Nothing changes if nothing changes. |
Hey Reader, how are you? What are you doing to stay hopeful, experience happiness and all that?
I'm having steady waves of despair and hope. One comes in and the other goes out. Between all of the totally avoidable, unnecessary horrors — families being ripped apart, measles spreading around the country, fascists gaslighting everyone, and the holocaust unfolding in Palestine — it takes a lot to not lose it.
Below are nuggets of hope I've gathered and found helpful the past couple days. I'm keeping them in my pocket and carrying them around. Feeling them in my fingertips and heart. Know what I mean?
People wrapping their arms around other people's kids.
LA coming together, for their/our neighbors and Palestine.
Thousands on the road to Gaza in solidarity.
The victories that are adding up.
In other news, the past two weeks I've been doing early morning co-working sprints and have made major progress on a business project I haven't been able to make time for.
Turns out, the short, focused increments of time are actually better for this project than trying to bust it out in a day (which I obviously was avoiding) — a) tedious projects are way better in small chunks, and b) we need to sleep on things we think of and work on, ya know.
I highly recommend doing this for yourself if you have a project that needs your undivided attention for several hours.
Here's what it's been looking like for me:
- I wake up at 5:30/5:45.
- No phone or email. The couple times I've peeked as my coffee brews, I've started my sprint later and with a cloudy brain.
- At 6:00 I get on Zoom (someone's been joining me after my invite back in May)
- We say hi and what we're going to focus on.
- We turn our cameras and mics off, set the timer for 25 minutes and get to work. I have the Focus app installed on my Mac (see below).
- When the time's up, we turn our mics on, share how it went and say goodbye at about 7:00.
- Rinse and repeat the next day.
Remember, nothing changes if nothing changes.
Stay safe, cool and hydrated. And make sure to have fun too.
Sending love,
Annie
Upcoming events
June 25: Special Summer Gathering. Details here.
August 8-11: Retreat in New Mexico for that creative idea that won't leave you alone. Details here.
p.s. Here's that link again for tools and resources for these absurd and scary times (they're at the bottom, so scroll down).
p.p.s. Playlist I've been listening to during my 6am sprints. It's a perfect start that tends to carry me into my next chunk of work.