And Now to Write

If you grew up in a Jewish or Christian household, you've heard the phrase "keep holy the sabbath" before. For both religions, a big part of this is to not do work on one day of the weekend.  For Jews, this is Saturday; for Christians, this is Sunday (the Lord's Day). For the sake of keeping things easily readable and as accurate as I can write them, I'm going to continue this post from the Christian tradition.   Side note: if the difference in days piques your interest, check out this passage of a book that chronicles the history of the Christian Sunday (and partially inspired this post) or this article . From the outset, this command seems pretty simple. Don't clock in to your job on a Sunday, or if you're a student, don't do your homework on a Sunday. Of course, there are some exceptions like nurses, firemen, police officers, etc. But, for most of us, we aren't exempt from the "no work" command. I know there might not seem to be muc...

It's not uncommon to hear phrases containing the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps and just do it" mentality. The motivational "you can do whatever you set your mind to" also comes to mind. These aren't inherently bad phrases. They call out complacency and remind you that not everything is going to just fall into your lap. But, as most quick phrases go, they aren't one-size-fits-all and tend to downplay just how extraordinary such an act actually is. There's a reason why the reluctance exists in the first place, and telling someone "get up and do it" isn't necessarily going to do the trick. While a lot plays into why we can find it hard to do or be what we'd like, I want to hone in on one: norms. Frequently talked about within public health circles, I couldn't help but share it here. Now, I'm not going to take on the whole "our society is awful" approach. That isn't very tangible, and I don't know abou...