that's what I don't want right now.
I think that if I took all the tips that are foisted on me, I could easily spend 26 hours of every day improving my life in small baby steps. And also driving myself insane. Seriously though: have you ever thought about it? One site tells you how to get whiter teeth with just 15 minutes a week. Another encourages you to increase your vocabulary in only 5 minutes a day! Then the magazine in the grocery store is promoting gratefulness: take just 20 minutes sometime this week to write a few thank you notes. That's all. Just 20 minutes. Oh, but did I mention that you should also be getting firmer abs in only 8 moves every morning? And that if you want to get your finances in order, just a one-time investment of a couple hours plus an hour a week is all you need? You could be squeezing in leg lifts during conference calls at work, too. And decluttering your closet in three simple sessions.
And all of these tips just made me more aware of how you simply cannot solve all of the world's problems in 5 easy steps or 20 minutes a week. Things are complex. And sometimes that means that you can't just boil it down and try a few "tips." Maybe they need to be completely re-examined and explored in long, ongoing dialogue. I subscribe to a newsletter on preaching and they love love love to bring up a different preaching problem every week and pretend to solve it in a single newsletter with a sidebar containing, well, more tips. I hate it.
Are we allergic to the idea of hard work?
And today at the gym was a magazine announcing in big blue letters: 1,432 tips Smart new health, fitness, nutrition, beauty & sex tips! Are you kidding me?!
6 comments:
I understand the issue of people trying to over-simplify what may be complex. I understand the need for hard work. And I've got 7 highly effective habits to help solve your problem.
People make everything sound so simple. But really you make incredible work seem really simple. So I could see you writing a book like 7 highly effective habits giving people tips on how to be incredible. And I could see myself reading the first 3 chapters letting everything go into one ear and out the other. :)
Haha. I wondered how they chose 1,432. Was the 1,433th tip just not good enough to make the cut? It's probably good that people at least desire to improve their lives. But maybe the people who look to tips to do so just lack common sense.
hahaha! You are all so hilarious. Stella, I refer you to Nick upcoming book on highly effective habits. When you finish the first three chapters, let me know if it made you more effective or not.
And Amanda, yeah: really? 1432? I'm a just a wimp or does that sound totally overwhelming? How could I possibly implement 1432 new things into my life? *breathing into paper bag...
My favorite are the 100 tips to simplifying your life. Kinda of oxymoronic, if that was a word.
I know its been awhile since you wrote, this, but I just read it and I want to say that I agree. You can spend your entire life doing the "tiny" things that are supposed to take a few seconds.
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