+++ title = “06” date = 2019 +++ Helpful performance reviews, the ones that have just the right balance of praise and actionable feedback, are difficult to get. In some jobs, like teaching, the standards for success are so ridiculous that it’s easy to feel inadequate and defensive right from the start. And in other jobs, like my summer job writing title contracts, performance reviews are more about whether or not you stayed on task than about the skills to actually do the job.

+++ title = “06” date = 2019 +++ Automatic soap dispenser. Thunder in the distance. Hands (or a scoop) in uncooked rice. A swimming pool, from right outside the door. The ding sound on an airplane call system.

Watching children do basically anything creative or constructive. Observing nature, and realizing that it’s all nature. Seeing how another culture deals with conflict. Remembering the good times, and how they outnumber the bad times, and how good and bad are just constructs. Starting any new project. Finishing any work in progress.

In meditation, we sit in pure observation of our thoughts. We purposefully go out of our minds for a brief and beautiful few moments. We see it all, the pain, the joy, and the wonder, from the outside, mostly to remind ourselves that there is an outside. And we can almost sustain it. After spending two minutes in Zazen this morning, I left feeling energized and positive, ready for a day of doing my job and not even caring that it’s a weekend because I love what I do.

Every now and then it becomes necessary to skip. If you’ve installed a new habit recently, like within the last month, you can’t skip. Or else you’ll put your habit formation in danger. It’s not that skipping will definitely derail you, but it could. A habit, in its infancy, is a house of cards. The wind could blow it down and you’d have to start all over. But when a habit is solidified, you’ll know.