Operation Achieve Anything: Day Ninety-Nine, Dateline 4-9-2018

Lying drives your conscience crazy.
— Kyle, Age 10

Good morning Crickets. Welcome to day number ninety-nine of Operation Achieve Anything. I think today’s post is going to be a real quick one due to the fact that I’m feeling a bit burnt out after staying up pretty late in order to cram in as many hours as I could into a paid gig that landed in my inbox late in the evening. If being a little extra tired wasn’t enough, the assignments that I have to report on for the day don’t have me all that inspired.

Part of the reason that I feel uninspired is that these two tasks feel like things that have already been assigned before because my answers feel like things that I’ve already explained. For yesterday’s assignment, I was supposed to talk less and listen more which I clearly remember thinking this would be an easy chore considering the fact that I’ve grown to be a shut-in.

I also remember the reason why I feel this came up in the past was because the book once tried to teach the importance of taking a genuine interest in others. This time, though the task is the same, the lesson was more focused on staying silent in order to stay out of trouble since the new theme from the Achieve Anything… book is centered around quotes from kids.

I see the point of the lessons and the benefit but in order to add my input, I’ve noticed since I stopped seeing myself as a funny man, I talk less, listen more, but don’t get all that much out of anything. Where I used to listen more intently in order to chime in with a joke, the information now goes in one ear and out the other, while I simply nod and agree. Yeah, I hold on to the important bits to get through the conversation but these details seemed to stick around much longer when I was actively involved and talking.

That’s not to say that the book is wrong because the point of the lesson was to try to get me to actively listen over being as silent as you can be. I see nothing wrong with talking as long as your aware that in order for it to be a conversation, there’s got to be listening, talking, and keeping an eye out for the visual cues from body language, or at least that what works for me.

Other than my insights on the assignment, I think I did a pretty good job at shutting up and listening considering the fact that I only talked to my sister and nephew briefly while we played in the pool in order to escape the heat. So I guess that fulfills today’s assignment? Then again, the judging is one-hundred percent on me, so there’s no guessing at all and I have the final say so, I’m standing my ground in order to call this a definite success, even if I feel like my tired head is rambling.

As for today’s assignment, I’m supposed to gauge whether or not I’m a liar. I know for a fact that this already came up because I clearly remember sharing the fact that I don’t lie all that much since when I do, I’m really, really bad at it, bad to the point where sometimes I lie as a way to jokingly tell the truth when it comes to admitting to an innocent fib.

I’ll delve more into revisiting my views on lying when I check in with tomorrow’s update. Hopefully, by then, I’ll have a less foggy head since I feel that my thoughts aren’t that clear in this post because I just want to crawl back in bed. Oh well, we’ll see what happens. Until then, it’s time for me to wrap this up by saying, good day and good luck to you and all of your projects.

Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,

The Wicker Breaker

P.S. Below are links to my novel, which I plan to promote as part of Operation Achieve Anything, as well as a link to where you can buy the book that is providing the structure to this project in case you would like to purchase it in order to play along.