Is [This] Making Me Better?

I’ve come to call this The Better Metric. Whereby [This] is a place holder for anything we decide to do. Example, "Is my relationship with this person making me better?" or "Is my job making me better?"

This is the question we should always be asking ourselves about everything we choose to do. Because if the answer to this question is not yes then we should be asking some important questions. Questions like, "Am I the right person for [this]?" or "If this isn’t making me better then why am I spending time on [this]?"

Now, this metric and point of view might sound selfish. Perhaps, in some ways, it is. I’m going to argue that this is OK. This idea that all interest is self-interest is not a particularly new idea and, in fact, is considered enlightened by some. To wit, in order to give we must first receive so that we have something to give.

I know the coffee me and my wife have in the morning makes us better for getting Beatrix get off to school. I know that the time I take in solitude makes me better for being around others. I know that being a writer makes me a better human. Any endeavor I engage should make me better. And anything that does not make me better, I should not engage or find a way to disengage from as quickly as possible.

I believe we all would be better by doing the same.

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One Day

Because there are days when I need inspiration too. There are days when I feel as much a writer as I do an imposter. When no words of consequence are committed for no excuse that makes up for this fact. I need to remember that, while this day was not that day but only one day of many that brought forth much work that I am proud of.

But, mostly, I just needed to say I wrote one thing today and this was that thing.

Make A Nice Day

I’m a writer. Therefore, I spend a lot of time thinking about words and phrases. Words mean things. It is partly my job to spend a lot of time dwelling on those meanings.

I especially like the common phrases.

“Have a nice day.”

Something we all say often. A nice bidding. Certainly well intentioned. But, sometimes, it strikes me a bit too passive. As if the days just happen to us.

The fact is that our days, and the moments they are comprised of, are shaped by us. B=They are shaped by our actions and reactions. If it is a nice day or not is all a matter of our perception and interpretation of the events that unfolded within. That perception and interpretation is largely defined by the choices we make and how we feel about them. We don’t simply have them. We make them.

Make a nice day.