Two thoughts for this fine Monday morning.

The first, someone else’s goal for 2024: to create more than she consumes. I read that and it was like a delightful bolt of lightning. What a great idea! She wants to create more meals, more art, more ideas, and more experiences, all of the “more” being “more than she consumes,” not the perpetual hamster wheel of just “more” in general. So less scrolling, watching, and reading, in order to create more space for her own doing, imagining, and creating.

I’m not going to adopt this idea, because I’m very busy with my own Focus and Fun right now, but I wanted to save it. Maybe next year!

Second thought, sort of related: if you knew you would live forever, what would you be doing differently today? There is no death, no impending old age, no limits on your time. Life stretches out before you, endlessly. Groundhog Day, in fact, although you still need to earn a living and exist in the world as it is — ie, no foreknowledge of what the next day will bring and no guaranteed bed/roof/meals. Would you spend your time feeling bored, drinking too much, doom-scrolling, playing endless rounds of solitaire? Or would you start making plans to do the things you’ve always wanted to do? Would you look for a new job, think about going back to school, start saving for a big trip, learn a language or an instrument? I think we’d all probably take climate change a lot more seriously — we’d be the ones paying the price for our choices — but beyond that… well, I think it’s a really interesting question. The “what would you do if you knew tomorrow was your last day?” is one I’ve heard and thought about, of course, but the “what would you do if you had forever?” is really just as interesting. 

(The #1 answer for me would be to get back to yoga and do a lot more of it. If I was going to live forever, I’d want to be doing it in a strong, healthy, capable body, one that could climb some mountains and swim in some oceans.)

Other things: I had a really nice, much too brief, visit with my brother on Friday, which included going to the DMV and taking care of various paperwork, including getting a driver’s license and registering to vote. So I am officially a Florida resident again. I feel more than okay about it. Some sadness, but really, there’s nothing like a seventy degree day and some sunshine to cheer me up.

I’m on track to finish my life coach certification this week, but was right that I wasn’t going to get it done by today. Still planning to finish on Wednesday, but I suspect it’s going to be Wednesday evening. That’s okay, obviously! I’ll start the happiness coach certification program next.

I’m having trouble deciding on a name for my new business, though, which is delaying me on next steps. I was thinking “Choosing Happiness Coaching” or “Practicing Happiness Coaching,” but I keep searching for better options. It would sort of make sense to use Practicing Happiness Coaching, because then I have my van life memoir as a foundation, but that book would have been really different if I’d anticipated using it for something like this.

I think, anyway. But maybe it just shows growth? And maybe it’s an opportunity, because anyone who’s read it and wants to work with me as a life coach knows what they’re getting. Or at least who they’re working with. A lot of other good names are either already in use or have connotations that don’t work. (Hope, it turns out, is a very Christian word. Not my target demographic, I suspect.)

Hmm, I think I may have talked myself into Practicing Happiness Coaching. My first course is still going to be Choosing Happiness, though, because that’s the starting place, whether or not it’s the name for the business. Anyway, thoughts, opinions and suggestions are welcome, but I should get back to work! May your Mondays be as productive and happy as I intend my own to be 🙂

Side note: Wednesday will be my first class to start Sophie’s therapy dog certification. It’s a six month program in which she’ll get to make lots and lots of visits to fun places. Along the way she’ll get three AKC certifications, in Canine Good Citizenship, Canine Urban Good Citizenship, and Advanced Canine Good Citizenship. It’s a pretty long course — six months — but I’m so excited to see where we will both be six months from now!