Habits

I've been reading "Grit", a mostly inoffensive book by Angela Duckworth outlining how perservering with things, and having a very small number of goals you focus on, is more likely to lead to meeting those one or two big life goals. There was some interesting and useful stuff, but I'm not sure it really warranted a whole book.

It did make me consider how I've changed my habits in the last year, though. Especially more recently (as the days become longer and warmer, to be honest). #PlantOfTheDay has given me a little more of a push to get outside every day. Which in turn means I'm running most days. Which has pushed me to explore my neighbourhood more. This morning I went somewhere I've been before, but just a little bit further than I've prevously thought to look. Along the Birrarung at Clifton Hill is the Rotunda Wetland. It's amazing! The river is quite high at the moment with all the rain recently, and as I jogged past I could hear frogs in the couple of riverside ponds that have been maintained. Eastern Rosellas played in the trees, River Red Gums soaked up the water rushing over their roots and trunks. It was magical.

All this, only a few hundred metres further along than I normally venture! Creating a daily habit of sharing a photo of a plant has already made me notice plants more (Spring flowering certainly helps too). As I run through the streets I look out for a spectacular or unusual plant to photograph. Because I'm looking at trees more, I notice birds I otherwise wouldn't pay attention to. It's all a magical, virtuous circle.

Duckworth's book is pop-psychology aimed at people who want to "win" — she rose to prominence with a TED Talk, after all. But that doesn't mean it's useless. The part that I found interesting was her observation that most people have too many "top level" goals, and our "mid level" goals often don't actually align with the top level ones, and can contradict each other. I talk about this in an organisational context at work all the time, but I hadn't consciously applied it at a personal level. The ideas I'm thinking and writing about in this gemlog are all aiming at *something* — but I'm not sure I could articulate it in a super pithy way yet, other than maybe "living better" which isn't particularly specific. That doesn't mean it's not focussed necessarily, but it would be nice to be able to write or say it more clearly. I suppose a bit like how it's almost impossible to describe Yunkaporta's "Sand Talk", and why it's so urgently important to read it.

Anyway, the Rosellas were fun this morning, and the frogs seemed happy. I look forward to all those trees outliving me by several centuries.