Goodbye Old Mug!
Happiness of Pursuit, by Chris Guillebeau. I finished reading this book a few weeks ago and thought it was a real gem. Chris writes as both a sage and an adventurer. He defines what a quest is and why it is important and then tells dozens of stories about people who set out on their own quests. These stories were my favorite parts of the book: Chris’s own quest to visit every single country on earth; a bird watcher who was diagnosed with a terminal illness; Mad Dog, the marathoner who has run 300 marathons; and a mom who made meals from every country to give her family a taste of different cultures.
One of my favorite chapters in the book involves the deliberate act of household destruction:
“Go to the kitchen and grab a mug you don’t like. Mug in hand, go to a place in your house with a hard floor. Hold the mug in front of you, in your outstretched hand. Say good-bye to it. Now, drop the mug. Whatever rationalization you’re using right now is a weak spot for you. Flag it. You’ll see it again and again. Drop the damn cup. Did you do it? If so, you’ll notice one thing: breaking your programming requires a single moment of strength.” (Chris Guillebeau)
Intrigued, I grabbed an old mug, said goodbye, and sent it crashing to its demise.
Now, it’s your turn. Everyone has a mug he or she can live without.
“Can’t I just imagination myself dropping the mug?” you say. No! Drop the damn mug, and ask yourself how often you just imagination doing something as opposed to doing it.
“What about the mess? Someone could cut themselves!” you exclaim. Remember, the thoughts you have about dropping the mug are probably the same thoughts that keep you from your own quest, be that taking a different route to the grocery store or riding 1000 miles on a unicycle.
Drop the dam mug. Go ahead, I’ll wait. If you care to share your observations, I’ll share mine. I will say, the experiment was worth one old coffee mug and a little clean up time.
Odd Loves Company,
P.S. Odd has been down off and on due to my need to redirect my DNS. Which is what the support e-mail that I was sent said… Oh. Well.mmmm…. This took some investigative work on my part….but it appears that it is now redirected and all is well. I hope so.
I might take you up on the challenge this time. You challenged before and I did not do it. Maybe, just maybe I will now. I just cleaned the kitchen floor, though……..
Uhm…do you find procrastination ever getting in your way? I sometime do. Not often, of-course, but once in a while….
I have more mugs than anyone I know. I was too embarrassed to disclose the number the last time mugs were discussed in your blog. I have an entire shelf dedicated just to mugs from my beloved Canadian Tim Hortons. I have a mug from the very first place I worked. I have a mug that leaks that I still love. So this is an interesting challenge. The first part of the challenge is to find one I don’t like. Does it count if I drop one of Matt’s mugs (he only has 3)? Guess not. Well, I’ll consider it and let you know if I did the deed next time I’m home.
And I have a treasured Tim Hortons mug from you! I am drinking tea from it as I type!
It doesn’t have to be your mug. Go ahead and let Matt’s mug free fall. However, I’ll deny saying that…and I know a very good lawyer.
I don’t have a lot of mugs but I did kind of feel guilty sacrificing one of them to the challenge. MMM. And of-course the decision making process was a challenge. . .
Oh, dear, I’m not sure I’m ready to part with any of my mugs. Can’t I drop something else, something I’m not particularly enamored with? My mugs, you see, are kind of special, and I just know I’d regret it if I broke one on purpose. By accident? Sure, but not deliberately!
i’m not sure it has to be a mug -what about a drinking glass? The important thing (as I understand it) is to notice what comes up around letting go of the mug/glass. I found, that my reasons for not dropping the mug were very similar to a lot of the reasons I use for not doing, not trying, not going, not starting, not considering…I have no idea how it will play out for others. It would be interesting to find out….
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I’ll pass this idea along to the kids. I’m pretty happy with my programming at this point in my life. I guess, what stops me is I’m too old. I might take a look at the book, tho. A quest centered around golf might be an interesting undertaking.
The stories in the book were very inspiring. I think you’d like them. Drop the mug Mike, I’m sure you are not too old.
Ok, I tried this. I have a number of mugs that I don’t care about so I was able to pick one to sacrifice without a problem. However, deciding where to drop it took time. And of-course I had to time the drop when I was alone so I put it off until this morning. Then I felt a little silly and apprehensive. I suppose not wanting to deliberately destroy something is a good “stop.” And then I said to hell with it and dropped the damn mug with determination. It felt good and I didn’t even mind the clean up. And it’s true the things that usually stops me from trying something new is waiting for the “perfect time” and feeling like it won’t matter or I’m being silly. I’ll watch for that in the future and think about that mug!
I bought the book. Thanks!
Woo hoo. Congratulations on engaging in a deliberate act of household destruction. AND It looks like you gained some insight! The book offers a lot of stories about how people worked through some of the things that stop most of us. I think you’ll find it interesting.
Just let it go!
YES. And notice what stops you from letting it go. I was so surprised that one of my first concerns was mess.