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Instead of saying “I don’t have time” try saying “it’s not a priority,” and see how that feels. Often, that’s a perfectly adequate explanation. I have time to iron my sheets, I just don’t want to. But other things are harder. Try it: “I’m not going to edit your résumé, sweetie, because it’s not a priority.” “I don’t go to the doctor because my health is not a priority.” If these phrases don’t sit well, that’s the point. Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice. If we don’t like how we’re spending an hour, we can choose differently.

Fascinating Wall Street Journal Article on being busy  (via romanticnostalgic)

I Heart Nashville Nouns: Parnassus Books

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Parnassus Books- An Independent Bookstore for Independent People

Ann Patchett, author of State of Wonder, What Now?, Run, Truth & Beauty: A Friendship, Bel Canto, Magician’s Assistant, Taft, and The Patron Saint of Liars co-owns a little bookstore with Karen Hayes in the Green Hill’s area of Nashville, TN. 

Have you ever seen the movie You’ve Got Mail? Well, Parnassus would be Meg Ryan’s bookshop, The Little Shop Around the Corner. Super cute, cozy, comfortable, with a knowledgeable and friendly staff. It feel like the antithesis of the closest Barnes & Noble on West End and certainly brings the class back to books that Books-A-Million strips away. 

I own a Kindle and am supposed to stop buying actual books BUT when you are a bibliophile like myself there are some tomes I need to be able to hold in my hand. The smell of a great book, a dog ear, a worn spine, notes in the margins, and the ability to pass it on for continued enrichment all make owning real books something I will never stop doing. I feel like Parnassus appreciates that about its readers. 

There is also a great selections of magazines, greeting cards, and journals with a great focus on local authors. Not to mention Ann Patchett is just walking around being awesome. After chatting with her during World Book Day I developed a large crush as she has a fantastically sarcastic sense of humor and was buying books from her own bookstore. 

B&N is really close to my workplace BUT I enjoy the atmosphere of Parnassus. The book shopping experience feels more personal. For my entire life books have been some of my best friends and when I’m gathering a new gang of homies I don’t want to feel like I’m in a book factory with random university apparel hanging out behind me on a shelf. 

If you are a reader in Nashville visit Parnassus and support this lovely local bookstore. 

http://www.parnassusbooks.net/

I’m pretty sure that I am constantly bouncing in between being a Careerist and someone who thinks she has found her Calling. At least I know I’m not in Job mindset. I’m thinking about completing the included PDFs as a form of professional development. The vast majority of the things I love to do I am able to do in my current position but often it is the “other stuff” that I REALLY don’t like that makes me reexamine my current professional situation. Bureaucracy and politics also give me a tick. Pretty sure I will never escape those two things so I have to concentrate on my sphere of influence and keep my position as fresh as I possibly can by intentionally reframing my role on a regular basis.  It is important for me that my professional life continue to be congruent with my personal values. As I grow and change I have to make sure that my personal growth is reflected in my professional growth. 

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Job, Career, or Calling?

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Totes how I feel right now. I love my students and I dig the vast majority of my job BUT there comes a time in the school year when we all just need a break from each other. Email is slowing down, office visits are dwindling, and evening meetings are done. I can bring to life Dolly Parton’s hit tune “9-5”. Oh, and if you haven’t watched that movie, you should, because it is hilarious. 

Summer is calling and I’ve got some things to accomplish in May, June, and July. Let’s get these kids into finals, into the planes/trains/automobiles that will whisk them away to their summer destinations, and for the seniors into that god-awful polyester cap and gown that signals their transition into the “real world”. 

We’ll take a little hiatus from each other (it’s not you; it’s me; but really it is you) and then we’ll do it all over again in fall 2012. 

Cue M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E (the MMC version not the original oldie).