I can certainly recognize in myself the tendency to do what Search for Significance (and everyone else) calls “The Blame Game.” Often I forget that the point of an apology is to be sincere and vulnerable. The article was a good reminder, one that I need more often than I’d like to admit.

Because I am a nerd and like frameworks, I decided to go role-by-role and state (in the present tense) something I have, something I am, and something I do for each of them (this is particularly nerdy because this is a takeoff on security as articulated in Sneakers).

And do note that they’re in the present tense even though that’s not accurate to my life at this point, because “the unconscious mind chooses a path of least resistance.” So if you read something in this list that makes you go, “Oh, brother. Sarah is nothing like that!”, take it with a grain of salt, know it’s what I’m aiming for, and tactfully tell me how I could get closer.

My personal mission statement

I am a…

Child of God. I have the attention and love of the Creator of the univers. I am confident and compassionate in His love. I draw others toward Him.

Devoted wife. I have a committed, God-given husband. I am secure and interdependent in my marriage. I serve my husband joyfully and show him my love in daily acts of kindness.

Thoughful friend. I have been blessed by God with meaningful friendships. I am vulerable and available in these relationships. I treasure my friends and show them regularly that I care through small acts and sincere words.

Diligent worker. I have been given many talents by God that can be used to help others. I am responsible and big-picture oriented. I respect my clients’ time, resources, and viewpoints.

Student. I have God-given curiosity and a desire to understand His world. I am inquisitive and open to new ideas. I share what I learn in order to help others.

I present to you, “How do you know when it’s time for a radical change?” This isn’t just about being organized—think of it as a reminder for all areas of your life.

This book is not telling you that you “should” do this or “should” do that but it explains how keeping clutter can affect you so that you can make your own informed choice about it from here on in.

“Should” is one of the most disempowering words there is. When you use it you feel guilty and obligated. My advice is to dump the word from your vocabulary forever and use the word “could” instead.

Feel the difference: “I should start clearing my clutter today” or “I could start clearing my clutter today.” “Could” empowers you, gives you choice, and later allows you to take the credit for a job well done. “Should” depresses you, makes you feel at fault, and brings you little joy on completion of the task.

I suggest you also dump “can’t” and substitute “won’t.” Then you’ll really make some progress. Again, feel the difference: “I can’t decide whether to keep this or let it go” or “I won’t decide whether to keep this or let it go.” In the “can’t” example, you are helpless and hopeless. In the “won’t” example, you are expressing your decision as a being of free choice, and if you then ask yourself why you won’t let it go, you will discover it comes down to some subconscious block you never realized you had: “I won’t decide whether to keep this or let it go because it brings up all the feelings to do with my mother/father/spouse…” and so on. Well, there’s still work for you to do, but at least you are being honest now.

I think it’s probably a good idea to take this advice. What other words should (oh, wait, could!) I be substituting?

I liked his “How to Keep Track of Overdue Responses” post (reminded me a little of some pieces of Getting Things Done), and found “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” especially noteworthy as it discusses a very disturbing tendency that we witnessed first hand last summer—and Itzy manages to tie it in to email and general productivity principles.

Anyway, Itzy’s got a good and useful blog… and I’ll be reading it, assuming I can climb out from under this stack of email long enough…

Frankly, I haven’t addressed the cartoons because I simply can’t wrap my mind around the madness. I read one article where a Muslim was quoted saying something like, “Can you imagine the outrage if this was done to Christians?” and my mind just boggled. Apparently he doesn’t know that Christians, Christianity, and Jesus are routinely mocked all over the world. I also can’t get over the irony of the response: people don’t like that they feel they are being called terrorists, so they react by acting like terrorists.

Understand, I do not try to offend people of other faiths, and would never do so for the sake of offending. I have read and respect other perspectives on this. But I find myself agreeing fully with Mr. Rose.

Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn’t intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.

Whether or not you agree with Mr. Rose, it is useful to understand where he’s coming from. Now if only I could find a Muslim perspective that actually makes sense. (That’s not quite accurate; the moderate Muslims are perfectly sensible—I just can’t figure out the extremists.)

It really is super-simple. The whole point is that if we seriously evaluate our hunger level before we eat, we’ll make healthier choices. I’m hoping this site takes off, but it’s hard to predict that kind of thing. I think it could be a useful tool for lots of people, but I’ve thought that about other sites, too, so we’ll see. In any case, if you know anyone who’s dieting or talking about dieting, point them to the site (the easy link is http://hungry.somethingepic.com—I’ll buy a domain if anyone actually uses it).

The gist of polyphasic sleeping is this: you “compress” your sleep to maximize REM phase sleep while minimizing the time spent sleeping. This is done by “napping” throughout the day instead of sleeping 8 hours one time a day (hence “polyphasic”—as opposed to “monophasic”). It sounds quirky, but Steve has been doing it for almost a month now and reports great results. By all accounts, the first week is absolutely miserable, but the people who stick it out seem to like it a lot after that point. When it’s working right, you can apparently get by on about 3 hours of sleep each day and still feel great, giving you extra time and constant energy.

I’m thinking of trying it (you had to know that was coming, right?), starting the week after Thanksgiving. I figure that will give me a while to adapt before Christmas but not keep me waiting until the new year. I can never predict what Daniel will think of my crazy schemes, but in this case, he likes the idea (I think he’s actually jealous). This is mostly because he wants me to use the extra hours to generate multiple streams of income so we don’t have to work very much after the house is payed off.
Right now, I’m thinking through all of the logisitics. I think if I schedule my naps for 4, 8, 12, 4, 8, 12, that will work for most of my set activities. I have 5:30 a.m. exercise, a weekly business meeting at 7 a.m., a church seminar that goes through 8:30 p.m., and church from about 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. (it varies within those hours), so I’ll require a little flexibility from time to time. Mostly, though, my schedule is set by me, so it might work very well. I’m contemplating setting my hammock up in the office for my nighttime naps (don’t want to wake anyone else up, or they might not be too friendly to my plan).

Of course, you can expect me to document the whole process here, so watch for it in a few weeks. Any comments?

A very interesting article talking about the appeal of strictness:
The Power of the Mustard Seed - Why strict churches are strong. By Judith Shulevitz