Wisdom

October lessons

Grateful Kae

Long time readers know that I keep a “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” daily calendar on my desk. I love the little inspirational tidbits, and I love that they’ve now started adding lines for Notes on the back! I keep the old ones stacked up and I grab them all the time for scratch paper.

(*TIP- I used to write down a few things I’m grateful for each day on the back, and then saved them all in the calendar box in my desk drawer. Then I’d sit and read through them all on New Years Eve by the fire. This is a GREAT way to start a gratitude practice, if you aren’t already doing one! Tearing the calendar page off each day is an automatic trigger, and it’s so simple. I’ve since transitioned to using my time log spreadsheet instead for gratitude tracking, but I do kind of miss writing them out! Hmm. Maybe I’ll go back in 2025. 😉)

Today I want to share a handful of lessons that I especially liked from October.

Practice Humility:

Let It Go Already

Search for the Grain of Truth in Other Opinions

I LOVE this one.
Also love this: “especially if we are looking for merit, rather than looking for errors”. Usually if an opinion differs from ours, our gut reaction is to immediately open our mouth and argue why our opinion is the right one….I love this calmer, more measured approach.

Cast Away Jealousy

“So what? Good for them.” (said in earnest, not sarcasm)💗

Breathe Before You Speak

There you have it. Hopefully this gave you a few minutes of positivity and inspiration today. 🙂

In other news, I’m now almost 48 hours into my social media detox week (strategically chosen to coincide with election week). I deleted Facebook/Instagram on Sunday morning.

So far, so good! My initial Screen Time data shows a 38% decrease from last week. Wowzers. Also, I will admit that my brain just feels a little quieter. I still grab my phone too often, but I don’t miss the micro checks and constant fragmented “in and out” of those apps that I tend to do.

Also, I just feel a greater sense of peace.

I sort of feel like being off social media right now could be a commercial for noise cancelling headphones; there’s a big city scene playing with shouting and horns blaring and inaudible conversations, and then someone hands me some big Bose headphones, I slip them on, and it allllll drowns away. Ahh. 🙂 Quiet.

*I loved Cal Newport’s take on this yesterday! “After You Vote: Unplug”

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for my right to vote! Heading over this morning. Decided to not vote early and just go to our regular polling place, because I like it and it’s familiar and convenient.

19 thoughts on “October lessons”

  1. I love “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.” These are great quotes. Search for the grain of truth in other opinions- it’s usually there. And, let it go! You can’t go wrong with that one.

    Happy Election Day : )

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  2. What a fun calendar. I can see how it is a good companion through the year.

    I wish I could stay of social media but as a social media manager its almost impossible I try to stay Sundays off but even that is hard because it is such a habit to check and scroll.

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    1. Oof, yeah, that would be tough!! Can you at least limit it to a separate account or something so you’re only seeing “work related” stuff, versus “everything”? Not sure I guess how exactly that works.

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      1. Unfortunately not. I wish you could set separate time limits to each account but no. It would be easier if all posts could be automatically published but also no. I often time need to go in the app and upload manually.

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  3. I’m so happy to be off social media!! I’ve been off for almost 3 years now and do not miss it at all. But at times like this, I’m especially glad to be off of it!

    I love all of these quotes. That is a such a fun calendar. Our page a day calendar is a dad jokes calendar that my parents got for Phil. Paul reads the jokes to us each day but we usually have to explain the humor much of the time. But it’s still a fun little daily ritual for us.

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    1. Ha, I love the idea of a jokes calendar. My dad has always loved the Dilbert comics, dating way back to when he still worked in an office (are you familiar with those? They’re basically funny “office culture” themed) and he still gets a tear off Dilbert calendar every year even though he’s been retired for years now!

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  4. Those are all great quotes, but I especially love the Cast Away Jealousy, and think that we too often compare ourselves to others. I actually have a post drafted for this about how we all do this yet, sometimes the others don’t even care. Like we hold ourselves up to the standard that we think others have for us, but really it is our own inner self that is making these expectations for ourselves. I don’t know if that makes sense but bottom line is that we need to give ourselves a break and just be ourselves and not worry about what it appears that others have.

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  5. I forgot about page a day calendars! I always had the puzzle ones which took up room on the back with the answers but I still have a STACK of blank backs to use for scratch paper!

    I am mostly off social media. If I go on, it’s thru the internet browser which is significantly more clunky and less satisfying than the apps. This helps! There are a couple people I like to check in on and my kids’ school posts things to Facebook, but don’t I spend much less time endlessly scrolling. I do agree that being off feels like Bose headphones for your mind! Aside from other things, I follow a lot of sewing and home diy accounts and I feel too much input and inspiration even from the good stuff can be excess noise in my brain. Like it’s possible to have too many ideas! I would love to be a person who can do social media in tiny healthy spurts, but I can’t!

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    1. Yes, that’s the thing- I really do like to see the updates from my son’s swim team, certain school related things, and just generally the positive updates from local friends (and far away family that I don’t see often)…. but it’s so hard to keep it limited to just that! I know it’s often recommended to do the browser only method, and set aside specific times versus having it on your phone and scrolling every 5 minutes.

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  7. I love all of these. I have always thought about “don’t sweat the small stuff”, but I’ve never seen it explained so well. I love it. Some of those really spoke to me.

    I have a post I’ve been working on about going on a technology diet, but haven’t really finished fleshing it out. Doing a week detox sounds like a good place to start my “diet”.

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  8. That is such a cool calendar with so much wisdom to think about. I had a little flip book with sayings that I used to sit on my desk and flip over each day, but now I work at the dining table.

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  9. Also did not vote early since I had a day off, the kids had a day off, why not go together? Love all of the messages but especially the one about jealousy. I struggle with comparasitis sometimes so need to remember that we are all journeying in our own paths.

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  10. I am trying to look for the grain of truth in other people’s opinions right now, and I am not on SM for the time being in the aftermath– both helpful!!

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