1% Better Each Day

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It turns problems into gifts, failures into successes, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.

It can turn an existence into a real life, and disconnected situations into important and beneficial lessons. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

- Melody Beattie

With the latest business restrictions I had to close my studio again last week. Last spring during lockdown I created Pilates Everyday to post videos for my clients. But once I was able to reopen again in June, my plate felt full and I stopped posting. And my own Pilates practice became neglected.

This time around I decided to use this extra time afforded to me to reinvigorate a daily practice and have been doing at least a basic Pilates mat workout every day and live streaming for anyone who wants to join in. I am not doing any instruction or have any set routine planned – I’m just committed to moving every day and will see where the workout takes me…

At one week in, it’s noticeable how much better and stronger I feel and I’m enjoying myself immensely. It feels good to embody what I’m constantly espousing - that small efforts done repetitively every day lead to big change. When done intentionally, even a 7 minute workout is effective as proven in my workout on day three…

If you'd like to work on your own daily Pilates practice but don't know where to begin, start here: 

I am not at all surprised at the benefits I’m noticing already from having a daily personal practice. But what I didn’t expect is what posting my workout LIVE would deliver: the incredible feeling of being truly accountable to myself. I am accountable to many others - my son, my husband, my friends, my clients…but I can’t recall a time when I showed up only for myself, every single day…

I will leave you with the inspiring Chris Nikic who exemplifies what can happen when you focus on making small improvements and striving to get 1% better each day…

Zack Wittman for The New York Times

“To Chris, this race was more than just a finish line and celebration of victory,” his dad told the BBC. “Ironman has served as his platform to become one step closer to his goal of living a life of inclusion, normalcy, and leadership.”

May we all be inspired by Chris and continue to do the work and strive to be our best selves.

Learning Comes from Doing

As most of us are now weeks into being locked down at home, I’ve been thinking a lot about learning and doing. In her On Being conversation, the poet Marie Howe said - “When you’re very sad, the only thing to do is to go learn something.”

I think learning something is especially important not just in sadness, but during times of uncertainty and upheaval.

The photo above was taken the month before the current stay at home order. Our backyard studio (i.e. my husband’s new workspace) was nearing completion. We had no idea then that this would soon be shared creative space!

As work has now stopped for both of us, we are collectively planning and strategizing about moving forward. We are finding “strength in the places we’d never thought to develop, spaces we didn’t know we’d occupy, room to reach beyond ourselves,” and are focusing our energy into learning how to do new things.

My husband is learning how to use his shiny new power tools by building things. He built shop tables for the studio…

And this beautiful Donald Judd inspired chair out of leftover wood from the studio construction…

@aaronleitz

I’m learning how to do Pilates videos for my clients. The challenge for me is not in the logistics of the curriculum, but in getting over my fear of the camera and finding my voice so that it actually sounds like me and how I teach in person.

Accepting that I’m not going to be an expert right out of the gate is something I’ve always struggled with.

I have to walk my talk and “Respect the Process” (which is the mantra I continually espouse) and even put on the Pilates Everyday “about” page:

“Prioritize repetition over perfection. It isn’t going to be good right out the gate. Don’t worry, just keep at it and do your best. Through repetition and deliberate practice it will start to come together. Just move. Pay attention. Don’t rush. Enjoy yourself. Repeat. Respect the process.”

Creating videos and expanding my practice online had always been on my mind but seemed like a far off consideration in the context of my normal life/work routine. I felt like I didn’t have any extra space or energy to devote to it.

Our friend Alison Pickart posted this quote last week which I printed out and put on my fridge…

“The amazing thing about human nature is that people find themselves gravitating toward things that they innately know how to do. For some very lucky ones, they will discover a passion that now has the time to be realized, which may inadvertently become a new life’s work. Great things come out of crisis, often because they have to.”

— Alison Pickart

Seth Godin nails this idea (and also accurately conveys the level of work required) in his blog post But what could you learn instead? .

“Learning takes effort, and it’s hard to find the effort when the world is in flux, when we’re feeling uncertain and when we’re being inundated with bad news. But that’s the moment when learning is more important than ever…This shift is difficult to commit to, because unlike education, learning demands change. Learning makes us incompetent just before it enables us to grasp mastery. Learning opens our eyes and changes the way we see, communicate and act.

It’s way easier to get someone to watch–a YouTube comic, a Netflix show, a movie–than it is to encourage them to do something. But it’s the doing that allows us to become our best selves, and it’s the doing that creates our future.”

Read Seth’s entire post here.

Learning something doesn’t always have to be a BIG thing. There is so much joy to be found in the process of learning small day to day things.

My fridge looks a lot different these days than it did in January…

I have pretty good chops in the kitchen but I am learning new ways to make use of what we have in the pantry and freezer, substituting ingredients, using recipes as inspiration rather than rigid instructions and trusting my instincts. Forced to simplify, this time has unlocked a new culinary creativity.

I am starting seeds inside, something I have never done before…

The sewing machine is out and being put to use making masks: the perfect project to hone my sewing skills acquired last spring at Drygoods Design’s beginner sewing series.

Repetition is the mother of all learning - Repetitio mater studiorum est.

All this learning of new THINGS is really learning a new way to BE. Attentive. Deliberate. Comfortable with discomfort. Intentional. Grateful.

Spring!

It is Spring! The chives and tarragon in the garden are pushing through the dirt. I have my work cut out for me with the insane amount of weeds to pull but with the beautiful days we’ve been having I hardly mind.

Lucas’ Papaw Ointment is my new go-to multipurpose salve for chapped lips, cuticles, scrapes and garden splinters…

I’ve been transitioning my winter clothes out and adding a few new things to the mix like this Clare V midi sac that I can’t stop wearing…

I’ve also added the Clare V framed Flore handbag to my birthday wishlist…

I recently found the perfect size pocket notepad with tear away sheets from Rifle Paper Co to carry with me for my endless list making…

And these Paper Mate Flair felt tip pens are becoming my new favorite…

This Patagonia woolie pullover has been wonderful for cutting the chill when it’s too warm to wear a jacket…

One of the biggest highlights this month is I finally started taking sewing classes at Drygoods Design. My husband gave me the trilogy class series which was on my personal xmas wishlist. The space is gorgeous, the fabric selection is killer (see the Japanese cotton I bought for my tote below) and the small classes are a delight…

If you go check out the shop in Pioneer Square I’d also highly recommend going to Elm Coffee Roasters for a latte with their house-made hazelnut milk, maybe swing by Jujubeet Cafe and order the avocado toast on the gluten-free bread from Nuflours and then head up Jackson to Kobo in the International District. Last time I was there I picked up this rad nightlight for our bathroom made by Boy Designs…

The new mantra on the letterboard at home is courtesy of the wonderful On Being conversation with neuroscientist Richard Davidson…

And along the same line of thinking I am really digging Atomic Habits by James Clear…

He is spot on articulating what I personally believe and try to embody on how making seemingly inconsequential small adjustments every day can be incredibly powerful and help us become our best selves.

“It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action.”

This sentence is my favorite:

“Progress requires unlearning. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your believes and to upgrade and expand your identity.”

And for an incredible example of how small things lead to big things and how we can expand the limitations we often set for ourselves on what is possible, go watch The Dawn Wall on Netflix…

Good Intentions

I am big on goal setting, or rather intention setting. Goal setting was a big thing when I was a kid training as a rhythmic gymnast. “Finish in the top eight” or “make the national team” might have been the thing for that year. The focus was always on the outcome. But as I’ve grown and acquired a bit more wisdom, I am way more interested in setting intentions and the actual process of doing or learning something than accomplishing a task in and of itself.

Intentions allow us to be fully present and also provide room for change, growth, mistakes, and joy. I am big on “respecting the process” and apply that mantra not only in my own life but also in how I parent and how I teach in the Pilates studio - “We are not trying to do something perfectly or move in a perfect way. The intention is what matters - moving with intention, reaching with intention, standing with intention, looking with intention.” I talk about it every day.

I’ve always loved this passage from Maria Popova’s “10 Learnings”:

“Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity. Ours is a culture that measures our worth as human beings by our efficiency, our earnings, our ability to perform this or that. The cult of productivity has its place, but worshipping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living.”

This year I want to really focus my intentions on my (and in turn our) financial life. More than just monitoring our spending (thank you YNAB!) I want to really change my spending habits and be even more thoughtful in all aspects of our spending and consuming life.

My “remove from cart” mentality applies not only to impulsive online shopping but to all our spending and household necessities.

We rarely eat out but good quality local food is expensive and our monthly grocery bill is large. So beginning this month I set an aggressive grocery budget on You Need a Budget and I already know that around January 23rd I’m likely going to be hitting the ceiling. And when that happens, I’m going to play with only cooking from the pantry and cleaning out the fridge and see how far I can stretch it. I like a good challenge.

As I was thinking about all this, the January newsletter from PCC arrived with “Food Waste” as the primary issue - “If you don’t buy it, you can’t waste it.”

My favorite place to write down all of my intentions, not just in January but throughout the year, is in a Moleskine notebook…

With a fresh Micron pen…

Busy is a Decision

If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say and why?

My billboard would say this: “Busy is a decision.” Here’s why: Of the many, many excuses people use to rationalize why they can’t do something, the excuse “I am too busy” is not only the most inauthentic, it is also the laziest. I don’t believe in “too busy.” Like I said, busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is shorthand for “not important enough.” It means you would rather be doing something else that you consider more important. That “thing” could be sleep, it could be sex, or it could be watching Game of Thrones. If we use busy as an excuse for not doing something what we are really, really saying is that it’s not a priority.

Simply put: You don’t find the time to do something; you make the time to do things.

We are now living in a society that sees busy as a badge. It has become cultural cachet to use the excuse “I am too busy,” as a reason for not doing anything we don’t feel like doing. The problem is this: if you let yourself off the hook for not doing something for any reason, you won’t ever do it. If you want to do something, you can’t let being busy stand in the way, even if you are busy. Make the time to do things you want to do and then do them.

- Debbie Millman

From Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss

Doing the Work + Responsibility

Letter board in my house from Letterfolk

Spot on advice from Cheryl Strayed in Tiny Beautiful Things on doing the work...

“I’ve written often about how we have to reach hard in the direction of the lives we want, even if it’s difficult to do so. I’ve advised people to set healthy boundaries and communicate mindfully and take risks and work hard on what actually matters and confront contradictory truths and trust the inner voice that speaks with love and shut out the inner voice that speaks with hate. But the thing is—the thing so many of us forget—is that those values and principles don’t only apply to our emotional lives. We’ve got to live them out in our bodies too...Real change happens on the level of the gesture. It’s one person doing one thing differently than he or she did before. It’s the man who opts not to invite his abusive mother to his wedding; the woman who decides to spend her Saturday mornings in a drawing class instead of scrubbing the toilets at home; the writer who won’t allow himself to be devoured by his envy; the parent who takes a deep breath instead of throwing a plate. The work is there. It’s our task. Doing it will give us strength and clarity. It will bring us closer to who we hope to be.”