Hello, Adversity Weekly Roundup #08 - March 25, 2023
Hello, Adversity Weekly Roundup #08 - March 25, 2023
Taking the road less traveled, learning to meditate and how to write almost anything. Also squirrels.
Hi everyone!
Welcome to the eigth edition of the Hello, Adversity Weekly Roundup.
Spring has officially sprung here in Connecticut. Daffodils are poking up through the soft ground. Squirrels are scurrying about in the backyard. Birds are attacking the feeder next door. Squirrels are attacking the birds attacking the feeder next door. And in the last three days I’ve seen a deer and a coyote. (Fortunately for the deer, not at the same time.)
The transition from winter to spring is a joyous occasion. I have been cooped up inside my house for the last three months and am eager to get out and about. I have missed reading books on the back deck and going for strolls around the neighborhood. It will be nice to do all that again.
But the onset of spring also brings some bittersweet feelings. I have struggled with isolation these last few years, and as the weather gets warmer, I am reminded of how different my life is now.
But it is not all bad.
I look forward to seeing more friends this year, now that Covid has settled down. And I am thrilled with the growth of this website, which has given me a renewed sense of purpose and has allowed me to write more consistently. I am at my happiest when I am writing!
Without further ado, here are this week’s links:
Before last Friday, I had never heard of Tobin Anderson, coach of the Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights (FDU). Then his team pulled off the greatest upset in NCAA Tournament history, knocking off #1 seed Purdue.
What fascinates me about Anderson’s story is the long, arduous road he took to get to FDU. (He has since taken the head coaching job at Iona College.) Anderson spent 20 years as a successful coach at the Division 2 and 3 levels, yet was routinely passed over for Division 1 jobs. (Division 1 is the highest level of collegiate athletics here in the United States.) In his one year at FDU, the team improved their win total by 17 games.
Does he have a chip on his shoulder? Just a little:
"I was told, 'go back and be a Division 1 assistant. We won't hire a Division 2 coach,’” [Anderson] said. "If I ever retire I'm going to start a search firm, because I can find 10-12 small-college coaches who can do just as good a job as we did here."
Anderson’s story proves there is no one way to succeed. He paid his dues to get to the top, including at times driving the team van. Through his many years spent in the wilderness, taking the road less traveled, he was able to hone his coaching skills and prepare for the biggest stage of his life.
Sometimes the hard road can be our greatest asset, providing us a training ground to learn the ins and outs of life and acquire the skills necessary to attain mastery.
Finished reading: 10% Happier, by Dan Harris
10% Happier is the story of Dan Harris’ mindfulness journey after experiencing an on-air panic attack while working the anchor desk at ABC News. Before his panic attack, Harris worked himself to exhaustion covering news stories as a foreign correspondent, including traveling into war zones. After returning stateside, he became addicted to drugs and barely slept, which contributed to the on-air attack. In the aftermath of that moment, Harris went on a journey to find inner peace and mindfulness, turning to the time-tested practice of meditation. It changed his life.
Today, Harris runs a company called Ten Percent Happier, which teaches people how to meditate and achieve a healthier mindset.
Would I recommend this book? Yes.
It is a quick read. It is mostly a memoir, with nuggets of wisdom about meditation and mindfulness mixed in. It provides a basic overview of how to meditate, but doesn’t go too deep on some of the more advanced techniques. (That’s what his company is for.) What I liked about the book is it lets the reader in on Harris’ journey to embracing the practice of meditation, and how it gradually provided him with a sense of calm that would transform his life. Harris doesn’t take himself too seriously, which makes the reading light, even when discussing some of the heavier moments in his life.
The book motivated me to carve out time to meditate every day. I used to do it regularly but haven’t done so in a long time. It has helped me in the past to become calmer and less anxious. That is something I definitely need these days. I’ll let you know how it goes.
When we are dealing with adversity, it is imperative to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep recharges our batteries to face the next day. Yet, it is precisely because we are dealing with adversity that sleep becomes so difficult!
Consumer Reports isn’t the first site that comes to mind to learn about sleep techniques, but I found this article to be useful. I have the hardest time falling asleep and was excited to learn a few different tips to combat this issue. I tried counting back from 1,000 without success (yes I know how to count back from 1,000, it just didn’t help me fall asleep!), but had better luck with the body scan and box breathing.
I heard someone say once that the most productive thing we can do is rest. I can attest to that: with a full night’s sleep, I feel much more capable of tackling the challenges of the day.
Pocket is a great app for saving articles to read later. They sometimes send me an email with several article recommendations on a given topic. The other day they sent one about writing. The above link has several great articles about how to write different types of content, including a video by Jerry Seinfeld about how to write jokes. (I wrote about Seinfeld’s creative process in my newsletter two weeks ago.) I also thoroughly enjoyed the Jeopardy clue article.
We are starting to hear a lot now about how advances in artificial intelligence will soon render human writing obsolete. We are already seeing this with cover letters for jobs - machines can generate content at a fraction of the time with minimal effort. My prognostication skills are atrocious, so I won’t offer any predictions, other than to say that I feel there will always be a need for good writing!
Writing enables us to tell powerful stories and convey our unique personalities and quirks to the world. Machines might be able to write like us, but they could never understand the value of a well-timed condolence letter or note of encouragement.
If you have any feedback on today’s email or want to send me a story to include in the future, please email me at HelloAdversity@substack.com or drop a comment below.