February 2018 Daily Stepping

[Elaine Glimme]

Welcome to the stepper thread for February. Commit to taking steps towards achieving a goal. How many steps is up to you. Just keep going, and we'll cheer you on, whether your slogging or running.

I'm writing this on Jan 31st. Tonight's moon is a blue moon - the second full moon in January - something rare and wonderful. You, steppers and browsers, are also rare and wonderful. It doesn't always seem that way. Life isn't just a series of mountain top experiences. It's a lot of slow, small steps. But the slow small steps add up to wonderful things, and the steps themselves are wonderful, if you're doing something you love. So don't look for the end, look for the journey.

This intro is mushier than normal.

Happy steppin'.

[Lynx]

Hi,

Thx, Elaine for getting this month launched.

I luv:

So don't look for the end, look for the journey.

I'm still slowly recovering from my energetic work last Week. Tomorrow will be 7 days. I estimated that I take 2 weeks to recover, so I'm on pace to have that be true.

When I learned Open Space facilitation my mentor and its creator Harrison Owen cautioned me about doing too many too close together. I hadn't led one yet and I said it might be possible to do one a week. He looked up and said, careful, you'd burn out.

It appears like little, but the spirit-gut is extending a type of group container out so people have a great experience. There's also a lot of observing (moving stuff out of the way, picking up cups, adjusting notes, etc) and also defending the event for time, process, and content thieves (they don't know as that, but they are), and finally, listening deeply and attentively.

Happy for my recovery, the next several days have a very light agenda.

Have something on the Yukit List a long time I finally began today. Now I turn on Seinfeld and proceed with not missing a day till it's done.

Step like no ones looking,

L

[Lynx]

Aw, man the yuck things of living. They're yucky!

Anyway, with my state and local tax forms sent in, I'm onto my next Yukit List item.

Having finally begun it yesterday I switched to X of Y Days mode, and really it's so yucky I daren't miss a day.

Today is day 2, I'm 2 for 2. To evade my resistance I decided that keeping track will be on LibreOffice's presentation program. So, I'm really frustrated learning this new system (and a place for my anxiety and other emotions) but the content is really what I'm needing to do.

There are really just 2 categories of action: times or time. That is for times, how many; and for time, how long.

Today, I set my min. at 2, did it.

OK, Boss Self, let me go.

Boss Self: Sure, but see you again tomorrow for 2 more of the 5 remaining. May have to do 3, either Sat or Sun. Your pick.

Me: I'm out of here, see you tomorrow.

Procrastinator: Am I unemployed or what, here?

Lynx

[Lynx]

Hiya,

With merely 5 ticks (dental plans to research) to check off, I polished off the list. So I'm 3/3 with a call, maybe, on Monday.

I guess I'm free for Sunday as the list is done and something on task is virtually guaranteed for Monday.

I'll see how I play tomorrow. But it's interesting to get to it mid-day (had thought about morning, but, no I can't do that to myself) vs next to last thing before going to sleep just to get that X mark for the day. Mid is probably better as I avoid hours of dread.

Made a decision that I confront all the time as a solo contract consultant. Do I compete for new business in the middle of a complex gig that will overlap my time?

Good thing my biorhythms are all near bottom as this is as tired as I feel. And if I'm likely to be even more depleted with this extra load, my body spoke in a clear signal: don't apply.

So as a compromise, I'll send some materials and ask to be kept in the 'interested' file for later in time.

Meanwhile, our former mayor who resigned in disgrace over allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior with minors is getting my tax money as his pension: $150,000 a year for life. And I'm still faced with hard work choices. Not fair, not reality either, but a series of human decisions behind the curtain of public oversight. We need a government to watch the government!

Just observin' & sayin'

Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

Open Space sounded intriguing. I read up on it on the net. I'm glad you had success.

Me - I have a lot of yuck-its coming up in all categories - health, tax, and others. I don't have to do any of them right now.

Writing is going well, and my calendar is well-doodled.

Party number 1 was a bust, but number 2 was a lot of fun.

Hi, Inspire.

That's it for me.

[Lynx]

Hies,

Quick check in. On the X of Y Yukit List, today further research. Got a call back from Aflac but the agent calling didn't sell in my state. I'll see if they're on their game and get back again to me.

Sidebar: really love discovering the graphic literature section in the *undergraduate* library. Guess grad students have grown beyond such things. Read about the history of everyday objects and now reading the comic book history of comics.

Everyday is its own thing. It's really hard to guess how I'm going to feel in the morning when I go to bed. Sometimes with little sleep I have great vim, and others, like today, with a long rest I awake feeling still tired.

Time's up, gotta go.

Lynx

[Lynx]

Playing around words that sound like 'to' and 'do' and mixing and matching. Probably sparked by the word games the Wash. Post publishes every once and a while.

2due - a pair of books ready to return to library.

Too-do - sharing an activity

Toodew - damp morning and no desire to leave bed

Todue - approaching a due date

Toodue - approaching 2 due dates

Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

Hi, Evereyone,
I'
Feeling like "What's the point?" Like my writing isn't good enough. I think I need to write for myself, anyway, but geez! I'm writing anyway, but it all seems unnecessary. But i can't think of antything better to do.

Today, I'm writing, and hopefully, I'll spend a lot of time at the gym. Anyway that's the plan. Moving always puts me into a better mood.

Okay, I'm happier now.

[Lynx]

Hi,

Still a bit draggard from my days of intense work 16 days back. Feel lifts about noon and returns around sundown. Don't have much happening, so can stay in and rest.

Potential new clients bubbling. Having a struggle communicating the intangible needs of groups that I know I must put time for in the agendas. What I do when this happens is just Google around a little and read articles, blogs, tipshseets, etc. Looking for the words.

Funny, I was thinking about I need a new genre to read, meanwhile I'm luvving a couple of graphic story books I borrowed from the local univ library. This morning it all came together, keep reading these graphic things! It's affecting my thinking, I'm using more diagrams in my proposals and awoke this AM with a diagram in mind for a possible gig.

Elaine, at the end of East of Eden, John Steinbeck wrote in his daily letter to his editor, something like, 'well, I'm done. Don't know if it's any good. It's the best I can do.'

The rough drafting phase is trouble because the Inner Comparer wants it to be on par with the published works we fell in love with coming up. And it can't. Starting out is not the same as finished.

Keep your faith and keep steppin',
Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

Open Space sounds like a great experience. Congrats.

Thankss for the Steinbeck quote. My fear, of course, is that Horace, Monokowitits and Henrietta Quotzmeyer probably said the same thing. And who are Monokowitits and Henrietta Quotzmeyer? you ask. Exactly my point. But writing is all I have, so I'll keep writing.

My water heater is leaking. And I might have gotten diabetes for my birthday.

On the happy side, I got all my trees pruned yesterday. I looked at the pile of branches waiting for the shredder, and noticed that a lot of them were just about ready to bloom. So I picked a bunch of branches out and made flower arrangements to give to neighbors. Yesterday was a very bad sleep day, so I only gave away one vase. Today, I'll give away the rest, except I'll keep one for myself.

There's something about turning trash into beauty that speaks to me.

Happy Valentines's Day.

[Lynx]

Hi steppers,

To riff with Elaine's thoughts of something about turning trash into beauty that speaks to me.

Rewriting: turning trash writing into beauty.

I have toyed with introducing myself as a "rewriter" so this speaks to me!
L

[Elaine Glimme]

Gosh, Lynx, Wow! Dare I say it? It sounds as if you like to ,. . .edit. I used to hate it. Because it meant looking at my worst writing and dealing with it. But it's exactly that - turning trash into beautfy. Never thought of it in those words, but yes, that's what it is.

Today, I'm going to my all-you-can-eat Indian restaurant and bringing a pen and spiral binder. I seem to get a lot of work done that way, and it seems to be a way to make an inroad into parts of the plot I have troble with.

On the yuck-it list side iof things, - water heater is replaced, and I'm putting off eye surgery for a while. Need to talk to the doctor first and get some questions squared away. And I'm not doing taxes till some time in March.

Good wishes to everyone who's reading this.

[Lynx]

HI stepper,

Yukit list topper: taxes! I have three more to do: partnership's (1065), own and soul mate's 1040's. 1065 due mid March (changed last year from Mid-april).

Found this quote from 2013 Nobel Literature Prize Winner Alice Munro. Instead of going Europe to pick up her prize, she sent a video interview. It all began when she was a child and protested the ending of The Little Mermaid by H C. Anderson. Around marker 8:25 she's asked: What part is hardest when you want to tell a story?

AM: I think probably that part when you go over the story and realize how bad it is. You know, the first part excitement, the second part, pretty good, and then you pick it up one morning and think 'what nonsense.' But you keep , , , then is when you really have to get to work on it.

Thanks Alice,
Lynx

[Elaine Glimme]

Thanks, Alice, Thanks, Lynx.


To the page. To page. To the page page page. (sung to the tune of the William Tell Overture.)

[Lynx]

Ah, geez. Getting down to pushing the Go! (send) button and things are getting weird. Came to realize that my core teammates don't listen the same way as I do to the flow of discussion. They seem to not credit spoken words as having much meaning. This is surprising as we spend several hours on a conference call once or twice a month. When it comes to decision time I find myself rewinding and replaying several moments across several of these conversations to remind them of where the edges and boundaries are and what is already in play in the minds of the meeting group.

The rub at the moment is releasing an invitation. The core 3 (c3) of us discussed and agreed: we send to the full team with a one week window for responses, after that we "own" getting it to final and out into the world.

They saw my draft to the full team, wrote or said nothing about it. The window opened for changes, some were suggested, the window closed. I wove in the suggestions and sent what I thought was a near-final draft for what I thought would be proof-reading.

Oh, noooo! They came back with whole sections in complex abstract language, big chunks of text suggested by the full team were gone, and several simply worded lines were now titles for academic papers!

What happened? What's going on?

So, now I'm patiently recapping the verbal discussions and textual suggestions and getting them back in play.

All of this is delaying and adds to chances for more confusion (I thought this was still in; oh, I thought we'd agreed to remove it ... )

If anyone knows a blog or pdf on the intuitive side of teamwork, please share. This is knowing a suggestion is semi-committed to if there's no speaking up during a discussion, and if later someone wants to make changes they have to go back to the group that was in discussion in the first place, etc.

This is related to what Myers-Briggs calls the Perception/Judgment scale and intuiting how this has meaning for engagement in ones group. I note this for further work at a later time.

Now to de-ice the sidewalks.

Lynx