By Trudy Toll, Adult Services Librarian at Hayward Public Library, Hayward, CA

I’m back. Thanks for all your great comments. I have to say that I thought SARK’s workshop was great. It is always amazing to see charisma, feel it, witness people feeling so positive towards a speaker. I saw it with Jan Wahl and now again with more interaction with SARK.

I heard about a Myers Brigg type system for people and their preferred form of exercise. It was called the 8 Colors of Fitness by Suzanne Brue.

Ok, what I thought was interesting about this, and how it ties in with SARK, is that we all have ways of being in the world. We all have gifts and deficits. Some of us are great spellers and some of us can’t spell worth a dime. I think it’s not whether you can spell or not, but rather, if you can’t spell, whether or not you have found a way around this skill you are missing. I think it is great to learn how to utilize our gifts and minimize our deficits.

SARK talked about micromovements. She said she had been a procrastinator. She said she has found a system that minimizes that deficit for her so that she can be as productive as she wants to be. She calls it micro movements.

I thought this was great. The Eight colors of Fitness is just a system that might help put you with like-wired people so you stand the best chance at staying with your desired fitness goals.

It doesn’t matter what skill or deficit of a skill we are discussing, I am convinced there is a coping mechanism. If you are not a good speller, there are now spell checks and mobile dictionaries that one can take with you everywhere.

If you are always late, you can set your pda to give you reminders, or an alarm to stay on track.

There is now  an awareness that most of us are not perfect in every regard and that it is unrealistic to think that we are. And, and this is very important, that just because we have some skills and not others, that if we want to, we can compensate for those skills that we do not now possess.

I think this is so much healthier than it was just a few years ago. Now there is an acceptance that we do not all learn in exactly the same manner. There is less shame about being dyslexic, or maybe dyscalculic. People have started to recognize that people are differently gifted.

What I find fascinating and exciting is the coping mechanisms that we discover for ourselves to cope with our deficits.

Sark mentioned this micromovement strategy worked very well for her. She starts a to do list where nothing on the list can take more than five minutes.

To Do :

1.) Go to the closet

2.) Open the closet door

3.) Pick three hangers

4.) Examine the clothing on hanger 1

5.) Make the decision whether to donate it  to Good will, sell it at the consignment store, or keep it.

6.) Rehang it in the closet, put it in a bag labelled consignment store, or Goodwill.

7.) Examine the clothing on hanger 2

8.) Make the decision whether to donate it  to Good will, sell it at the consignment store, or keep it.

9.) Rehang it in the closet, put it in a bag labelled consignment store, or Goodwill.

10.) Examine the clothing on Hanger 3

11.) Make the decision whether to donate it  to Goodwill, sell it at the consignment store, or keep it.

12.) Rehang it in the closet, put it in a bag labelled consignment store, or Goodwill.

13.) Close the closet door and walk away smiling.

That’s a more approachable list than

CLEAN OUT CLOSET!

I would be interested in each of your tricks, let’s share what works with us for getting things done, coping with skill levels and see if we can all win.