Early in my career as a Jr. Copywriter working at an ad agency in NYC, I learned quickly not to fill in all the gaps for readers. The idea was to involve them in the writing while leaving room for them to make some of the connections. In other words, when you're building a mouse trap, leave room for the mouse.
As my career advanced and I became a student of business and productivity, as well as advertising, I learned to leave room for chaos. No matter how many to-do lists and how much calendar blocking I might do, someone would invariably hand me an assignment that was unexpected and required my immediate attention. Be it edits to something I had thought complete, or a new business pitch, or an assignment for a client I'd never worked on before, there was always a hot project.
"Leave room for chaos" became a mantra of sorts.
In some ways this was my initial effort to develop a mindfulness to accept what was "hot" and treat it with urgency, without getting in my own way by bemoaning the fact that it would disrupt my schedule completely.
I even passed along this bit of wisdom to others, in an effort to help other Jr. Copywriters understand that it wasn't a personal affront to their efforts. It was simply a fact of the pace of business, and would become a daily occurrence 19 times out of 20.
Being a dad, however, has shown me I was looking at it all wrong. It's the other 1 time in 20 that should have some room made for it. The moment of utter whimsy that makes the other 19 times predictable is the moment to savor and seek.
TheKiddo™ and her mami taught me this with a game they created using a d20 (or twenty sided die for those who have never played Dungeons & Dragons).
They'll roll a d20, and when a 20 appears, the one who rolled it gets to punch me in the shoulder. All while giggling manically. Luckily for me, neither punches terribly hard, and it makes me laugh too.
It's that 1 in 20 chance that creates joy and anticipation. And by enjoying the weird little game as much as they do, it involves everyone in the fun. The other 19 possible numbers are just part of what happens along the way.
There will always be chaos to handle.
Makes the random bits of whimsy that much more fun.
Feb 26, 2016
Feb 14, 2016
Success With DIY Grow Light
Over the past two weeks, we've seen radical growth from the tomatoes and peppers that were started as seeds. We'll be transplanting them a lot sooner than expected into individual cups. Looks like we'll have far more plants than we'll know what to do with.
If you want some tomatoes this spring, let me know.
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