Last night I went out with my friend and event-buddy, Elaine, to see Gretchen Rubin with her sister Elizabeth Craft at lululemon in the city.
The event was to promote her new book Outer Order, Inner Calm. I haven’t read that yet but I am fresh off of reading The Four Tendencies and I can’t say enough about it. I took her quiz a while back and, unsurprisingly, I am an Obliger. The Four Tendencies dove deeper into each one with sections about strengths, weaknesses and how to better work with each tendency whether it’s a spouse, a child or a co-worker.
On a side note, downstairs in lululemon there are these amazing shelves with reading benches that I would love to find a way to incorporate something similar into my house.
When we got to the event every seat had a book on it (yay!) and a biodegradable doggie bag. The first thing she had everyone do was clean out their bags and empty what they didn’t need into the doggie bag. There was quite a bit of emptying going but I gloat only slightly that I didn’t have to. Day to day, I carry a very small bag that only holds so much for that reason: bigger bags hold more (and bigger) stuff. When I go into the city, I use a different bag that can hold my laptop and I clean it out if not when I get home then usually the next day.
Each year Gretchen challenges herself to finish a list of things based on the end of the year hence the big “19 for 2019” on the screen. One of her challenges was to learn to play the ukulele. I think she learned one song, You Are My Sunshine (apparently a ukulele favorite), but it was still cool she gave it a shot and that she treated us to a quick performance.
There was a QA session and one of the questions was “how do you know you are just in the wrong job or in the wrong career”? The woman related the question to Gretchen changing careers from being a lawyer to a writer.
Gretchen said think about the person you most envy. Are they in your field but perhaps a different office/business or a different niche within the field? If so then it’s probably time to change jobs. If the person you most admire or envy is in a different field entirely, then it might be a career switch.
The other thing she suggested was how do you feel about talking shop? She and her sister love talking shop even after hours? Do you not even want to think about it when you aren’t working and resent being asked about it? Then probably you’re in the wrong field.
I think this is some of the most succinct advice I’ve heard on that subject and a great cap to an enjoyable evening.
