I wonder if anyone of the people I revere or read from struggled as I do now. An empty thought, given everyone fails. The book club discussed matters from #paradoxofchoice as we entered the second part. My aims to write regularly fare much better than the weather, at least.
Pressures seem to pile on in a flurry. For a few days, the snowfall did not stick. Temperatures too warm kept the streets wet and saturated with color. Commuters bundled in scarves wrapped about their necks shuffled into the train from the outdoor train platform. Now, a pinch and nip colder, the same precipitation stacks. It compounds.
The present dilemma remains carving out a livelihood. James Clear touched upon the effects of compounding. I could attest to it, a natural phenomenon like snowfall.
Productivity compounds. I see the effects within my creative process. I transition between reading and writing as a driver switches lanes. A signal to cue and short shrift to the course, voila. Notes on my readings fill the page. Then, text populates the word processor.
Ignorance compounds. Unawareness of a detail could be the real collapse of the dream. I didn’t foresee the implications of business attempts without literacy until a family I know went from opening a beauty supply store during a credit crisis to leasing a restaurant franchise following a pandemic, preceding a recession. What you don’t know could hurt. In fact, the pain from a lack of knowledge could hurt more than you know.
Clear would also highlight habit stacking, by way of Denis Diderot’s tale. I invite you to explore his plight. His issue was mine. I stacked a habit of spending. I bought more expensive food and clothes when I earned more than I had in the past. The price, I still pay today. To truly have, I would need a habit of creating. Creating ways to save, reduce, reuse- these are the skills I really hunger for.
Thoreau mused, maybe underneath a white blanket, as I did this day so many years ago. He suggested anyone- everyone would require a relationship- a close one- with Nature to live. Intimate enough to feel its warmth or recognize the bitter cold, half-measures would not come close.
Eating is easy, my mother often jabs. Cooking is the difficulty; I think she means. Stacking- the knowledge, literature, and lessons from everything I touch- only that might help me bite off only what I can chew.
Post Summary
- Habit stacking is a strategy you can use to pair a new habit with a current habit.
- The habit stacking formula is: After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].
- My previous spending habits stacked a lot of bills to pay upon me. No more panderin'.