Building A Better You

10 Things Better Than Staring at Your Phone What did we do with our downtime before we had phones? For one thing, there was actually downtime! Now, anytime I’m not actively working on something, I grab my phone and trick myself into thinking I’m being productive. I answer emails, research places to camp next year, I read the news. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of this, but it’s not something I need to do, and honestly, it usually ends up stressing me out more than anything. Recently, I’ve been working on being more present, living in the now. Staring at my phone takes me out of the now, and puts me in the future, or the past, and I’m pretty much anything but present. What I have started doing instead, is finding things that keep me occupied, but don’t necessarily have some specific end-goal, and don’t stress me out. So, what can you do instead of mindless scrolling? Write Anything. Write in a journal, write a letter to a friend (when is the last time you did that?!), write ...

 I'm Just Doing My Best “I’m just doing my best.” This is a phrase I find myself throwing around when things get  difficult. Days when I’m struggling to get everything done, when I’m barely hanging on  between work, household chores, and raising a child. When somebody criticizes my work  (or as is more often the case, when I get self-critical) I remind myself that I’m just doing  my  best. I was saying it to myself this morning, somewhere between making my son breakfast, packing his lunch, and making lunch for my wife and I, when I paused and really thought about what I was saying.  Just  my best? If it’s my best, how can it be  just  my best? Isn’t my best what I’m shooting for? It doesn’t always feel like my best though, partly because I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. My best should be getting it all done, getting it all done right, and getting it all done a little bit better than I did yesterday. What I came to realize, however,...