Restart.
“As much as I like—ok love, crave, need— serendipitous and auspicious starts, there are times when you have to just get going. ”
I love audiobooks. They are not cheating. I used to think so--perhaps you still think so--but listening to a book has the same effect on your brain as reading it. Really. I read that somewhere. Or heard it. In either case, audiobooks=good.
For years, I listened to audiobooks while I ran. There are runs I could not have finished without the promise of hearing another chapter to keep me going. And there are books that I would never have read past page two if not for an amazing narrator to keep me engaged. The only downside to audiobooks is that I cannot take notes in them. Yes, technically, I can tag a passage with some kind of marker while I am listening. But that is hard to do while running or even while walking. And what good does it do me to tag a passage if I don’t make some kind of note as to why?
One of my first audiobook experiences was Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why.” I would listen to it on my way to and from the train on my way to my job downtown (that really terrible one from way back) and would bookmark especially important insights for future reference, but when the appropriate future arrived, I simply had a list of timestamps that may be just before or just after the important insight and no real understanding of why I marked that particular moment. So I just stopped trying to annotate audiobooks and spent my time listening instead. Now I have little snippets of audiobook memories floating through my head, sometimes connected with a piece of terrain traversed or pain inflicted on my run. I recall pieces but my visual brain can’t put it all together without the physical context of its book--it was on the left-hand side somewhere around the middle of the book…. All of this is a long way around to trying to write about something I can’t quite recall.
Late last year, I listened to Daniel Pink’s “When” which is about, not surprisingly, when you should plan actions for the optimal results. He discusses night people and morning people. When you should do analytical work (mornings) and when you should do creative thinking (afternoons). He goes into detail about things you didn’t know existed like chronobiology (the study of time’s effects on the body) and some things you did like why you shouldn’t go to the ER in July (or August if you live in England). But the floating piece I have been thinking about most has to do with when we should start (or restart) things. According to Pink, we like to start projects on days that we see as beginnings. Though I think he discusses this point somewhere toward the end of the book, I can’t look it up so, like a good student, I am going to guess.
New Year’s Day. The ultimate new beginning. We all get to share this start--line up on the same line every year.
Birthdays. Another ultimate new beginning--but this one is all yours.
First of the month. A month is a mini-year. Well, not really, but having a first and flipping that calendar page makes it feel like one.
New moons. Not sure if Pink actually lists this one, but new moons lend good energy to new starts.
Day after a holiday. This is the day for a guilt-induced start. The holiday--Christmas, spring break, your summer vacation--is your last hurrah and the day you return is the day you really get to it.
Mondays or Sundays. The calendar week starts on Sunday, but it start-starts on Monday, right?
If we add all these up--1 NYD, 1 bday, 12 firsts of the month, 12-ish full moons, 52 Mondays or Sundays and, what, 10 major holidays that can prompt a diet or quitting smoking or keeping a budget, we get about 88 days out of 356 that are good for starting something. That is about 25% of the year. So it’s no wonder that out initiatives tend to peak early, ebb, and dissipate--there is always another opportunity to restart.
As much as I like--ok love, crave, need-- serendipitous and auspicious starts, there are times when you have to just get going. Today is June 27. A Wednesday toward the end of the month but not at the end. It’s a few days before my vacation, but not all that close. It’s not my birthday or anniversary or even a number of which I am particularly fond. Checkiday.com tells me today is National Ice Cream Cake Day, Orange Blossom Day, and National Parchment Day along with a few other not terribly interesting celebrations. But for some reason today is the day on which I have chosen to restart this blog. I’m not really sure why, but perhaps I have an inkling--some mixture of summer and work and laboratories and personal space. And those inklings will play out weekly (inkly) as long as, according to my bio, occasions present themselves.
