24 Hours

This year’s you

mcgonigal — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:56:09 +0000

You know you’ve reached a turning point in your life when you have to start updating your online bios. I should really pick a date on the calendar and go through them every year to make sure they reflect who I still am and who I’ve become. Do other people do this? Probably. I just never thought about it till now – the way I don’t think about updating my CV until I suddenly need to start applying for new jobs. (Oops, that just happened too.) Now I’m starting to see the sense of keeping things up to date. Because let’s face it, people are checking us out all the time. I am being Googled. You are being Googled. Have you looked recently at what you’re saying about yourself online? Is it what you want people to know right now? Best to make sure you’re not hiding behind last year’s you.

Thoughts from the comfort zone

mcgonigal — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:50:21 +0000

My favourite tweet from today, by @gfsocial: “Everything you want in life is right outside your comfort zone.”

In other words: you get out what you put in. A little effort goes a long way.

True, that.

Don’t look back

mcgonigal — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:15:10 +0000

When there’s no way back, the only thing to do is carry on. And in life there’s really no way back. Chin up, shoulders back, deep breath, start walking…

September rain

mcgonigal — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:08:39 +0000

The sound of the rain outside tonight is incredibly soothing. I’m alone but not lonely. There are decisions to make, hard choices, but not tonight. Tonight I can curl up under the covers and listen to the rain and the clock ticking and bask in the silence.

Dare to tell the truth?

mcgonigal — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:24:50 +0000

Is it better to be brutally honest with someone who asks you to tell them the truth, even though you know it will hurt them deeply, or tell a lie (or say nothing) for the sake of kindness? Is avoiding a harsh truth actually a way of protecting yourself as well as than the other person? It’s difficult to know you’re causing someone else pain.

Always question why you’re acting the way you are. Be sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. In the end, the person you have to answer to is yourself.

Live now

mcgonigal — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 10:47:13 +0000

I have a child-free afternoon. This is a rare occurrence. I’m with the kids a lot, and I often dream about what I would do if I had a few hours to myself during the day, but now I’ve got them, what am I doing? Pottering around the house, tidying here and there, vaguely checking Twitter, making new to-do lists in my head.

And wondering – why am I not out sunbathing (it’s warm enough), reading at a riverside cafe, going for a long walk, or even a run – all the things that I tell myself I could do, if only I didn’t have these children holding me back.

When I’m on my own, I have to admit it: I hold myself back. I find excuses not to live in a certain way. Things seem more attractive when I can’t have them, and when they’re within my reach, I turn away instead of stretching out and grabbing them.

Time to change that. Life is shorter than you think, my afternoon is shorter than I think. Time to live now.

Are you positive?

mcgonigal — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:44:45 +0000

Saw a tweet today: “Transform negative into positive with pure & positive thoughts”. (Glad to say the reason I noticed it was that a Twitter friend was disagreeing with it.) Another one from yesterday went something like this: “Living in fear is the only thing holding you back from living your dreams.”

Oh, really? So it’s nothing to do with responsibility to other people…no mention of long-term commitments that you value and want to keep…the reason you can’t have everything you want is just that you’re not positive enough.

Balls. Big, bouncy, colourful, positive balls. Real positive thinking is finding a way through all the struggles of daily life with grace and kindness, without complaining or making other people’s lives miserable. I’ve met some truly positive individuals on Twitter, and they are people who are examples to the rest of us by the way they act and react towards others. Empty statements aren’t positive. Positive thoughts may help, but what matters most is action. Let’s talk about positive behavior, positive choices. Living our dreams? What happened to living well and making a positive contribution to other people’s lives?

On the road without a map

mcgonigal — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:44:14 +0000

Feeling lost. As if I thought I knew the road so well that I stopped looking where I was going and when I started paying attention again, I had no idea where I had ended up or how to get back.

Happiness is…

mcgonigal — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:06:31 +0000

Bed and a book. Sometimes I think there’s really not much I’d need. Ok, an iPhone and a fast Internet connection come in handy. And a pot of coffee standing by. Oh yeah, hot shower for when I eventually decide to get out of bed. Bread and cheese…wine…apples. Happy.

Outside in

mcgonigal — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:20:53 +0000

We’ve had to move our outside inside. The landlord has decided to add a new floor to the building so we get the pleasure of scaffolding, dust and drilling this summer. The balcony, which is a little green refuge for me, had to be cleared. Not good news for my Swiss geraniums and this year’s sole tomato plant…but as of tonight, they have a new home, facing the same sun, a little more sheltered, which they might even enjoy. And I still have a green corner where I can sit and have my coffee and watch the flowers grow. It’s different, but it’s fine.