Big things, small things, and joyful things
RWL #381
Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was planning to make homemade vanilla for my baking. Real vanilla is sooo expensive. I came across this article about how easy it is, so I asked for some bottles for Christmas and over the weekend I made my first batch. The recipe calls for using vodka, but I told my friends I was going to do this and I received many comments that I should use bourbon. So this first batch is with some (seriously cheap) bourbon. I’m buying some more vanilla beans and I plan to make some with vodka, just to see which we like better. We’ll know in about six months how it comes out.
This week’s links are inspired by the Arthur Brooks article, Schopenhauer’s Advice on How to Achieve Great Things (Read, below). I like the emphasis on the importance and value of doing big (great) things. This part inspired me in particular:
People want to know how to do a big thing because in a life full of quotidian trivia, a major project—even if it isn’t necessary to support oneself—conveys significance and permanence. It can be proof to oneself of being able to accomplish something out of the ordinary. To paraphrase John F. Kennedy’s reason for the U.S. space program, many people want to do something not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
That got me looking for Kennedy’s speech, which I have heard many times, but hadn’t listened to in a while. So a clip of it is in Watch.
But it isn’t just big things, it is small things, too. Last week during my morning jiu-jitsu class we were talking about Atomic Habits, which most of the guys had heard of, and Tiny Habits (my personal favorite), which most had not. If you haven’t read both of these, you really should.
One of the things Tiny Habits focuses on is making your habit as easy as possible to do. As much as I was enjoying my jiu-jitsu training, it was in the early evening (5:30-7 PM). Back when I was younger, that was no big deal. But now I’ve gotten to where I just want to relax in the evening. Motivating myself to get out the door and train was hard, and I was finding I would often have excuses - I hadn’t finished my work for the day was the most common. Luckily for me, the school has an early morning class as well - 5:30-7 AM. So after some effort, I have been able to adjust my sleep schedule so I can go to class in the morning instead of in the evening. Getting it done first thing in the morning is actually easier now that I adjusted my schedule than motivating myself to get out the door. Ironically, I was never unhappy that I had gone when I was going in the evening. The hard part was getting out of my house. So by reorganizing my day, I was able to overcome the main thing that was preventing me from going to training. Which I really wanted to do, but my self-discipline had been sapped by a day’s work.
So reflecting on that made me look for a podcast about habits. I found an older HBR IdeaCast that has some great advice for establishing good habits. But you should still read Tiny Habits.
Big things, small things, and joyful things (like making homemade vanilla) all contribute to leading a worthy life. I hope you enjoy the links. As usual, willing good for all of you!
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Read
What: The Atlantic, Schopenhauer’s Advice on How to Achieve Great Things
Why: A short, inspirational piece from Arthur Brooks, who I have cited many times. I discuss above in the intro.
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Watch
What: Archive Clip: JFK at Rice University, Sept. 12, 1962 - "We choose to go to the Moon" (2 min)
Why: As discussed in the intro. It’s important to do important things. It becomes an organizing focus in our lives.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
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Listen
What: HBR IdeaCast, Achieve Your Goals (Finally) (21 min)
https://hbr.org/podcast/2016/01/achieve-your-goals-finally
Why: This pod has a number of good tips. One that I thought was fresh was how she talked about making a plan to deal with temptations. If you make a plan, you know in advance how you plan to respond to temptation. “When I go out to eat, when they offer me a dessert, I will just order coffee.” This reduces the expenditure of will-power because now you are just following through on a plan, rather than having to use your limited supply of grit to say no to cheesecake (mmm. Cheesecake.) My wife and I actually do this with respect to our weeknight meals. We make a plan, usually on Sunday, for our meals through the week. We have a big manilla folder of recipes (it’s about 4 inches thick now), so after breakfast on Sunday, we flip through the recipes together and we pull the ones we want to make for the week. We shop for ingredients for them, and then we put the week’s recipes in another folder and when it comes time for dinner, we pick one of the recipes from the week folder. What this prevents is coming home at the end of the day, tired, when our will power is spent, and going through the “What do you want to have?” “I don’t know, what do you want to have?” “I don’t know, let’s go out.” conversation. Instead, we have recipes we already planned to cook, so we just pick one that we haven’t used yet and cook it. It greatly reduces the amount of pizza and burgers we wind up eating. We still occasionally give in, but mostly this pre-planning keeps us on track.