2019 mantra, important quotes, and commitments

22 Mar 2019

this post might take two days to put together, but it’s going to be an important one. it’ll be a combination post of the two posts i visited most often last year: my 2018 mantra post and my 2018 list of commitments. it’s informed by my latest annual reflection retreat (sidenote: a great thing about making my thinking public is that whenever or wherever i want to look at something i know i’ve published here, i can just pull up a browser on anyone’s phone or computer and go find them on my blog).

so here goes:

mantra for 2019

we are what we repeatedly do. — will durant, summarizing aristotle

it is becoming clearer and clearer to me that the most important learning edge i have is to learn how to do less. i have gotten to place i have in my life by my capacity to do a lot. it has been great. and it is no longer a way of being that serving me, my work, or my life well. and so! i will commit to learning how to do less, all while knowing that i have the capacity to do so much more.

other quotes for 2019

• Mysticism and revolution are two aspects of the same attempt to bring about radical change. Mystics cannot prevent themselves from becoming social critics, since in self-reflection they will discover the roots of a sick society. Similarly, revolutionaries cannot avoid facing their own human condition, since in the midst of their struggle for a new world they will find that they are also fighting their own reactionary fears and false ambitions. —Henri J.M. Nouwen
• “you don’t have to do anything that feels wrong to grow.” - barbara carrellas
• “don’t just do something, sit there.” — sylvia boorstein
• “no tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.” ― carl jung
• “you are moving at the correct pace.” - danielle coates-connor
• “you are the magic. the words are just the tupperware.” - samantha tan
• “show me your budget and your calendar and i’ll show you your priorities.” malia lazu

2019 commitments

many of these are borrowing from 2018 but with some shifts. some of them are new.

2019 commitments

• one no meeting day per week (it’s looking like mondays)
• email
  • do not read new emails before 11a
  • communicate my email policy() to all collaborators and clients
  • draft emails the night before to send in the morning
  • design system of admin support for processing my email
• schedule 2 tech sabbaths per month (sundown friday to sundown sat). enter the sabbath by participating in shabbat prayers with friends. ideally, schedule the two sabbaths at the beginning of the month.
• on the first saturday of every month:
  • spend 15 minutes cleaning room
  • pay outstanding bills
  • set up the new month in my bullet journal
• collaborate with more people of color on side projects.
• begin practice of seasonal scheduling “coffee meetings.”
• meditate: 20 mins/day + 1h session/week (the 1h session can replace one of the 20 minute days).
• never answer “how are you” shallowly. i can either (a) answer for real, (b) politely, explicitly abstain from answering, or (c) offer to answer a different, more specific question (how’s my day? how am i right now?)
• avoid working lunches at all costs. when in doubt, fast.
• plan to end all meetings at :20 or :50. this is a practice i’m borrowing from many places, but most directly from my therapist and lawyers.
• feel all my feelings, especially anger.
• became a master of my finances.

hm! i should probably sort this list at some point… someday! #doneisbetterthanperfect

2019 gif

sadly, i can’t find a way to embed the full length gif, but the full version is over here on GIPHY. and still, even this abbreviated one is magic.

words / writing / post-processing
(359+226)w / (10+10)min / (9+5)min