Loose Change

A short reflection on changing, for good.

A good lesson my wife taught me: stop using the word “should”.

There’s a mission-critical practice in trying to DO the thing you know you SHOULD do, as often as you can.

So, “Do the right thing.” How hard can that be?

Well… who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong? It’s not just black and white. There are decisions, big and small, where it seems like there is no right answer. Plus sometimes the gray is more fun, anyway (in moderation, of course).

But for the most part, you know what you should be doing. At the very least, you can come up with a cohesive list of what NOT to do.

This gets back to tuning your intuition radio, getting good at deciding to do what you know to be best.

Start with the small things, as appropriate. Not judging here - maybe you think you should clean up after yourself, or stretch more often, or start walking in the mornings, or spend less time on your phone (I try to make these quick, so then you can get the hell out of here and get back to the real world). Or maybe you think you should take a break.

The next few times you think to yourself, “I should [insert small-to-medium-sized task]” - Just go and knock it out. See how many times you can turn a shoulda/woulda/coulda into a checkmark.

These well-intentioned decisions will accumulate, and you’ll start getting it “right” more often. Won’t be perfect. Won’t be all at once. Small changes, for good.

Right?

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