This week has had two Mondays. I polled a small sampling of the population (two people) and both agreed with me. Monday was Monday, and then Tuesday was Monday, but meaner. Read the rest of this entry »

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. Mark Twain

Update (Monday): 5 minutes stretching; 40 minutes cardio (walk through town with one kid in the stroller & one in the carrier).

On Writing:
It takes a certain amount of audacity to be a writer. You have to overcome the tendency toward self-degradation. Who I am that I have anything worthwhile to say? Why should people pay attention to me? Well, maybe they shouldn't, but nobody else is writing what I'm thinking. Maybe they're thinking it, too. Maybe I'm not original or wise or witty. But I'm the only one willing to put it on paper and judge what it's worth. Once that's done, once it is written, we can all disregard it as we please. But I can't disregard it until it is written.

On Saying No: (from Alexandra Stoddard's book Making Choices).

Nothing materializes without a program. ...The essence of no is to have priorities and keep them in order.

No has a negative ring to many, but if we don't look at it clearly and use it, we will lose the opportunity to discipline ourselves, to manage our own affairs.

No saves you from the dangerous myth that you're indispensable.

No is not negative; it actively leads to the positive. My own struggle to accept certain restrictions on my time, energy, and money have helped me reach my goals.

Tip: Write something today. Say no to something you normally say yes to today.

"If your career is raising a family, you know how essential it is to be a conscientious person because you influence the atmosphere and character of everything around you. It is enormously satisfying to be good at what you do and enjoy the process. If you make the decision to stay home to raise your children, let your children know through your actions how much fun you're having. Do exciting projects with them, have a good time each day, teach them through example how exciting life can be. Whatever you decide to do, tackle it with the understanding that your personal vision is unique and you can make a contribution no one else can make. Be true to what you believe is right for you. Alexandra Stoddard, Daring to Be Yourself.

Update (Wednesday): 30 minutes cardio, tilling the garden.

Joe brought home a tiller from work. I love this machine. I would polish it and keep it in my bedroom, but he had to take it back to work. I feel like I've lost a limb.

So my cardio on Wednesday was using the YARD BOSS to till up my garden. It took about 40 minutes or so to make it through the weed-infested 10x30 area. By the time I finished, my shoes were muddy, mosquitoes were in my hair, my hands were trembling from the continual vibration of the tiller. I loved it. I would have kept going but it was too dark to see the ground.

Love what you do and every moment is joy. (Note: I did not say "Do what you love." That is a rather different and less productive goal.)

Resources: Go here, read a bit, look at pictures, soak in the inspiration. Then go to your local co-op, feed store, farmer's hangout, or if you must, Wal-Mart. Get some seeds. Really, that's all. Do you have dirt at home? Water? A little patch of earth, or a bucket, or a crate? You're set. Come home with your seeds and make a garden, a tiny one or a big one, in the ground or on your windowsill. Just get some dirt under your fingernails.

Tip: Do clean your fingernails before dinner...

Work is an opportunity to bring something forth - to create something, complete something, invent something original and authentic. Alexandra Stoddard, Daring to Be Yourself.

Update (Tuesday): 40 minutes cardio (walk through town); 8 minutes stretching.

We fight against work. Our American culture celebrates days off, relaxation, vacation, rest, television, games, sports, contests of any kind, races, entertainment: not work, not any more.

Work is a punishment to us, a drudgery we must get through to get to the "good stuff" of life. Books like The 4-Hour Workweek and the popularity of passive income rise from this mindset. Of course, it's great if you can work more reasonable hours and spend more time with your family. And I am all for the idea of generating income through any ethical means you can. (You might notice the ads on this website...) If you are producing anyway, why not attempt to make money? It's good sense.

But the obsession that I notice, the one that worries me, is not that people want to simplify a bit or be smarter about how they earn money for bills; simplifying and smart earning are potential steps to improving your life. What is not a step toward life improvement is the "I-hate-work" attitude.

What's to hate about work? We've all had jobs, at one time or another, that didn't suit us, perhaps, that were far more drudge than delight. Maybe we hated those jobs. In high school, I hated babysitting. I liked the kids, because I was very picky about who I chose to babysit for. But I hated the times - nights and weekends - when I had to be away from my family, cozy at home or doing fun things without me. Even though I hated babysitting, though, I got the work concept and I liked it: I give you my time, service, or product, and you pay me. An equitable exchange. I put up with the timing I didn't like because work was worth it.

In college, I waitressed (among other things). I hated those hours too, nights and weekends again, but I loved the work when it was busy and I was running, jumping, talking, smiling, being efficient, making people happy, working. I hated being there on slow lunches during the week, or on dead holiday nights when everybody in my college town was out of town. Four or five tables, four or five hours of looking for something to fix, or clean, or make, or do, and twenty bucks in my pocket when I walked out? The immediate problem seemed to be not enough pay; the real problem was not enough work. Lack of work created lack of pay.

And that's the problem with many passive income ideas, and with almost all get-rich-quick schemes. The nature of work is that you produce something of value to generate a fair income. An equitable exchange. Value for value. Passive income can work if you create value that will last and can be used over and over again, as in getting royalties from a book or rent from an apartment complex. But expecting to generate income from no value almost always leads you toward unethical "work": spamming, cheating, plagiarizing, defrauding, etc.

"It is not that men are ill fed, but that they have no pleasure in the work by which they make their bread, and therefore look to wealth as the only means of pleasure." John Ruskin, Stones of Venice.

We buy into ideas that don't make sense and can't, ethically, make us money, because we have not learned to value work for its own sake. We think of work as nothing more than a frustrating job we wish we could afford to lose. Money seems like the answer.

The real answer is finding the work you love by learning to love work.

Resources: The best place to start is in the Bible, book of Genesis, first two chapters. Here we see man and woman, in a perfect world, freshly created. Here we watch God give them their instructions: work. Work is not a result of sin, didn't come as a punishment after man's fall (though it did change, and that's part of our problem); work was something for which we were created.

Tip: Determine your own attitude toward work, whether it's a weekend job, a full-time career, or an endless stream of laundry, cooking, cleaning, organizing, and teaching. Do you strive to get through stuff so you can get to the good stuff? Are you cheating yourself out of the delight and fulfillment that come from doing your work with zeal and a standard of excellence?

The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. Proverbs 14:1