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In the pursuit of a review
Feb. 8th, 2016 09:42 amI was reading a blog I follow occasionally called ZenHabits by Leo Babauta. In it, he talks about various mental life-hacks that help him through his day-to-day routine and ways of changing and sometimes improving the way we go about things. I don't always agree with everything he posts, but I find a fair bit of good material there and appreciate what he says a lot of the time.
One of the things he recently commented on was improving his reviews. He writes up year-end reviews of the year, and he realized that without doing monthly reviews, it can be difficult to keep track of everything and that it can be a daunting task to do. So he's decided recently to start with Monthly reviews of things in his life.
The sentiment behind the review at all is to physically document accomplishments and things we want to remember. Goals of things to improve, moments for which to be grateful and thankful, lists of progress on other goals, etc.
I know some of you do similar things, and I wanted to be able to be more aware of myself and the things I do and don't do, and find a way to document my time. I find it distressing at times when time seems to have passed and I don't really remember what filled it. It is easy to suggest that important things didn't fill it because I would otherwise remember if they were important, but I think that's a silly perspective. Life is a thing and it lets us wander in lots of directions and lots of things continually happen and both distract and motivate us, so it is unrealistic in a lot of cases to say that "important" things are memorable. Probably better to say "difficult" or "taxing" things are memorable since we know we spend a lot of time on them in one way or another. And I think it is habit to give greater weight to negative things than positive ones. So the whole point of a review is to really look into what did happen and figure out what is what, and give it a realistic view and review, and to take from it, and go forth.
So... January... hehe.
This will be interesting since I didn't make an effort to keep much in mind, so I'm having to do my own shuffle and dig. :-) Maybe it will get easier with habit?
Music ended December and started and ended January. We got to see the Bobs perform at The Triple Door for their usual after Christmas performance. They had a few extra folks with them this time around, and it was a fun show. We also got to see Pearl Django perform in is what their typical early January show at Jazz Alley. My sweetie got us tickets as a holiday gift, and it was a wonderful show! And Conflikt ended the month, and I got to perform with Vixy and Tony as Cade's backup band. I provided a little brush-on-snare action and had fun with that. I'm reminded that I probably should have stuck to my guns as a kid when I suggested that I wanted to play drums. Realistically, I'm not sure that it would have made a huge difference, but I find that I have a workable instinct to drumming that I haven't found yet for piano, and I've had a lot less time officially playing drums than I have piano. I think part of it is that my brain lives in rhythms, and it is difficult for me to not get caught up in them. Definitely a telling sign. Along those lines, I've decided I will likely take up bass soon as well since it is also a foundation instrument, and I've had a fascination with how bass fits in both rhythmically and musically. I've decided that I want to pick up a Kala U-Bass (which is a special bass ukulele with custom strings and pick-ups that tends to make it sound like an upright bass). We'll see how all that goes. :-) January was the start of recording time for Eleusyve Production's next musical called the Rite of Jupiter. I will be participating vocally for the soundtrack and am looking forward to that as well as helping transcribe parts for the performance rehearsals. Should be interesting!
Health wise, I was just getting over one chest cold only to end up in the midst of a new one. Not sure why it's a struggle this year, but I think it may have to do with new allergies. I found that up to the previous cold and after it, I never seemed to get rid of the gunk much. I've been getting more sinus-related headaches lately, and congestion just seems to be a thing now where it hadn't been ever before. I suspect I may have to research options to figure out what works best. Not looking for suggestions at this point, btw. *smoooch* Just a thing I'm working on. Beyond that, I had also been finding my body being less than cooperative physically than it has in past, and I'm realizing it has a lot to do with the fact that I haven't been as physically active as I should. Also beginning to work on this process and figure a way to get going that won't injure otherwise very cranky and underused parts of my bod. Time and process, I'd imagine.
Speaking of health, what is with all the people dying? Celebs and others. Seems like 2016 took a big bite to start the year off. I realized that I was enjoying my holiday media by incorporating Die Hard into my Christmas movies because of course Alan Rickman. And just a few weeks later, he was gone. :/ Lots of others. I think we all got a good reminder of our mortality and short time. Good to remember as we continue to make decisions and oversee our paths that things don't always go to plan and we shouldn't reserve our happiness and fulfillment for a one perfect moment. No better time to start than today since we don't know if we'll get a tomorrow. I think planning is fine and all well and good, but it has to be tempered with the today. As for me, it also means working on putting aside fears and doubts and just doing more of the thing.
So go do the thing!! :-)
One of the things he recently commented on was improving his reviews. He writes up year-end reviews of the year, and he realized that without doing monthly reviews, it can be difficult to keep track of everything and that it can be a daunting task to do. So he's decided recently to start with Monthly reviews of things in his life.
The sentiment behind the review at all is to physically document accomplishments and things we want to remember. Goals of things to improve, moments for which to be grateful and thankful, lists of progress on other goals, etc.
I know some of you do similar things, and I wanted to be able to be more aware of myself and the things I do and don't do, and find a way to document my time. I find it distressing at times when time seems to have passed and I don't really remember what filled it. It is easy to suggest that important things didn't fill it because I would otherwise remember if they were important, but I think that's a silly perspective. Life is a thing and it lets us wander in lots of directions and lots of things continually happen and both distract and motivate us, so it is unrealistic in a lot of cases to say that "important" things are memorable. Probably better to say "difficult" or "taxing" things are memorable since we know we spend a lot of time on them in one way or another. And I think it is habit to give greater weight to negative things than positive ones. So the whole point of a review is to really look into what did happen and figure out what is what, and give it a realistic view and review, and to take from it, and go forth.
So... January... hehe.
This will be interesting since I didn't make an effort to keep much in mind, so I'm having to do my own shuffle and dig. :-) Maybe it will get easier with habit?
Music ended December and started and ended January. We got to see the Bobs perform at The Triple Door for their usual after Christmas performance. They had a few extra folks with them this time around, and it was a fun show. We also got to see Pearl Django perform in is what their typical early January show at Jazz Alley. My sweetie got us tickets as a holiday gift, and it was a wonderful show! And Conflikt ended the month, and I got to perform with Vixy and Tony as Cade's backup band. I provided a little brush-on-snare action and had fun with that. I'm reminded that I probably should have stuck to my guns as a kid when I suggested that I wanted to play drums. Realistically, I'm not sure that it would have made a huge difference, but I find that I have a workable instinct to drumming that I haven't found yet for piano, and I've had a lot less time officially playing drums than I have piano. I think part of it is that my brain lives in rhythms, and it is difficult for me to not get caught up in them. Definitely a telling sign. Along those lines, I've decided I will likely take up bass soon as well since it is also a foundation instrument, and I've had a fascination with how bass fits in both rhythmically and musically. I've decided that I want to pick up a Kala U-Bass (which is a special bass ukulele with custom strings and pick-ups that tends to make it sound like an upright bass). We'll see how all that goes. :-) January was the start of recording time for Eleusyve Production's next musical called the Rite of Jupiter. I will be participating vocally for the soundtrack and am looking forward to that as well as helping transcribe parts for the performance rehearsals. Should be interesting!
Health wise, I was just getting over one chest cold only to end up in the midst of a new one. Not sure why it's a struggle this year, but I think it may have to do with new allergies. I found that up to the previous cold and after it, I never seemed to get rid of the gunk much. I've been getting more sinus-related headaches lately, and congestion just seems to be a thing now where it hadn't been ever before. I suspect I may have to research options to figure out what works best. Not looking for suggestions at this point, btw. *smoooch* Just a thing I'm working on. Beyond that, I had also been finding my body being less than cooperative physically than it has in past, and I'm realizing it has a lot to do with the fact that I haven't been as physically active as I should. Also beginning to work on this process and figure a way to get going that won't injure otherwise very cranky and underused parts of my bod. Time and process, I'd imagine.
Speaking of health, what is with all the people dying? Celebs and others. Seems like 2016 took a big bite to start the year off. I realized that I was enjoying my holiday media by incorporating Die Hard into my Christmas movies because of course Alan Rickman. And just a few weeks later, he was gone. :/ Lots of others. I think we all got a good reminder of our mortality and short time. Good to remember as we continue to make decisions and oversee our paths that things don't always go to plan and we shouldn't reserve our happiness and fulfillment for a one perfect moment. No better time to start than today since we don't know if we'll get a tomorrow. I think planning is fine and all well and good, but it has to be tempered with the today. As for me, it also means working on putting aside fears and doubts and just doing more of the thing.
So go do the thing!! :-)