Me & My Quite Contrary Life

NUDGED: "Immerse myself in one big project" BACKSTORY: The idea for this nudge came from Kathleen Guthrie Woods' 2.0 list of nudges . In the past, I have enjoyed working on big projects and losing track of time as I devote myself to accomplishing something awesome. It usually gets messy and chaotic while in the midst of it, but it always gets better and I have a huge sense of satisfaction when I am done. This nudge inspired me to find a big project that has been on my to do list for sometime, then actually do it. It doesn't matter how long it will take me or how messy it gets, my goal was to complete something big! QUOTE: "A little progress each day adds up to big results." - Author Unknown HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK:  I encountered the big question right away: what is the big project that I want to tackle? I made a list of ideas, then felt very indecisive as I tried to pick one. I ended up working on multiple "big projects". 1) This week...

NUDGED: Say "no" to something BACKSTORY: I am always amazed at people who can say no so easily. I struggle to decline things as I don't want to make the other person feel bad. I had a previous nudge week of saying "yes" to something, so this week I will focus on turning something down - saying "no". It could be anything! QUOTE:  HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: What I thought would be a very difficult week, turned out to be the easiest yet! In the mail on Monday was an invitation to attend a baby shower. After our difficult and painful journey with infertility, baby showers are still very difficult and trigger negative emotions in me. I cannot put myself through it, especially for someone I don't know very well. It was the easiest "no" I have given in a long time. I simply emailed my regrets to the party planner and moved on. No guilt! Since I was on a roll, I also said "no" to attending a conference in April. I have atten...

NUDGED: "Learn engineering terms" BACKSTORY: My education and training is in journalism and sociology, but I work for a civil engineering company. I have been with the company for many years and have picked up some of the highly technical things, but there are other terms that I have no idea what they mean. I am not required to learn it as part of my job, but I know it will be helpful for me to understand even a little bit more. It's time to learn! QUOTE: "Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can; there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did." - Sarah Caldwell HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: I won't go into all the details, but I spent time this week looking up various engineering terms I have heard often at work. This includes culvert (cast-in-place, precast and HDPE), force mains, drainage basins, BMPs, silt fence, catch basins/drop inlets, and blue tops. I found myself saying "ah ha!" a lot as it finally...

NUDGED: "Listen to the Hamilton soundtrack" BACKSTORY: Word of mouth, Facebook posts, and a short singing clip in a credit card commercial all peaked my interest for the music of "Hamilton". The play is very popular and I heard the music was fantastic, but had no first-hand knowledge of it. Time to actually listen to it instead of hearing about it! QUOTE: "Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can't." - Johnny Depp HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: Per online research , I learned that the book, music and lyrics for "Hamilton" were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The music includes hip hop, R&B, pop, soul and traditional-style show tunes, and tells the story of "America then, as told by America now". It opened on Broadway on August 6, 2015, and has won many, many awards since then. I found the entire soundtrack online and listened to it all week. It was 2 hours 22 minutes long, so I listened to it whenever I had the time ...