proactivity Archives - Page 6 of 6

Passionate Happiness Pursuit

April 23, 2018May 12, 2015 by Debi Simons

I’ve been writing quite a bit recently about two subjects: tools and planning. As I write this I’m facing two frantic days to prepare for tomorrow night’s concert and reception. Yesterday I got all of my grocery shopping done, a task that I would normally have put off until today. So today can be solely dedicated to food prep that can be done ahead, housework, and going over my music. We have our second concert-week rehearsal this evening, which will be fraught with the usual angst over our entrances and exits. (Why we can’t just have a standard procedure that we always follow is beyond me, but I guess it keeps us from getting complacent.)

The Accountability Conundrum

April 21, 2018March 24, 2015 by Debi Simons

As everyone in the known universe knows, Gretchen Rubin’s new book on habits, Better than Before, came out last week. While Gideon was getting his MRI on Friday at the hospital I walked over to the Tattered Cover Bookstore to buy my copy and get my admission ticket for her appearance there tomorrow night. I’ve been reading it kind of slowly, trying to savor it and take it all in. I even plan to do something very rare for me: go back and highlight the most important ideas.

A Beloved Classic

April 20, 2018February 17, 2015 by Debi Simons

Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman by Anne Ortlund, originally published by Word Books, 1977, available in many other formats and editions.

Well! After the Great Book Cleanout of several weeks ago, I couldn’t find my copy of this book and was very distressed to think that I might have thrown it out. I do go back and re-read it periodically, and it means a great deal to me, so I was greatly relieved when it turned up.

I quoted Anne in the “eliminate and concentrate” post last week. She was a tremendously talented and energetic woman who was a pastor’s wife, author, composer, and speaker. I’m sorry that I never got to hear her speak in person, but reading this book is almost as good. I would strongly urge you, if you’ve never done so, to get hold of a copy. It’s quite short, only 132 pages in my edition, so you don’t have to make a major investment of time to read it.

Plans are worthless . . .

April 18, 2018February 4, 2015 by Debi Simons

. . but planning is everything.

This saying is attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower, and to be honest it didn’t make sense to me at first. Plans almost always go awry in some way, but that’s not the same as saying that plans are useless.

Substitute the word “preparation” for “planning” and the meaning becomes much clearer. I was reminded as I worked on this post of a talk I heard many years ago at an educational conference by Dr. Jerry Tetreau. He was speaking about the importance of being prepared to teach, using the Latin word praeparō, meaning “to make ready in advance.” If you’re prepared, then a change in plans won’t throw you. And there are always changes in plans, no matter how well thought out they may be.

Back in the mid-1970’s I saw a great illustration of this principle. A fellow graduate student was doing her speech recital, a dramatic presentation on Catherine Booth, the wife of William F. Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. There she was, up on stage all by herself, costumed in a cape and hat, when suddenly something started flying around the stage. She kept going. Eventually, I think, the critter disappeared, but she never missed a beat, and she finished the recital to great applause. Know what it was? A bat. How would you ever plan for such a thing? The truth is, you wouldn’t. You couldn’t. You could only prepare.

Further small thoughts . . .

April 18, 2018January 30, 2015 by Debi Simons

. . . on the importance of small things!

I quote here an example given many years ago by Sparky Pritchard, then an associate pastor at my church. He was talking specifically about Bible study, but this analogy could apply in many areas:

Sometimes people ask what they should do when they don’t feel like reading the Bible, or don’t feel as if they’re getting anything out of it. I tell them that you don’t always enjoy it. Sometimes your Bible study time is like taking your vitamins: totally unexciting, but you know it’s good for you. Other times your experience may be more like eating a bowl of cold cereal: It’s nourishing and somewhat tasty, but not all that great. But then you experience the Bible as if it’s peaches and cream. Here’s the thing, though: you never get to that dessert stage without being willing to go through the vitamins stage. In other words, you have to be consistent: do the (seemingly) small thing of being in the Word daily.

Just as I said a couple of days ago: the small series of faithful actions adds up.

There is no elevator to success . . .

April 18, 2018January 28, 2015 by Debi Simons

. . . you have to take the stairs!

This anonymous proverb embodies the rather timeworn idea that there are no shortcuts to achieving a goal; you have to get there step by step. We all know that isn’t true 100% of the time; once in a great while there’s a so-called “overnight” success. (Including, I guess, viral videos.)

I’ve been thinking for some time that there seems to be a paradox about what produces achievement. The boring, repetitive actions, followed consistently day after day, tend to produce great results, while the dramatic actions often produce . . . nothing much.

How a two-hour class . . .

April 18, 2018January 15, 2015 by Debi Simons

. . . added to my happiness.

I’m often reminded about the necessity of pressing on with our plans and resolutions in spite of our inability to fulfill them perfectly. What keeps us going, though? Where does the motivation come from? We often think that bawling ourselves out and heaping on the blame will work, but those methods are counter-productive. What does work? Inspiration. “I have to do this or else” has to become “I get to do this. I want to do this.”

Clean as . . .

April 17, 2018January 1, 2015 by Debi Simons

. . . you go.

You might think that this post belongs in the “Entertainment Behind the Scenes” category, and it is going to use cleaning up the kitchen as its main example, but the subject applies to far more than dishwashing. (And no, that’s not my kitchen in the picture. Mine would be far worse!

Life Lessons from a 21-Year-Old

April 5, 2018October 13, 2014 by Debi Simons

Cover of "Debt-Free U" Debt-Free U: How I Paid for an Outstanding College Education Without Loans, Scholarships, or Mooching Off My Parents by Zac Bissonnette, Portfolio/Penguin 2010.

Even if you have no kids going to college, or you’re not a kid planning to go to college, you should read this book. (But you should also read it if you do fit into one of those categories.)

A couple of posts ago I wrote about Dinner: the Playbook, and I said that book wasn’t valuable so much for the recipes or the specific information about planning meals as it was in promoting a general outlook that says: “What can I do right now?” A proactive approach. Well, this is the same type of book, in that it contains principles that go far beyond making sound economic choices when it comes to college.

A Great Take on Family Dinner

April 5, 2018October 1, 2014 by Debi Simons

Cover of Dinner, the Playbook Dinner: The Playbook: a 30-day plan for mastering The Art of the Family Meal by Jenny Rosenstrach, Ballantine Books, 2014.

I talk in chapter 8 of my book (read it here) that one of my “small things” goals is to plan dinner ahead of time; that, while I’m good at entertaining and planning party food, we often rather limp along through the week’s normal family meals. (Although I am a killer breakfast maker, I must say.) Jenny Rosenstrach’s previous book, Dinner: A Love Story, is referenced there. I ran across that book at the library, liked it, and have visited her blog of the same name several times, which is how I found out about her new book. DALS is a lovely cookbook with many photographs of Jenny’s family; this book is more of a battle plan with recipes included. I have to say that I find most of her recipes to be rather weird and her meals a little on the skimpy side: spaghetti with shallots and Brussels sprouts? really? as the whole meal, not a side dish?