Make Something

I finished building Melanie’s website this week, and I feel pretty good about it even though it could still use some work. I suggest you pay Melanie a visit, not because the site is great but because the content is. Be careful though; Melanie’s writing will hit you in your feeling place, hard.

Learn Something

I learned the world “brutiful” this week. It’s a portmanteau Glennon Doyle Melton uses to describe those moments in life that are both beautiful and brutal. I heard it in a fantastic interview on the The One You Feed podcast, which I cannot get enough of lately. Just one of many takeaways from their discussion: the way out of almost any funk is Art and Service.

Karate Chop Something

I metaphorically karate chopped the front yard this weekend. It finally stopped raining long enough to cut it, and instead of putting it off for another weekend, I just got it done. That’s a small thing, but it’s a big victory for me since I almost always wait too long to cut the grass.

Try Something New

Hmm. This might be my failure for the week. I didn’t intentionally set out to try something new, and I think that oversight has caught up to me. Instead of claiming that the typing experiment should count here, I’m just gonna acknowledge that I need to improve. 

Be Nice to Someone

I forwarded a podcast I really enjoyed to a few people I thought would appreciate it (the same one I mentioned above). And that is actually all I can think of at the moment, which means I need to work on this area in the coming week too, or I need to do a better job of keeping track. 

Overall, I did alright, but I need to be more intentional about this. Also, I should probably be aiming to practice the Five Karate Moves to Success everyday, not just per week.

Good luck on your own forthcoming week.

Make Something

In addition to the writing I did this week, Theo and I also made some decent artwork. We painted lines and circles and various other shapes with his watercolors, and I made a number of Play-Doh animals, including a shark, a sheep, and a horse. I think I could be a little more intentional with my making next week.

Learn Something

I listen to many podcasts during my commute and while doing other stuff that doesn’t require much thinking (mowing, dishes, etc.), so I come across new information all the time. In retrospect, one podcast that stands out to me is the Freakonmics episode, This Idea Must Die. Rather than offer some interesting , new idea, Steven Dubner asked a bunch of experts what particular idea they thought needed to be retired. Among some of the more compelling were our conception of the universe (instead of a multiverse), the idea that “the market” is good or bad, and the belief that atheism is a prerequisite for scientific inquiry. One of my favorites was Alan Alda’s suggestion that we stop thinking that something has to be right or wrong, true or false, by which he meant retiring “the idea that something is either true or false for all time and in all respects.” My typical response to whether or not a statement is true is, “it depends,” which can be frustrating for whomever I’m in conversation with. But so much depends on the particular situation and person that I hate to limit my perspective when I can avoid it.

Karate-chop Something

I don’t think I excelled in this area this week. I didn’t literally karate-chop anything, and I can’t say that I totally crushed anything figuratively either. Another area for improvement.

Try Something New

I went to a dealership for the first time this week, at least for the first time with the intention of buying a vehicle. Thus far, I have managed to buy my rides from individuals (or have them gifted to me). It was a pretty strange experience on the whole, complicated by Theo’s presence and the fact that we weren’t really excited about getting a minivan. Not that I have a problem with minivans, but Melanie and I both felt somewhat forced into the situation because she’s having twins. So, it wasn’t an expense we had necessarily foreseen. I don’t actually want to go into all the details here, but I will say that we managed to find a great deal online, and we feel fortunate that we have a reliable ride for the family.

Overall, it was a positive experience. It was also one that I don’t think you can really prepare for that well just by reading about it. I’ve seen plenty of information about working with salespeople and dealerships, but I feel like it’s a situation you really have to go through a few times before you’re comfortable with it. But it is also an experience you don’t really want to practice because that implies that you’re constantly buying new cars.

Be Nice to Someone

Again, I think I could have done better in this area. I did tell one of the security guards at work that I liked his sweater. And I complimented someone’s dishes. I think it’s best to make an effort to do something nice for at least one person every day, so I need to be more intentional about it.

So, that’s this week in review. It looks like I have some work to do; really only succeeded in two out of five of the karate moves for success.  Hopefully this information isn’t completely dull and useless. I felt like it might be interesting to start keeping tabs on my own self-improvement and to share that progress with you. We’ll see how it goes and whether or not the Johnny Karate path is the best framework to use.

Thanks for reading. Did you achieve any epic karate moves this week?