Thursday, April 30, 2009

Reduce, reuse, recycle

How much waste do you personally send to landfills every year? Do you know specifically where your garbage is taken? Have you taken steps to reduce the amount of waste that you send to landfills?


What are some things that you recycle? What are some things that you reuse? What are some things that you buy with less packaging than before?


Do you compost your kitchen scraps? Do you compost your leaves and grass clippings?


Are you hoping for new technological developments to solve the climate/environment crisis?


This week's theme is your relationship with nature.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Biodome

Imagine that in the future, it was decided to let much of the planet revert to its natural state, and cities would be relocated to a number of strategically placed, completely sealed, fully independent biodomes. Your choice is living outside the dome...or inside.


How would your life change if parts of the area where you live were restored to their natural state? Could you comfortably coexist with the natural world? Or would you prefer to live in a climate-controlled dome city? Would you miss the variations of natural weather?


This week's theme is your relationship with nature.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Perfect balance

Some say that human beings’ explosive success has thrown nature out of balance, causing many problems. Do you agree with the idea that there is a state of natural balance that should be maintained or restored wherever possible? Do you try to keep your diet and lifestyle in balance for the sake of your health?


This week's theme is your relationship with nature.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Your relationship with nature

In most cases, we can choose our relationships, whether it's with friends, certain family members, a job, what books or magazines we read, even what car we choose to drive. But we can't avoid having a relationship with nature, because we have to go outside sometimes, and we have to eat food, drink water, and breathe air. Depending on your lifestyle and where you live, it might be easier or harder for you to avoid thinking about your relationship with nature. But this week we're going to focus on that relationship, and try to formulate the parameters for it more definitively.


Do you consider yourself a resident of planet Earth, or a resident of your country/state/city/town? Do you mostly think of yourself as being a part of nature, or as being separate from nature? In what ways are you a part of nature? In what ways are you separate from nature?


Calculate your Global Footprint


This week's theme is your relationship with nature.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Top Ten: things to do someday

What are the ten most important things that you plan to do “someday,” although you don’t have time to do them now?

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Ten Thousand Questions workshop

We're planning a free Ten Thousand Questions workshop on Sunday, May 31! This workshop explores the art of questioning and how you can use questions to accelerate your personal transformation process.

If you live in the Philadelphia area and are interested in joining us, drop us an e-mail at muse@fjordstone.com, and give us your name, phone number, and e-mail address. We'll send you more information including time, directions and other details.

Please note that space is limited, but if you miss this one, we'll be doing the workshop again in the summer.

Past you vs. current you

What is one part of your style, personality, or daily routine that used to work for you but doesn’t seem to fit anymore? What has changed so that this aspect of your life now seems out of place? Is it time to let go of it, or should you try to re-integrate it into your life?


If it’s time to let go, what actual steps do you have to take in order to be finished with it?


If you decide to keep it, what has to change so that it gracefully fits into your life again?


What about your current personal style is unrecognizable from the you of ten years ago? What about twenty years ago?


This week's theme is your personal style.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Veni, vidi, voci

What can people immediately guess about you as soon as they hear you speak?


Do your vocal tone and your accent reveal where you grew up?


What does your voice reveal about your personality?


What are your stock phrases, the things you say so often that they have become clichés?


This week's theme is your personal style.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

This stuff is mine

Have you personalized the wallpaper on your work computer's desktop? What picture do you have there? Do you have a quote or slogan in your e-mail signature line? What is it? Do you have a vanity license plate? What is it? What does it represent?


This week's theme is your personal style.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

If it feels good, do it

What is one thing that you find disgusting, even though some other people seem to feel it’s okay?


What is one thing you enjoy, but you realize that there are people who will turn up their nose at it?


What are some contexts or situations where your opinion really doesn’t matter?


In what situations do you sometimes have to pretend to have an opinion that isn't really yours?


Where have you had to set your own style aside, because someone else is making the decisions?


This week's theme is your personal style.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Tattoo you

Do you have any tattoos? If so, what are they? How long have you had them? What prompted you to get a tattoo? If not, how do you feel about tattoos?


Do you see tattoos and piercings as a ritual of initiation? A form of rebellion? Simply a type of bodily enhancement, no different than getting a perm or piercing your ears?


If you were going to get a tattoo (or get another tattoo, if you already have one), what kind of picture or design would suit you?


This week's theme is your personal style.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Your personal style

Your personal style: it's what makes you unique. It's not one single thing, it's everything about you: the way you dress, the way you talk, the way you move, your habits, your likes and dislikes. Ask anyone you know, and they'll agree: you have your own distinctive style. All put together, there is no one else exactly like you


How would you describe your own personal style? Old fashioned, or contemporary? Quirky and eclectic, or traditional? What are some of the first things that other people might notice about your personal style? If you had to sum up your personal style in a slogan-like sound byte, how would you encapsulate it?


Are you part of a recognized (and named) fashion trend or cultural movement (such as goth, geek, soccer mom, hippie)? If you're not part of a recognized fashion or cultural trend, how would you classify your style?


This week's theme is your personal style.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Top Ten: positive changes

What are the ten best positive changes that you've made in your life? Think of changes you've made that have become permanently established in your life, including:
  • the worst unhealthy habits you broke
  • the best healthy habits you established
  • bad situations that you left behind
  • strategic life decisions that worked out brilliantly
After you've made your list, consider where your life would be now without the benefit of these positive changes. Have you given yourself enough credit for steering your life in the right direction?

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Weaving into your life

Notice the clothing you're wearing right now. Do you happen to know where it was made?

Friday, April 17, 2009

The same dream again

What is your most persistent recurring dream? Does this dream unfold in exactly the same way each time, or do the details vary each time?

What message or lesson might this dream hold for you?

This week's theme is dreams.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Dream guidance

Did a dream ever help your solve a waking-life problem? Did a dream ever help you make a decision, resolve a conflict, or understand something that had puzzled you?

What was the dream, and what ideas or images did it bring to shed light on your situation? Was its message direct or indirect, obvious or hidden?

This week's theme is dreams.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Dream conflicts

What kind of conflicts occur most often in your dreams?

In these conflicts, what role or roles does your dreamself typically play: victim, attacker, defender, mediator, bystander, witness?

Is there any similarity between your dream conflicts and your dayworld conflicts? Or do the two seem to be entirely unrelated?

This week's theme is dreams.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Dream come true

What was one dream that came true for you — that is, some person, thing, or situation that turned up in a dream before it occurred in your waking life?

If that's never happened to you, what dream have you had that you wished could come true?

This week's theme is dreams.

Monday, April 13, 2009

You and your dreams

According to researchers, everyone dreams every night, yet this universal experience remains shrouded in mystery. What are dreams?
How often do you remember your dreams?
What are some of the things you have done to engage with your dreamlife?
Do you keep a dream journal?
Do you discuss your dreams with your friends?
Do you try to interpret the meaning of your dreams?

This week's theme is dreams.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Top Ten: guilty pleasures

What ten foods would you eat if you didn't have to worry about your health, your weight, your finances, or anyone else's opinion?


Candy you ate as a kid.


Saturday, April 11, 2009

Laugh track

What made you laugh today?

Laughter is good for your health. And if you make a point of looking for the humor in daily life, you're more likely to find it.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Finishing unfinished business

Sometimes all it takes to complete something is to declare it finished: “I’m done with that.” “I’m not going to waste any more time waiting for that person.” “I admit that this is something I will probably never do.”


What are some people and things that you’re going to stop worrying about or waiting for?


What are some projects that you might soon strike off your list and admit that you’re never going to do them?


What is it that keeps you holding onto so many more things than you can handle?


Why is it hard to let go of things?


What are some of the things in your life that you might soon be ready to let go of?


This week's theme is unfinished business.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

People are waiting

Who is waiting for a decision from you before they can go ahead and take action?
How many promises to get together with friends and acquaintances remain unfulfilled?
To whom do you own a thank-you for they help they provided?
To whom do you owe a compliment for the skillful way they handled something?


Are your bits of unfinished business more likely to be things that affect only you, or things that involve other people? Are you good at getting your own stuff done, less so when someone has asked you to do something? Or, are you the reverse, taking care of anything the moment someone else asks you, but never finding the time for your own personal stuff?


This week's theme is unfinished business.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

How clean is your house?

What messes are you reluctant to clean up?

What would you find if you opened up your closets?

What is hiding at the back of your drawers?

Would you be surprised by what is buried in your car's glove compartment?

How many books have you started reading that you intend to finish — eventually, when you have time?

When is the last time you vacuumed?

How many repair or home improvement tasks are waiting half-finished?


For deeper insights into the meaning of clutter, along with powerful strategies for cleaning up your life, read Rick Aster's book Fear of Nothing.


This week's theme is unfinished business.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

My million-dollar idea

What was one great idea that you didn’t follow through to completion? What happened to get in the way?


How would your life be different now if you had successfully executed that idea? Will you have a chance to do it again, or is it that particular opportunity forever lost?


As you go through today's questions, notice if you had many examples to choose from. How often do you let brilliant ideas simply dissipate, and why? What would you have to risk if you were to attempt to follow through on them?


In 1992, when we were planning our wedding, we had a great idea for a software organization package that would help people through the rigors of getting a wedding off the ground. Wedding planner software, which was entirely unknown at the time! We were too busy to follow through — we got stuck in the process of writing a business plan — and by the following year, wedding planner software started popping up everywhere. The train had left the station, and we were left scratching our heads on the platform!


What's your great story of lost opportunity?


This week's theme is unfinished business.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Unfinished business

What is unfinished in your life?


Today begins a new feature: theme-of-the-week. We'd like to take a closer look at certain subjects, delving more deeply into them over five days than we can do in a single question. Since this is something we've wanted to do for awhile but had trouble getting to, it seemed only natural for the first theme-of-the-week to be...unfinished business.


Everyone has a list of things they mean to do, but haven't yet done. Whether it's written down and accuses you from a white board every time you enter your kitchen, or just a few things you keep tucked in the back of your mind, let's spend a few days thinking about those dangling projects and ideas.


In addition to "to-do" items, there are also unresolved conflicts, messy interpersonal relationships, things that shouldn't be in your house (or your life) anymore, and all those things that you meant to do Someday but have never gotten around to.


What are some incomplete or unfinished pieces of business in your life? How many can you easily list before you have to start digging around in your mental inventory? What's the most glaring thing in your life that is unfinished?

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Top Ten: friends

Who are your top ten best friends — not just right now, but considering all of the friends you have had in all the periods of your life?

Sunday is Top Ten Day! It's a time to rest, reflect, and take stock of one area of your life.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Stuck in Topeka...or Twickenham...or Trenton...or Toronto...

What is one place where you were stuck because a car, bus, or train broke down, or a flight was cancelled? Do you have a story about it?

Friday, April 3, 2009

Reading, writing, and rhetoric

What are three important lessons that should be part of every child’s school education?

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The birds and the bees

Where, and from whom, did you actually learn about sex?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April fool

Was there ever a time when you were the butt of a public joke? After it was over, were you able to laugh about it? Or do you still flush with shame when you remember it?