Today I am Grateful for: Sundays

I’m grateful for all Sundays, not just pandemic lockdown Sundays. Not just the Sundays before a three day workweek. Not just the Sundays with the great warm weather and nice breezes.

I’m thankful for the paradox that all Sundays give me: a) they are both an end to the weekend and b) the beginning of the week on many calendars. I usually try to make Sundays my day off. A day to sleep in. A day to curl up with a good book. A day to read the news or play with my pups. This week, that did not work. My son’s trimester ends in the upcoming week, so today is a homework catch up day. And third job catch up day and house cleaning catch up day. I’m not complaining, I’m just noticing how quickly it became 6:00 pm and dark out.

In general, I try to make mental and emotional space and use Sundays to re-center and re-focus on my North Star. Just like any habit, it is much easier when it is easy. But that is why I have made it a habit, so that focusing on my North Star happens on busy, task-filled days like today. Days with constant interruptions, rainy weather and stressful deadlines. Having the Sunday reflection habit in place makes the process of re-setting easier when it is hard.

One of our Agile Best Self values is based on:

Adapting mindfully over prescriptive self-improvement

What habits do you want to break? What habits do you want to nourish? And how do these habits align with YOUR North Star?

Copyright © 2018 – 2026 Michaele Gardner and Brian Hackerson

Exploration

Earlier this week there was a SpaceX launch sending astronauts into space to work in the International Space Station for the next six months. While the world is in the midst of the pandemic, we continue to explore the universe seeking to understand it better, for the benefit of all. What a tremendous sacrifice these people are making for humanity to learn more. Today I am grateful for the explorers who have not stopped this pursuit.

This might sound like another science post, but it’s not. This is a post about the first Agile Best Self Principle – the essence of what Agile Best Self is all about.

Agile Best Self Principle #1: Our highest priority is to be our best self and enable others to be their best selves.

This is exactly what these astronauts are doing — they are pushing the edges of what is possible so that we all might have better lives. They are being the best versions of themselves — they prepared for years mentally and physically — and putting it into service for all of us.

So, as I go into the week of Thankgiving, I am inspired by these explorers. But I can’t escape the question, how am I expanding my own horizons to benefit others? In the current pandemic situation, it may seem difficult to think past next week.

Perhaps this is what we all could do to not just get through it, but come out of it better? It doesn’t have to include jumping on a rocket and head into space, but we all have gifts we could develop to make the world a better place.

Food for thought this December for me.

Copyright © 2018 – 2026 Michaele Gardner and Brian Hackerson