Generalismo

Principles often apply to not just one, but many areas. Once in a while I’ll find an article online and think YEAH - that’s it exactly! This guy, who happens to be a great musician, has written a lot of articles at his site. While some of the things he writes about I don’t agree with, there’s a lot both spiritually and musicially that you can consider. Some of the things he says about music just strike a chord in me. They inspire me. Here is Ron Block,  a man of many talents.  

I put a sign above my desk where I practice and spend a lot of time. It reads “DON’T WORRY ABOUT RESULTS, JUST DO THE RIGHT THING.” It’s so easy to get caught up in the here and now pleasures of life. We eat until we’re fat because more than enjoying the pleasures of being thin enough to do normal things in life, we enjoy today’s chocolate (I just ate some!). Rather than saying no to sin, we’d rather enjoy it right here and now. When I get caught up in seeing RESULTS, I don’t do what I’m supposed to, because results don’t show immediately. But if you focus on doing what you know is right EVERY time, results will follow and you can enjoy them without worrying about them.

Posted by Bonnie under exercise, food, goals, health

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I’ve got a variety of different notebooks around. Some have my math problems from 5th grade, others have journals, and still others music I’ve written, and notes from lectures.

My grandfather, who is a scholar and taught at colleges for many years, has always told me I ought to keep a notebook. In it, he said, you ought to write down observations and in particular prayers. Opening yourself up to write things down can make you look at what’s going on in your head from another perspective.

Leonardo da Vinci, according to his bio at Molecular Expressions, “kept huge notebooks of his fantastic designs, sketches and ideas.” After reading Michael Gelb’s How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, which encourages the practice of keeping a notebook, I decided it was time to open up my notebooking to a broader spectrum of writing. The page I have pictured above is part of a short list I’ve jotted down to blog about here at Generalismo. A random sampling of my notebook includes

1. How many eggs I need to serve eggs benedict to 11 people - includes ratio of eggs to butter for hollandaise sauce
2. A reminder to not focus every response I make on me, ask more questions of people
3. How to say “Hello” in Russian - which sounds to me like Preeviet so I wrote it down like that
4. My new bicep building plan
5. A question I want to find the answer to - why do some electrical appliances (like computer speakers) take a minute to die down completely when you push the off button?

I am currently using a small notebook. I find it’s easier to find things because you can make one thought on one page and not worry about wasting a whole large notebook page. You can also save the back of a page to return to and make related statements, or the answer to your question.

In your notebook you can write down whatever information you like but here are some suggestions to get you started.

1. Longterm goals
2. An idea you have - inventions, improvements, concepts, etc
3. Any observation you find important. This might be that the buds have come out on the trees, or that today was the coldest day in your locale in 100 years, or that you started your vitamin regimen.
4. Thoughts that keep you up at night - write them down and you don’t have to worry about forgetting them
5. A question about how something works, or why a particular phenomenon occurs
6. A word you need to look up in the dictionary
7. Books you’ve read recently, with author’s name and short review

You can also make particular notebooks for particular things - say, to track the progress and results of your consistent practice of an instrument, or to keep records of local weather. When I was running (and even now), this was a very useful thing to have. I would record whatever seemed pertinent (weather, how I felt), the data from my GPS (average speed, distance), and while I was traveling, what state I was in. Some places I returned to and I could look in my notebook and see what observations I made about the trail last time, and how fast or slow I ran it.

Posted by Bonnie under exercise, goals, organizing, running

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