One day this week I had a lovely bike ride down Shaw Street in Toronto. It’s one of the only side streets in the city that the cyclists really own.
In this moment I let the greenery of summer in through my eyes and I relished in the breeze that was created from both being on the bike and from the cool morning atmosphere.
In this moment I was not trying to bottle up summer and keep it for myself forever, but was able to really connect with it for just this brief stroll through time.
Three ideas from me this week:
1. Everyone wakes up at different times, but I always work hard to get out of bed after the alarm goes off. I fall into periods of snoozing but I find ways to get out of it again using habit-tracking apps that give me the reward of a checkmark. The main thing is to just get out of your bedroom. I wouldn’t be able to do this without putting the alarm on the other side of the room though.
2. While left and right brain theories are being debunked, I think we can all agree that there are creative zones in the brain that speak to openness and possibility, and then there are more analytical and realistic ones that I associate with fear and worry. The goal is to get the two to talk to each other so that you are working with new ideas and seeing them through, but also being a responsible member of society at the same time.
3. If something is bothering me, I realized that thinking about that thing is really just an exit from doing things that will make me better off. This is gravity in action. It’s much easier to sit around and make yourself useless than it is to do exercise or play an instrument. But the rewards of these more difficult activities will kick in within 5-10 minutes of sitting down to do them. When feeling useless, try to fast forward to that “5 minutes in period”. Taking action on the things that are important to you is a way of paying yourself without having money involved.
Music Recommendation: Jonny Nash
I already recommended Jonny Nash recently, but he has a new album out called Point of Entry. And I got excited about this album. So Jonny is going back into The Sunday Bagel again this week.
One note I will make about his style is that we think of acoustic guitars as being a better fit for ambient music, but Jonny seems to mostly work the electric sound, and he does a great job of it.
Listen on Bandcamp or YouTube.
Crap You Don’t Need But You’ll Want Anyways: Mini Fans
My parents were in a French heat wave recently when someone on their tour showed them this USB-rechargeable fan. Just like we used to have as kids but with the benefit of being rechargeable and with higher power.
This one with the grill runs at a higher speed than another one we tried which was more portable without a grill.
That’s it from the bagel man this week 🤠
Have a great week ahead and we’ll see you soon.
Elliott
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Glad I found you, loved the ideas this week. What alarm app are you using?