The Invisible Maze

Here is a radical idea, do something because you love it, not because you are good at it. Even if someone tells you to stop doing it, or that you’ll never get paid money for it, or that you’ll just mess everything up... don’t listen to them. Do it anyway and enjoy it.

Fellow introverts, how are you all feeling? This pandemic has really taken a toll on all of us, and I was jokingly reminded by someone yesterday that quarantine must be great for introverts. As it turns out we still don't have definitive data to prove or disprove this hypothesis, however, some preliminary studies are actually proving the opposite. It seems like introverts are fairing worse than their extroverted peers. I have linked an article that discusses this and hope you all find it useful.

No, Extroverts Are Not Suffering More From the Quarantine New research dispels a popular misconception.

You know that feeling when you just can’t wait to do something. There are just somethings you love to do for the sake of doing them. What ever those things are, find a way do it more. And, don’t worry if someone thinks your nuts for doing it or doubts you can do it. Do it anyway and find a way to guarantee that you enjoy it.

Special note: take time for yourself and take care of yourself. Burnout and stress are a real thing and it’s ok to not log into zoom and take mental health days.

Like many in my field, I use Zoom all day. Sure it makes online-virtual sessions easy, but it also takes a human element out of the counseling experience. It’s a technology that I love and hate at the same time. I was speaking with a young adult yesterday about how he feels obligated to Zoom into to his college classes even when he is feeling sick. He expressed how important it is not not skip class and how he used to miss class only if he was extremely sick. But now even with a bad flu, he is still logging in. Remember to set boundaries with your technology and take time off work when you need to. It’s not selfish, it’s healthy.

Stress and burnout compound over time and can lead to even more stress and burnout. It can make you feel like you are trapped in a negative cycle, but you can give yourself permission to stop and change it. Of course, you might be like everybody else and feel trapped in a cycle but not be able to identify what’s causing the burnout. If that’s the case, I’m always here to listen and help out.

These are stressful times. You might be feeling anxious, nervous, worried or even panicking about a lot of different things. Take some time to relieve some stress.

Sometimes people binge watch tv or endlessly scroll social or do other thing a that burn them out... and they just add MORE stress on top of their stress. Now is your chance to try something different. It’s October 2020 and it’s a stressful time for everyone

Don’t forget that just because you can’t see it or feel it, science is all around you. I stumbled upon this at work today and my inner child jumped out and began playing with it.

Light waves break up into different color sections, giving off different colors, and each of those waves has a different temperature.

We've all likely heard of the lazy eye, the invisible eye, the mind's eye, the dominant eye, etc. but, have you ever heard of the Quite Eye? With eye trackers on the heads athletes, neuroscientists and kinesiologists can track eye movement to determine what information is being processed and how that helps or hinders the athlete's performance. What you find is that everyone has a quite eye, which is the pattern of movement that your eye takes to process its environment during an activity. With elite/expert athletes you find that they focus on different things than their more moderately skilled peers. And, you can train athletes to find and correct their quite eye, allowing them to perform better simply because they know where to focus their attention.
So, here is a question(s) to think about. Who is "elite" in your field/profession, and what do they focus on? What is it that they look for and how can you start training your quite eye for better performance at work, at home, and even in spiritual life?
If you want to learn more about quite eye, read up on the works of Joan Vickers, PhD

It’s Monday, which means it might be the start of another long, tiring, and frustrating week. Let’s try remind ourselves about how much better the world is because of tacos. I know I’m an al pastor taco, with onion, cilantro, and lime.

I recently heard a story about the great Leonardo Da Vinci and how he spectacularly failed at designing a kitchen. The story goes that his patron (a duke) was throwing a massive party and wanted his kitchen remodeled because he wanted to serve a massive banquette of eatable art. So, Da Vinci being Da Vinci engineered a state of the art space, with conveyor belts, larger than average high-temperature ovens, and even a never before seen sprinkler system. He designed it to meet the Duke's expectations of quickly prepared food in large quantities. But, of course, this failed on the day of the party because the cooks who had been invited to prepare the meals were not sufficiently trained nor prepared to manage such technology. Food got burned, fires broke out, sprinkler systems worked but ruined the food and my man Leo was humiliated and run out of town.

Da Vinci's issue, of course, is that he designed his kitchen for the Duke's expectation and not the cooks actually preparing the food. And, I see and read about this same failure over and over again in a variety of industries. Please, please, please remember to consider your audience when designing anything, whether big or small. Your patrons might not like it, but you'll at least get the job done and you won't be run out of town

As for Da Vinci, I'd say his career recovered mightily because he was not afraid to try and he always looked for the next challenge.

This is 2020! This is an important time of the year when we try to get clear about what we want out of life. Some call it a resolution, some call it goals, and others call it reflections. Let’s all get smarter, emotionally stronger, and physically healthier but NOT as a resolution that you will check in on at the end of the year. Check on it and reflect on it often and with a buddy who will be there when you need them most. What are you going to do 2020? How will you guarantee that you will enjoy it?

Listened to this interview with Malcom Gladwell about his new book and heard a very interesting idea about discrimination. Adam Grant and Malcom Gladwell talk about many different things and got side tracked with the idea that:

intelligence is a legal form of discrimination.

I’d never thought about it that way and it immediately made me wonder about my past and how I’ve unconsciously discriminated against others and have been discriminated against because of this one ability. to Strangers

Article:
https://www.thedp.com/article/2019/09/malcom-gladwell-authors-at-wharton-event-penn

YouTube:

https://youtu.be/xIu4Ca2QQdw