather to share enough to tell a story, enough to share a thought or an idea or an observation.

There is a reservoir of wisdom within all of us that must be shared to be realized.

Unfolded Note was published in Journal on November 1st, 2014 | Comments

If you think you can't do it, you're right.

Think was published in Journal on November 8th, 2014 | Comments

Many are willing help a stranger in a time of need, but will means nothing unless you follow through with action.

Will Means Nothing Without Action was published in Journal on November 8th, 2014 | Comments

"Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious." – Rumi

Be Notorious was published in Journal on November 18th, 2014 | Comments

There’s no problem with juggling multiple balls, except when you don’t know which balls you’re juggling. Prioritize.

Prioritize was published in Journal on November 27th, 2014 | Comments

There's Always Tomorrow

Published November 29th, 2014

I was doing a bit of journaling at the end of what felt like a long day, noting the list of things that I had completed from my task list. It was a very short list of completed items and I commented in my journal that the list was terrible, that I could've done much better. Then I wrote, there's always tomorrow.

But no, there isn't always tomorrow.

You don't know if tomorrow will come, but that doesn't mean that you should live in fear of tomorrow not coming, or that you should live with the assumption that it's not coming.

Instead, it means that you do your best today. You put in an effort to do the best, to make the day as productive as possible, to live it in such a way that you feel it was a full, complete, and good day, and that if you didn't have tomorrow you would feel content in the realization that you treated today in such a way that it proved you were grateful that you had it.

So when you find yourself saying or thinking, well, there's always tomorrow or there's always another day, realize that there may not be. And that's okay.

There's Always Tomorrow was published in Journal on November 29th, 2014 | Comments