Monday Mantras for 4/6/09

Today's mantra: "DON'T PANIC"

According to the Wikipedia article, "Arthur C. Clarke said Douglas Adams' use of 'don't panic' was perhaps the best advice that could be given to humanity."

But I am panicking. Because HOLY BLEEPING BLANK, BATMAN, I REGISTERED FOR A SPRINT TRIATHLON!!!! Yes, the one I've been mentioning, the "See Jane Tri". They posted the registration form on their web site; I printed it, filled it out, wrote them a check, and put it in the mail this morning. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
*Ahem*. Okay, I'm fine now. Really. Now I've just got to put my mouth where my money went and train for the darn thing. Oh my....

So, there's today's other mantra: "Alert Mind, Calm Body"

I will be using this phrase a lot, alternating with "DON'T PANIC." This is the phrase used in the technique "Quieting Reflex." Our HR director sent this to us the other week (she learned it during her time as a flight attendant and has used it often since). It seemed like a good thing to try:

"The QR is a six second technique used to elicit a state of alert calmness....The technique attached was adapted from the book and is most effective when repeated regularly throughout the day."

I found a link to the text of it here: "HC Tip 437: Quieting Reflex"

Monday Mantra for March 30

Hmmm...I'm having a hard time deciding this one.

"Fire and motion": From the article of the same name, on software blog "Joel on Software." Joel Spolsky states, "...the principle of Fire and Motion is how you get things done in life. You have to move forward a little bit, every day. It doesn't matter if your code is lame and buggy and nobody wants it. If you are moving forward, writing code and fixing bugs constantly, time is on your side." Highly applicable to many areas of my life right now.

OR

"Be present." That's pretty self-explanatory, from my last post. This past weekend was pretty good that way. I enjoyed playing with the kids, family dance party, Thing 2 helping me with yard work, letting Mr. Handsome-and-Handy get a good sleep-in day. We have a lot to do to get the house party-ready for Thing 2's birthday next Saturday, but hopefully we'll not get too caught up in the prep to miss being present for Thing 1 and 2 during the week.

I think I'll pick "be present" for this week and save "fire and motion" for next week...I'll need some "fire and motion" for cleaning up after the party, that's for sure!

"Mantra Monday"

Christie O. over on Baby Tea Leaves has just started her new weekly installation: "Mantra Monday." And anyone can play, so I'm game!

I'm going to be a copy-cat, though, since I've had triathlons on the brain lately. My mantra this week is the same as Christie O.'s from last week: "Just 'tri' it!" I had my little to-do list of what to do to feel like I could do a triathlon this year. I found a triathlon that looks promising ("See Jane Tri" on September 26, 2009) and discussed with Mr. Handsome-and-Handy. He was worried about the open-water swim part, but I assured him that this one had lifeguards and "water buddies" in boats and on boards to provide resting places along the swim. So...got the family buy-in. Yeay!!!

So...I'm "tri"-ing to "tri" it, but I keep getting errors when I click the Register Now button. Oh well, I've got a query in, so we'll see how it goes....