planning

Being 37.5 weeks pregnant means I am not as mobile as I used to be — which means I am reading a bit more on the weekends. Since I have not gone for a run in 3 months (so hard for me) – it meant my reading had slowed down. We have filled our days and nights with planning and prepping for this baby boy to join us, but these last few weekends I have been reading more.

A recent book I finished, was “The Book of Doing and Being: Rediscovering Creativity in Life, Love, and Work” by Barnet Bain. It was filled with lots of exercises, which often bore me and I skip because I am not interested. In any case, I thought this demonstration Bain shares was fascinating. I tried it and had Chris try it with the same result:

“First, we need to understand the power of conditioning. The following demonstration will make the point.

Right now, wherever you are sitting, lift your right foot a few inches off the ground and then start moving it in a clockwise circle. At the same time as you’re doing that, raise your right hand and draw a number six in the air.

What happened? Your right foot switched directions, didn’t it? Try it again. The reversal will happen every time!” page 4

Frustrated? Did it happen for you or were you able to get past it? It got me interested enough to keep reading (even though I skipped a lot of exercises). The real nugget I wanted to share was:

“Our energy follows our attention, always.” Page 69

It is true is it not? What we focus on we absorb. What we absorb, we ingest. What we ingest impacts our energy, our mood, our body language, and often what comes out of our mouth. Chris and I often talk about the energy we allow into our home. I think about it at work and with friends. We have a choice on what we focus on, what we attend to, and if we redirect — we might actually have a happier and more “energetic” life.

What do you think?

Do you ever get stuck on something that you have extreme passion over? To the point of being cranky about it?

I sometimes get frustrated when others in my life decide not to plan for certain events and I am impacted. You inquire about their plans, ask if they have decided, and in the end you are impacted by their indecision. At times like these I prefer to just cancel the plans and move on with my life. I get cranky with them. Maybe it is because it feels like they are not communicating and they are not thinking about how their unresponsiveness may impact your life. It means they are not respecting your time or appreciating what might be happening in your life. In the end it is selfish of them.

I try not to do this to others. I try to be aware of how my decision might affect others, and communicate with them if I know my indecisiveness might affect them. I let them know I am unsure. I tell them that if they need to move forward with their plans without me to go ahead and do so.

I know I should not judge others for the decisions they make in life, but it is hard. It means that there are missed opportunities. I want to be sure to teach my future kids to be respectful of other people’s time. It is like going to a meeting and other individuals in the meeting are not prepared and when they come to the meeting they are on their phone or computer. Are they respecting our time? Is that fair? If you are in that situation do you tell the other attendees to reschedule and reconvene when they are prepared?

How can we get others to respect the time of everyone we come into contact with? Is it even possible? What do you think?