How are you doing? Can anyone hear Joey's
voice whenever they read these words? Did you watch the Friends reunion? It's always so cruel to see people we haven't seen for a long time in real life or on the screen because it reflects how much we've aged in that time as well. It was good moment of nostalgia though!
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I've been working on my June Experiment and it is a mixed bag. I have worked on all areas of interest for this month but not as much
as I had envisioned. Still, it is good to make progress on things that I wouldn't have done if I had not written them down as goals.
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I am celebrating my big success with the shopping ban. I was stunned at how easy it was. I have not lacked anything and I have felt
surprisingly abundant. I am definitely going to think twice or thrice before purchasing anything, especially books, because I hardly need anything new. I already have so much that needs to be consumed! Admittedly, I bought myself some peonies. Am I forgiven?
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I am clearing some of my shelves and will donate many books to the charity shop; books that are not of interest anymore, you know,
those books that reflect a previous version of you. I need the space for all the piles that have been surfacing in the house. And this week, I received Anne Lamott's latest book (Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage) signed by her that I unwittingly won by just attending a free online talk she was giving. There is something in that idea of changing the energy of the house by moving things around and discarding
some...
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Some goals have been slowed down by the big fatigue I experienced for a while. I actually thought I caught the Delta variant right
after my second jab, but I think I was just massively tired.
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Another source of distraction from my goals was audiobooks. Yesterday, I actually reached my goal of reading 36 books this year —
Oops! This includes paper books and audiobooks. I use the GoodReads app to keep a record.Â
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This is an important point I want to talk about
today:
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We sometimes use distractions that are so virtuous that we don't even realise that they are distractions. This might be: overworking,
taking care of others beyond duty, accepting to help every Tom, Dick, and Harry, doing chores that are not essential at the moment, doing research, learning, training, reading, listening to interesting podcasts, etc.Â
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These are activities that receive the seal of approval for virtuous activities and they are! To a point. Overdoing them is a
distraction because doing anything that doesn't move us closer to our goals are distractions, however "good" or "bad" they are. Overworking, over-helping, over-reading are just as bad as binge-watching on Netflix in terms of avoidance whether it is done consciously or not.
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Have a moment to reflect today on the virtuous things you do instead of working on your goals. Because they are "good" activities,
they are not as easy to spot but I have the feeling that you might quickly come up with a couple of things you do that are just that.Â
You don't have to stop doing them entirely but you might want to cap the amount of time you spend on them. You will be surprised at
how much time you free for your most important project.Â
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In three days, we'll start the second half of this year, so why not set some time every day to work on that
project?