My wife Beth and I have a little getaway weekend to Maine planned for November. And I'm looking forward to it.
I've been thinking about that lately because there's a difference between learning something and understanding it. Ironically, I learned that a long time ago too, but I understand it more as I get older.
Anticipation is one of those things. I've known for years that looking forward to something can be a pretty damn enjoyable part of the whole experience. A vacation. A race. A movie you've been waiting to see. Sometimes all that time you're excited about it is even better than the thing itself.
But, I'm starting to understand that I can actually use that. I can make sure I've got things in my life that I'm looking forward to, and enjoy thinking about them before they happen.
And then it occurred to me that a lot of the time, we already have those things. We just forget to look forward to them.
Which is kind of funny when you think about it. You've got something coming up that you're gonna enjoy, but until somebody mentions it or you happen to remember, you're getting pretty much nothing out of the anticipation.
I think it's because we don't make it an intentional thing. We make the plan, put it on the calendar, and then go back to whatever we're doing. The plan's still there. We're just not thinking about it.
With Maine, I can remember that Beth and I have a weekend away coming up and let myself be excited about that for a minute. I don't have to do anything else to make the weekend happen sooner or better. I can just enjoy the fact that it's coming.
And there are probably other things I've already got to look forward to that I'm forgetting about while I'm thinking about everything else.
November's still a month away. I'd like to remember to enjoy that part too.
From the Workbench
Beth's newsletter is up and running. I've been helping my wife build the website and newsletter for her children's books. This week we got the newsletter launched, so people who find her books have a way to keep hearing from her. There's a lot that goes into the setup, but the thing we're making possible is pretty simple. Somebody likes what she writes and wants to hear more.
I'm going back through my own writing. I've been working on a system that helps me find things in articles I've already written that could work as posts or videos. I'm still reading and editing what it comes up with, because pulling something out of an article doesn't automatically make it sound like me or make sense on its own. But there's a lot in there I haven't done much with yet.
What Has My Attention
OpenAI Dots. I've been watching videos to learn about Dots and how I could use them in my projects. They're AI assistants that can keep working on tasks between conversations, using their own computer and connected apps. I'm figuring out where that could be useful in the things I'm already building. If you're curious, OpenAI's introduction explains what they do.
Trail Marker
What's something you've already got planned that you'd enjoy looking forward to a little more? Hit reply and tell me.