Today's Challenge

Full transcript here 👋 Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. This is your life. This is your chance. Listen.

The word for today is weak, and we’re examining this one more closely. [“Hmmm… yes...”] Weakness is almost universally frowned on. Is there any benefit or use to weakness? One of my weaknesses is feeling like I have failed. Just yesterday, we came home to a kitchen flooring renovation with high hopes about the updated look. As soon as I walked in, my stomach hurt because it didn’t feel like the right flooring choice, and I only had myself to blame. I had rushed to pick out the flooring. I felt like I had failed, and I felt sad and weak. I guess one nice thing about weakness is that it keeps you humble. My wife was similarly disappointed with the reveal, but she immediately started looking for reasons why the flooring might still work. She has kept me from being too hard on myself, and that’s what you should expect from your partner. Your weakness is an opportunity to rely on someone else. Now, there are implications to relying on someone that I’m not educated enough to advise you on. I do know there are unhealthy versions, though, like codependency and emotional abuse. If you feel that your partner treats you like an equal and has your back, you’re likely safe to express your feelings of weakness with them.

Today’s concrete challenge is to write down some things that make you feel weak and share them with a friend or partner. Talking through your triggers can help you to feel understood and more prepared for the next emotional roller coaster.

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will share some things that make me feel weak with someone I trust.”

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 shares my world.”

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:

5 Essentials to Having a Healthy Relationship (joinonelove.org)

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations

Full transcript here 👋 Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. This is your life. This is your chance. Listen.

The word for today is consequence. I’m afraid that I’ve trained my kids to believe that all consequences are negative, but a consequence is just an outcome. This story is about a negative consequence. [sad trumpet] We recently received a letter from our local water company saying that our house was leaking. I was nervous that one of the PEX joints from my bathroom renovation was spraying water under our house, but I found no swimming pool in our crawlspace. It turned out that I had set the fill level of an old toilet too high, and it was constantly leaking water into the tank’s drain. Not a huge deal. I adjusted it back, and the water company reimbursed us for the charges. About a month after that, we got another letter saying that we were leaking again. That same old toilet had its flush mechanism stuck open because I had used a zip tie to make it work. The water company wasn’t as convinced this time that we had fixed the leak, so it seems like they’re not going to reimburse the charges, plus I had to pay for a new tank kit that I probably should have bought before adjusting the fill level way back at the beginning of this story. The moral is: Consequences follow you. Do it right the first time, and you’ll hopefully stay on their good side.

Today’s concrete challenge is to use a full measure, even when you’re tempted to do it halfway. I don’t recommend the approach taken in Breaking Bad, but I agree with the intent. Think through your to-do’s and pinpoint one that you want to do all the way, just for the practice.

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will write down a task that I will see all the way through today.”

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 does it right the first time.”

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:

"Wah Wah.wav" by GeraRamirez

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations

Full transcript here 👋 Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. This is your life. This is your chance. Listen.

The word for today is zero. Maybe this would have fit well on the days where we get rid of a word, but today we’re just going to look at the upside of zero. When I think of zero, the phrase “inbox zero” comes to mind. I like that phrase because it comes with a built-in dare, the challenge of less. I’ve been digging Greg McKeown’s Essentialism for the last week, and he sums up his entire book with the phrase “less, but better.” So many areas of life would benefit from this approach, and it’s why zero is attractive. Zero marketing emails that you have to step over in order to find the important ones. Zero foods sitting out on your countertop, waiting to be thoughtlessly consumed. Zero clothes in your drawers and closet that haven’t been worn in the last two years. These goals are interesting because they are concrete and success is black and white. You either make it to zero, or you don’t. No in-between.

Today’s concrete challenge is to identify something that you want zero of in your life and make it happen today.

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will write down my zero goal and work toward it today.”

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 does less but better.”

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:

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations

Full transcript here 👋 Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. This is your life. This is your chance. Listen.

The word for today is cross. This is an appeal, and it’s possible that it doesn’t apply to you. We’re staying down the road from our old house this week, so I thought it would be fun to run over that way for exercise. The morning was hotter than I expected, so as soon as I turned on to our old road, I was ready to be wrapping it up. In front of me, cars were kicking up dust from road construction. How much was this about to suck? Then I noticed that the wind was carrying the dust toward me and away from the sidewalk on the other side of the road. My tiredness told me to continue straight on, but sense talked me into crossing the road and avoiding the obvious problem. What comes to mind when you hear this question: “What or who do I need to avoid right now?” I’m not generally a fan of avoidance, but sometimes there’s no advantage to going forward through the dust cloud. Cross the road, even if it’s difficult.

Today’s concrete challenge is to consider if there’s something or someone you need to avoid. When thinking through your commitments and relationships, here’s some advice from Greg McKeown in Essentialism: “If it’s not a clear ‘yes,’ then it’s a clear ‘no.’”

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will spend a couple minutes scanning for dust clouds in my immediate future.”

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 looks ahead.”

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:

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations

Full transcript here 👋 Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. This is your life. This is your chance. Listen.

The word for today is performance. If you’ve ever performed song, dance, theater or anything else, you know that it can be intimidating to be in the spotlight, but if you’ve stuck with it long enough you’ve probably found enjoyment within the chaos. Two performances stick out in my mind as particularly worthwhile and memorable. The first was unplanned. My family was visiting my cousins in Florence, AL, and we usually just stayed there and watched movies. However, this particular time, my middle cousin took my brother and me to Godfather’s Pizza. His wife, then girlfriend, was closing the store, and a couple of his friends were playing music there. After they played for a while, they asked if my brother or I wanted to play a song. I played “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead, and I probably wouldn't remember the performance, except that my cousin’s wife later commented on it. She didn’t say that my playing was exceptional or that she enjoyed the song. She said that it sounded like a CD. That was maybe the best thing she could have said, because it would be easy for modesty to downplay anything said about my playing or singing. The second memorable performance was very much planned. My wife wanted to come down the aisle at our wedding to Ben Folds’ “The Luckiest,” so I conspired with the wedding pianist for him to play it and I would sing it as a surprise. I underestimated the nerves on this one. [singing “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds] As she began to come through the door, my voice got shaky, but the quality of the performance didn’t matter this time. It was the follow-through that mattered.

Today’s concrete challenge is to perform in front of people. Going through the process of learning something well enough to perform it is great for your brain’s health and self confidence. Even if it’s a short poem, commit it to memory and put your own flavor on the performance. You are the only person who can perform it like you.

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will find something to memorize and perform now.”

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 finds joy in performance.”

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:

Memorization: A Proven Method of Learning

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations

Full transcript here 👋 Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. This is your life. This is your chance. Listen.

The word for today is narrow. I wouldn’t consider myself any kind of scientist, but I think I understand the scientific process. I’m pretty sure it can be summarized as a narrowing of focus. Scientists isolate variables, remove bias, and study longitudinally in order to keep their gaze narrow because possibilities can be overwhelming. As a personal tinkerer, I’ve been working on reducing snacking. Without getting too deep in the weeds of nutrition theory, I’ve made ⅔ of my meals the same every day. Protein drink with flax seed after a morning run and a mixer bowl-sized salad for lunch. Essentially, I’ve narrowed my window of overdoing eating. That leaves me with some flexibility in dinner and a dessert, but it also makes the little voice in my head say, “This is our only chance to gorge. Eat it all!” I’m fine with that, though. It’s better than dealing with that little voice all day, trying to convince me that a snack every 20 minutes is fine. It also gives me the opportunity to focus on structuring the last third, if I want to.

Today’s concrete challenge is to narrow your focus by separating your day into components. Do you want to work on your morning or bedtime routine? Both are important, but it’s easier to change one at a time.

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will break apart my day and narrow my focus to one section.”

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 narrows my focus.”

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:

Blinded experiment

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations

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?

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations

Full transcript here 👋 

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

The word for today is condescending, and we’re throwing it off the mountain. [descending sound] I don’t know if it’s because I’m a middle child or what, but I’ve always had a condescending attitude on the back burner, ready to flare up under the right conditions. I remember being part of a melodramatic confrontation in middle school where a small group of the “cool kids” singled one person out. I guess using the word “alternative” as a music and clothing style was still new in 1994, because that’s the word one of the ingroup tried to pin on the outgrouper. His specific words were, “You’re alternative.” Now, I’m not going to get into the power of labels, but I will recommend Derek DelGaudio's 'In & of Itself,’ if you haven’t seen it. I will say that I was complicit in the confrontation. I mustered all of my condescension and vocabulary knowledge to produce the sentence, “Yeah, you’re the alternative to us.” [record scratch] If I were writing this for TV, it would be the perfect moment for the ingroup to unite with the outgroup in turning to look at me like the idiot that I was. These days, I hear myself saying things to my kids like they’re the idiots, but I’m pretty sure, in that moment, it’s still me.

Today’s concrete challenge is to write about a time that you demonstrated humility. Much of change hinges on where you spend your mental energy, so we’re going to focus on the opposite of condescension.

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will recall and write a few lines about a time I was humble.”

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 detests condescension.”

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:

"Falling, Comedic, A.wav" by InspectorJ

"record scratch.wav" by luffy

Humility Reflection for Teens (Greater Good in Action)

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations

Full transcript here 👋 Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. This is your life. This is your chance. Listen.

The word for today is delay. Usually delays bring to mind getting bumped to the next flight or sitting in traffic when you’re already running late. Delays can make you feel insane, but they can be flipped with a judo move into an advantage. Zig Ziglar was famous for finding new ways of looking at old problems. Whenever his flight got delayed, he used the time as an opportunity to work on his current project. The magic of delays can do even more than provide time. It takes some practice, but you can gain power over your motivation and willpower by delaying gratification. Now, I realize that once you hear that phrase, you might be picturing all manner of Puritanical and/or perverted situations. Hear me out. Two of my favorite websites are ArsTechnica and TheVerge. I haven’t visited those sites in a few days, because I don’t allow myself to type them into the address bar until I have edited and posted two podcast episodes. At the moment, I don’t even have recordings that I can edit, so I’m going to use delayed gratification to catapult my willpower to record. What’s one thing you can make yourself wait to enjoy?

Today’s concrete challenge is to write down one activity that you can make yourself wait to enjoy. Use this strategy to make yourself wash dishes, finish your homework, or whatever else you have a hard time doing.

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will write down a delayed gratification and what I’ll use it to do.”

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 delays gratification.”

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:

Zig Ziglar

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations

Full transcript here 👋 Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. This is your life. This is your chance. Listen.

The word for today is improvisation. I think I’ve never felt as unfunny as when we were required to perform some improvisational exercises in high school drama class. Every time I tried to add something to the scene, I could feel the whole class groan [group groan]. Maybe it was just my 15-year-old hypersensitivity, but I’ve never tried it again because of that experience. On-stage improv is not the only situation where you need to be able to create responses on-the-fly, though. Barry Schwartz, in his book Practical Wisdom, writes that wisdom is really just the ability to choose well in the moment. Wisdom doesn’t grow by going through the same motions every single day, though. As I mentioned in “94 - Stretch,” we need to be challenged in order to grow. This means learning and adopting new ideas and methods of interacting with the world and people around you. With a wider base of experience, you’ll be able to improwise. [explosion + choral singing + thunderous laughter]

[clears throat] Excuse me. Today’s concrete challenge is to try something that’s a little uncomfortable. It could be inviting your neighbors that you hardly see to an outdoor bar-be-cue; it could be attending a religious meeting of a religion you’re unfamiliar with. You could even come back to improv comedy after a 24 year sabbatical. 

If you want to commit, say the following phrase: “I will add something that’s a little uncomfortable to my calendar.”

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 tries new things.”

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:

Practical Wisdom: The Right Way To Do the Right Thing

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/today/donations