The Art of Ritual
Today turned out to be a not so scary solstice after all. It wasn't even sizzling and stinking hot but sunny and breezy and sometimes even a bit on the cool side but that is to be expected by the beach
For it was time to indulge in the annual ritual of watching the sunset. There are a whole bunch of other rituals associated with this day like drawing tarot cards as inspiration for the new year and unofficially sort of starting the new year. From years of observation this day seems to set the tone for the following year rather than New Year's Eve itself.
A new ritual has been added to the list and has proved most interesting indeed
At this time of year it's not just the television stations that play reruns and repeats. Radio National has adopted this bad habit too. They are playing lots of 'best of' bits and Big Ideas is one of these shows. It seems to be the cream of the crop. Some I missed first time around and others are well worth another listen. So instead of lurking online, the serpent ears are downstairs glued to the radio while the rest of the Izzie is busy doing mundane muggle stuff like dusting, watering the weeds, sorting stuff and even cooking the odd meal now and again
After a couple of weeks noticed almost by accident that the 1 hour time slot used for novel writing in November had ended up being devoted to domestic matters. So there's a habit in the making that should be encouraged. The fact it could sneak by so unnoticed was a good sign. Previous attempts at turning over a new leaf and being a Stepford Serpent had failed miserably due to the inner saboteur. Slow and steady like November's 1,666 words a day is the way to make real long lasting progress
Of course the Izzie is still well below Petunia's impeccable standards but that's always been a given. The real trick is not to get the place all nice and tidy but to keep it that way
It's a good omen to start a new year's resolution early and by accident. So in order to keep the momentum going it was time to dust off the Big 50 "to do" list and to put it in a spot where it can be seen every day by the inner serpent
Also dusted off the very good piece of productivity porn - David Allen's book "Getting Things Done"
It's true that it's not just the Lair that is cluttered but the old Izzie skull too. So it might be time to make another attempt at slowly sorting stuff out
This tied in with a recent ritual adopted for the March Equinox. Got a new little green A7 note book and wrote the date and devoted one page to a 3 month 'to do' list, another for 12 months and another for 5 years.
So every quarter would write the new date and 3 new lists and then go back to compare and check on the old ones to see what sort of progress had been made
One item from March in particular stood out
"Get a minimum of 80% in HR Block Taxation Course"
Ended up with 89% which exceeded expectations but still was not sufficient to actually get a job there. And of course - had never even thought to mention that bit of the small print on the wish list Not sure what difference it would have made but not having it there does seem rather significant
That was the cue to add the recent Coursera online course "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" to September's 80% plus wish list. It worked. Got 82.3%. Doing all the assignments and exam questions most likely helped too
Doing this every quarter rather than once a year like most folks has made a subtle difference. It's always amusing to compare the new lists with the old ones to see what sort of tricksy business the serpent subconscious is up to
Of course just writing down some ridiculous goal without doing the work is no guarantee of achieving anything at all but it does seem to make the work more effective and focused. So often some seemingly forgotten thing will end up getting ticked off the list almost by accident while yet again the big ticket items get put on the long finger. The subconscious is a strange and crazy beast
It happens just too often to be coincidence. So it would be crazy not to take advantage of it
For it was time to indulge in the annual ritual of watching the sunset. There are a whole bunch of other rituals associated with this day like drawing tarot cards as inspiration for the new year and unofficially sort of starting the new year. From years of observation this day seems to set the tone for the following year rather than New Year's Eve itself.
A new ritual has been added to the list and has proved most interesting indeed
At this time of year it's not just the television stations that play reruns and repeats. Radio National has adopted this bad habit too. They are playing lots of 'best of' bits and Big Ideas is one of these shows. It seems to be the cream of the crop. Some I missed first time around and others are well worth another listen. So instead of lurking online, the serpent ears are downstairs glued to the radio while the rest of the Izzie is busy doing mundane muggle stuff like dusting, watering the weeds, sorting stuff and even cooking the odd meal now and again
After a couple of weeks noticed almost by accident that the 1 hour time slot used for novel writing in November had ended up being devoted to domestic matters. So there's a habit in the making that should be encouraged. The fact it could sneak by so unnoticed was a good sign. Previous attempts at turning over a new leaf and being a Stepford Serpent had failed miserably due to the inner saboteur. Slow and steady like November's 1,666 words a day is the way to make real long lasting progress
Of course the Izzie is still well below Petunia's impeccable standards but that's always been a given. The real trick is not to get the place all nice and tidy but to keep it that way
It's a good omen to start a new year's resolution early and by accident. So in order to keep the momentum going it was time to dust off the Big 50 "to do" list and to put it in a spot where it can be seen every day by the inner serpent
Also dusted off the very good piece of productivity porn - David Allen's book "Getting Things Done"
It's true that it's not just the Lair that is cluttered but the old Izzie skull too. So it might be time to make another attempt at slowly sorting stuff out
This tied in with a recent ritual adopted for the March Equinox. Got a new little green A7 note book and wrote the date and devoted one page to a 3 month 'to do' list, another for 12 months and another for 5 years.
So every quarter would write the new date and 3 new lists and then go back to compare and check on the old ones to see what sort of progress had been made
One item from March in particular stood out
"Get a minimum of 80% in HR Block Taxation Course"
Ended up with 89% which exceeded expectations but still was not sufficient to actually get a job there. And of course - had never even thought to mention that bit of the small print on the wish list Not sure what difference it would have made but not having it there does seem rather significant
That was the cue to add the recent Coursera online course "Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" to September's 80% plus wish list. It worked. Got 82.3%. Doing all the assignments and exam questions most likely helped too
Doing this every quarter rather than once a year like most folks has made a subtle difference. It's always amusing to compare the new lists with the old ones to see what sort of tricksy business the serpent subconscious is up to
Of course just writing down some ridiculous goal without doing the work is no guarantee of achieving anything at all but it does seem to make the work more effective and focused. So often some seemingly forgotten thing will end up getting ticked off the list almost by accident while yet again the big ticket items get put on the long finger. The subconscious is a strange and crazy beast
It happens just too often to be coincidence. So it would be crazy not to take advantage of it