Thursday, May 9, 2019

Or I could just play Calvinball...



One of the ways I motivate myself is by making up games.  What makes games different than just screwing around is rules.  When a game stops working for me, I change the rules.

For example, I have the photo game.  Every time I work out, I take a photo of something.  Simple enough.  The thing is, I work out, most of the time, in the same locations.  It’s boring to take a photo of the same thing every time, so while I’m moving my body, I’m thinking about how to take a different photo, how to find a new angle, how to find freshness.  Robert Frost talked about non-rhyming poetry as playing tennis without a net—my photos have to find a way over the net of sameness.

Another wellness game I have involves a post-it note on my computer.  (Actually, a lot of my games involve post-it notes…)  I’ve written about it before.  It has four words on it:  body, mind, creation, and connection.  I try to do something in line with each of those words every day to keep myself healthy and moderately sane.

I’m trying a new post-it game this week.  This one has two categories:  short-term and long-term.  The goal is to do something to make both better.  So maybe I take a nap to make my short-term self feel better and then I get some exercise to meet my long-term wellness needs.  Or I could have a snack for short-term and make it an apple and almond butter to contribute to long-term better nutrition.

We can find ways that work!

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