Full transcript here 👋

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. This is your life. This is your chance. Listen.

The word for today is sign, as in marks on a page, and marks as in dots and lines, not people named Mark. Okay, now that we’re clear. As I was signing my refinance paperwork last week, I realized how unfamiliar writing has become. Almost everything I create is either typed or dictated. I’ve mentioned before that I worked at a group home for teenage boys when I was fresh out of college, and it was probably the most difficult job I’ve ever had. When I was still in training there, one of the boys came up to me during their pottery class and shoved wet clay in my face, I guess to see what I’d do. I wiped it off my face and hoped that the full-time staff member would give the kid a consequence. He did not. A few months later, this group of boys graduated out of the group home. The staff were asked to say a few words to honor the guys and give them a proper send-off. It was difficult to think of positive words for people whose main source of fun was giving staff a hard time, but I remembered that a couple of them had said that they liked the pen that I kept in my pocket. I handed them the same kind of pen and told them that writing is unique. It unites what you say with what you do. That’s exactly what I did last week in signing mortgage paperwork. My wife and I wrote our names and initials to say we’ll pay the loan. At the same time, signing acts as a marker in time to begin making payments.

Today’s concrete challenge is to write down your commitments. I recently bought a test copy of the Today’s Challenge notebook, and I’m doing all the challenges from the beginning of this podcast. It’s been good to write my thoughts and responses to each episode. I also sign my name beside the upcoming challenge. It shows me my commitment to myself.

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will write down my commitments to make them more concrete.”

I’ll keep the music playing while you get it done, and don’t miss the soundtrack at the end of this episode.

Before you go, repeat the following soundtrack, “I am the kind of person who signs on the dotted line.”

Let me know if this made a difference in your day by leaving a comment in your podcast app or at concrete.win/today.

Check back tomorrow for a new challenge. Until then.

References:

Is Handwriting Relevant in the Digital Era?

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