Ugh.
End of the year insurance policy review. The mail box had engorged thick envelopes of health insurance policy renewal for our businesses, a very long and detailed workers' compensation document, an even longer and more detailed business insurance document; plus documents for our personal health insurance and automobile insurance.
We have insurance agents, lawyers, accountants I can trust and, still, it's my responsibility to know and minimize the risks to all of us and to our business.
Bleh.
Things I'd rather be doing (in random order)
Talking to you
Talking to a stranger on the New York City subway
Talking to my neighbors
Engaging learning that will make me a better person
Engaging learning that will make me better at my job
Sitting on a 12-hour fight to visit my son and his family on the opposite side of the planet
Hanging out with my daughter and her family at their nearby location on this side of the planet
Scrolling through Science Daily
Scrolling through XKCD
Breaking through the thin ice on my neighbor's pond to take a cold water plunge
Writing this post
Thinking about you
Thinking about my loved ones
Learning how to communicate more impactfully
Participating in the healthy functioning of my local community
Pruning the grape vines
Cleaning the garage (yes, even that)
I have a short attention span for reading, and don't get a strong reward response to support the actions. I have to apply grit. Angela Duckworth has defined grit as "sustained persistence applied toward long-term achievement, with no particular concern for rewards or recognition along the way. It combines resilience, ambition, and self-control." Doing that close reading is going to tax my resilience and self control.
Bleh.
Duckworth has identified a powerful human capacity. Grit is the capacity that allows us to sustain the capacities to hold opposites, watch and rise above ourselves. And, in a cycle, holding opposites, watching, and rising above ourselves is necessary to apply grit effectively.
I've noted before, I have a fifteen minute attention span for reading. As determined as I have been to extend it over my lifetime, this is it.
What I've learned is that applying grit doesn't involve chaining myself to a desk in the morning and reading this content until I finish. Grit for me was picking a small goal: open all the envelopes and scan them to assess the scope of the work. It didn't take as long as I thought. I've got a lot more to do, but this small accomplishment feels good. Now, I'm going to pick up one of these documents from the pile and set a timer for 15 minutes.
Okay.
Not wild joy, but not bleh. I can do this. It turns out, fifteen minutes isn't enough to complete the task, but I'm doing more than I thought I could. Sometimes, I reset the timer for five or ten minutes more.
To apply grit to this task. I had to hold opposites. I have a short attention span for reading, but watching myself, I can realize I have many short attention spans for reading available to me during a day. That watching myself got me past, bleh. Now at, okay, I have enough grit available to rise above myself to take responsibility for work that isn't fun for me, and depletes rather than raises my attention and energy.
Does accomplishing this spark joy?
Nah.
At the same time, this rising above myself makes me feel like a boss.
It feels good.
Warm regards,
Francis Sopper
REFERENCED IN THIS LETTER:
Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/
XKCD: https://xkcd.com/#
Angela Duckworth: https://qz.com/work/1233940/angela-duckworth-explains-grit-is-the-key-to-success-and-self-confidence
hold opposites: https://www.kairoscognition.com/blog/a9234bd6794959a