Episode 3. Bombs, Fuses, and the Hulk

First Foods: Learning How to Eat (Gastropod)

1. Talks about the history of how we feed babies and the resulting benefits and challenges. The way we feed babies has changed a lot and has implications for how we eat as adults.

2. Picky eating methods (or methods for trying new foods)

1. Tiny Tastes: Let your kid (or you) pick a challenging food and every day for two weeks, let them taste a tiny bit, even just a lick. Don’t do it at mealtimes and don’t force the amount. It usually doesn’t take more than two weeks for them to want a larger taste or get used to it

2. This plate, that plate: Put tiny bits of food you don’t like on one plate and regular servings of food on another. Alternate taking a bite from each plate – you’re sure to get a taste of something you like between bites of a food that you don’t like

1. “Mr. McCaslin” by Peter S. Beagle (LeVar Burton Reads)

1. New addition this week – I’ve always loved LeVar Burton’s voice. We were big fans of Reading Rainbow and Star Trek in my house when I was young, so his voice feels so comforting to me.

2. A story of some boys helping an old man in their apartment building at the end of his life

3. When I first heard it, I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about it. It’s eerie and dark and heartwarming and sweet and I lovAe that mix of sensations. I sometimes need to sleep on a thing and then I can put my feelings about it into words the next day, but this story has lingered in my mind like an afterimage and I really loved it. Recommend.

4. I love this podcast. If you like short story fiction read in LeVar Burton’s beautiful voice, you’ll like this. He picks great stories and the sound quality is obviously top notch.

2. Closer Than You Think (1 Insight)

1. Rich Litvin coaches Nikki who has coached for many years professionally, but who feels she struggles with storytelling. My takeaways: Don’t take yourself so seriously; play. Talk to one person at a time, and tell stories. You’re probably already telling pretty good stories. Use your client successes and tell their stories.

2. Humans are moved by compelling stories. Good storytelling can change your work and personal relationships, which reminds me of the ads I occasionally get for PipDecks and which are on my list of things to try out some time. What are some of your favorite stories? 

3. Are There Too Many Coaches? (Master Coaching with Ajit)

1. The short answer is no, but I can’t hear this enough. 

2. Because I feel I’m a deeply systems-based human, I’ve discovered (probably not for the first time) that when I doubt myself in one part of my life, I find it difficult to be confident in other parts of my life. Sometimes I forget to trust my inner guidance and it’s good to get a reminder. More on trusting your inner guidance next week.

3. Also a reminder that

1. The coaches you’re looking up to are usually too sought-after to individually coach everyone who’d like to work with them

2. Everyone resonates with different voices and someone out there is waiting for your voice as the voice they resonate with

3. If every business and every person can benefit from a coach for at least some portion of its lifetime, and every coach can only take a limited number of clients at any one time, you can almost never saturate the market for coaches

4. Speaking of coaching, I’m a life and startup coach. I’m most interested in putting systems in place to make our actions – as individuals and as teams – more easily and consistently align with our highest goals and values. I’m a trained doula (pregnancy/birth/postpartum coach), instructional designer (teaching coach), and certified scrum master (agile coach). If you know someone who might be interested in coaching, share my link at dannisimon.com/

4. Time Genius (Marie Forleo)

   1. The program is self-paced with an enrollment and live component once a year

   Life: Using a bomb and fuse imagery to talk about big emotions with my highly reactive 6 year old

1. My kid has HUGE reactions to stimuli. She offered the metaphor of a bomb after one big reaction and I asked her to notice what’s happening around her and inside her when her bomb explodes. I also asked her to notice whether her fuse was long or short before her bomb exploded. I suggested that over time, she can make her fuse longer and longer so she has time before her bomb explodes, and she replied that she doesn’t want to make it longer because she’ll have to keep buying more and more fuse every time. I don’t think she fully knows what she meant by that, but I decided to consider what it might mean. It could mean that she actually feels the cost of delaying the explosion by staying calm, and that it feels like too big a cost to her now. I’ve been thinking about that. She comes by her short fuse honestly (her parents have the receipts) and sometimes I also feel like doing the work of staying calm in the moment is more energy than I have. 

2. This conversation reminded me of a session I think about a lot with Eckart Tolle called Controlling Your Reactivity, where a mom asks what she can do to not be so reactive when her kids push her buttons. Basically the advice is each time, try to notice your reaction sooner and sooner until you can catch it before you explode. I communicated that to Lea like try to notice a little sooner each time when your bomb is exploding, and then about to explode, and then when the fuse is lit. Using The Hulk learning to control his Hulk might also be a helpful tool for her.