Living With Chaos: Awesome!

Time to read: 26 seconds

Made this for a woman who was a music teacher

Welcome to week 8 of Living with Chaos. Invite your friends to join here.

Today is nice and short.

One of my clients was worrying about something that hadn't happened. (Like all worries.) Anyway, I said to her, "Instead of worrying about the awful future that hasn't happened, what if you just let things be awesome now?"

Today's message: let it be awesome.

Look around your life for the things that are working. When you're living in chaos, the temptation is to focus only on the things that feel broken, out of control, and painful. You lose your job, and your kids are hilarious. You hate your boss, and daffodils are coming up. A parent is sick, and you love walking your dog.

The point here isn't to ignore the hard things. It's to balance them with awesome so that you are able to LIVE in chaos.

I hope this helps.

P.S. If you want a custom charm bracelet, email me here.

I LOVE making them for people. They make great gifts!

Living With Chaos: You Have Agency

Time to read: 48 seconds. I timed it.

Welcome to week 2 of Living with Chaos. If you are enjoying this series, please share it with your people. They can join here.

The second part of the You Have No Control lecture is that you have agency, ownership and responsibility. For everything. Your health, relationships, career, attitude, feelings, choices. It looks like this:

• You don't control if your teen does her homework. You have agency over how you relate to your teen.
• You control aging (yours or someone else's). You have responsibility for how you care for yourself and your attitude as you age.
• You don't have control over a layoff. You have ownership over how you respond and what you do next.

So how does this relate to chaos? There is so much about national politics, your career, your family etc that you don't control. However, you have all the agency to decide what you will and won't do, how you speak to others, and the ways you do or don't give power to the chaos of human life.

For the next 3 weeks, I'll share one strategy a week for dealing with chaos. More to come!

Living With Chaos: Good News! You Have No Control

Time to read: 36 seconds

It's awesome vintage!

Welcome to week 1 of Living with Chaos. I'm going to keep this multi-week series brief, to the point, and immediately useful. Your life is full (cue the chaos) so I want the return-on-investment of your time to read this newsletter to be high. Please share it with your friends and family and anyone who experiences chaos and wants to thrive. They can join here.

And now we begin.

Anyone who comes within 2 feet of me gets this lecture.

You Have No Control.

None. Nada. Nope. No Control. Is that clear?

Consider this: aging, getting sick, people you love getting sick, death, layoffs, who your children turn out to be, the weather, other people's behavior, etc etc etc. Despite your best efforts, you have zero control over these things.

This is great news! Once you really get that you have no control, you are free! The weight comes off your shoulder. You can stop trying to force outcomes or make people respond the way you want. You save so much effort and energy to use for things that are actually fun.

Next week, I'll tell you what you do have. Stay tuned.

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