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Hiya and welcome! I’m Michael Estrin. I write Scenario Regular for individuals who take their humor with a facet of humanity and a splash of perception. Be sure you learn to the tip for an image of Mortimer, the toughest working canine within the publication sport🐶
Earlier than we begin, a giant scenario normie shout out & thanks to our latest paid subscribers. Thanks,
! Thanks, ! And thanks, , who included a beautiful non-public observe!
Scenario Regular is free (aside from the final submit of the 12 months). The beneficiant monetary help from 100-plus scenario normies helps me carry pleasure to greater than 4 thousand scenario normies. I feel that’s fantastic! Should you love Scenario Regular and need to help my work, please take into account upgrading👇
Or, if PayPal is your factor, ship any quantity right here. I’ll add you to the checklist so that you obtain the primary annual Scenario Regular Stakeholder Report on the finish of the 12 months.
OK, that’s sufficient cash speak. Now, it’s time to speak about some wins!
I began Scenario Regular in 2020. That was a tough 12 months. Actually, 12 months In Overview Journal rated 2020 the roughest 12 months since 1918, a 12 months specialists take into account to be a “actual motherfucker.”
Between the pandemic, America’s anxiety-inducing interregnum, my seasonal melancholy, and my non-seasonal melancholy, I used to be not feeling good. Truly, I used to be feeling awful.
However within the residence workplace adjoining to mine, an excellent and delightful lady was celebrating her wins. At first, I believed she had misplaced her thoughts. Successful in 2020, you have to be joking? However as I eavesdropped on Christina, I spotted she wasn’t joking. She was severe about her wins, and she or he was adamant that every member of her group share and have a good time their wins too.
That evening, I made Christina dinner. As we ate, I requested about all this profitable. After I informed her that I didn’t have any 2020 wins, she informed me to rethink that assertion. Right here’s what Christina informed me:
Write your wins down. In any other case, you gained’t see them, they usually gained’t be actual.
Actually, I didn’t imagine Christina on the time. I didn’t assume I had any wins. Additionally, writing stuff like that down felt like a gratitude journal. Gratitude journals are nice! Actually nice. However they’re additionally a type of nice issues that woo-woo influencers co-opt for his or her bullshit machines.
However alternatively, I believed, why ought to the woo-woo influencers have a monopoly on good issues? Who cares if a bullshit artist occurs to be proper about one thing? Aren’t damaged clocks proper twice a day? Additionally, this wasn’t recommendation from a woo-woo influencer, this was recommendation from my spouse, who is sensible and delightful, and let’s be trustworthy right here, the type of one that wins rather a lot.
So, I attempted it. I wrote down my wins for 2020 and revealed them on Scenario Regular. Seems, I had wins that 12 months. Additionally, writing them down made them really feel actual. And better of all, I felt higher!
Which brings me to an annual custom right here at Scenario Regular. I’m celebrating my wins. Right here’s why:
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As a result of Christina was proper, naturally
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As a result of celebrating your wins and writing them down makes them actual
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As a result of actual wins can raise your spirits
The primary time I did yoga was with my buddy Stacey on the North Hollywood YMCA (close to the In-N-Out Burger on Radford). That was 2005, I feel. I appreciated it, however I struggled to make yoga into an everyday apply. For the following eighteen years, I used to be a pretend yogi (fogi?). I’d inform individuals I did yoga, which was technically true, if doing yoga means doing it three or 4 occasions a 12 months.
At any time when I did yoga, I’d purchase a single class. Discuss dedication points, proper? However this 12 months I needed to make yoga an everyday apply, so I did one thing I’d by no means carried out earlier than. I purchased a 20-pack of yoga lessons. I figured that if I completed the pack by the tip of 12 months, I’d be a yogi. As a result of anybody who does yoga, roughly, twice a month is a yogi, proper?
Nicely, guess what? I’m on my third 20-pack of yoga lessons. I feel that makes me an official yogi—no matter meaning. Yoga provides me power—bodily, psychological, and non secular. Nevertheless it additionally provides me tales, like this one about my dad bod👇
It’s a wierd win, I do know, however getting your colon checked is essential. As a middle-aged dude, I’ve been dreading a colonoscopy for 20 years. However I received it carried out! And I even wrote a evaluation👇
When the world shut down in 2020, Christina left a bunch of stuff in her workplace. Sooner or later in the course of the pandemic, the studio she labored for opened a brand new constructing on the lot. Christina’s group was assigned to the brand new constructing, however on the time they have been nonetheless working from residence, so nothing actually modified.
“I suppose I’m by no means getting the stuff I left on my desk again,” Christina stated.
However just a few months in the past, Christina began a brand new job at a special studio. One among her former coworkers had additionally taken a job on the new studio, and he had a shock for her.
“I grabbed that photograph of your nephews,” he stated, earlier than returning it to her.
The photograph was from 2017. It was taken once we took our three nephews to Medieval Instances. In different phrases, the photograph was a relic from Medieval Instances™ in Kissimmee, Florida.
Blended emotions on this one. On the one hand, I stand by my remark when Substack rolled out badges: “we don’t want no stinkin’ badges.” Alternatively, a badge is only a image meaning 100-plus scenario normies have agreed to assist underwrite pleasure for 1000’s of scenario normies. I can reside with that, and have a good time it it too.
It’s good when another person acknowledges your work. It’s even higher when that recognition leads new individuals to your work. Should you got here to Scenario Regular from Substack Reads, I’m so glad you’re right here!
I’ve been in just a few writing teams over the course of my profession. Some have been OK, others have been drama-fueled catastrophe machines. However this 12 months, I joined a beautiful writing group with three different Substack writers:
, , and . For the primary time in a twenty-year writing profession, writing feels rather a lot much less lonely. Thanks, Alex, Anne, and Jane!
OK, our vet didn’t truly put the phrases “wholesome as fuck” in Mortimer’s file, however she did say, “If I didn’t know that he was 13, I’d estimate that he was eight, or perhaps 9 years previous.” Clearly, Christina and I are nice dog-parents.
This 12 months, my sister, Allison, her companion, Craig, and my mother, all got here to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving! I really like Thanksgiving, however we don’t at all times get to have a good time collectively, so this one was an enormous win. Plus, we didn’t end the eggnog that Craig purchased, so my post-Thanksgiving in a single day oats have been next-level. Double win!
I’ve a hate-hate relationship with social media, however quitting the sport isn’t as simple because it sounds. For one factor, that shit is addictive. For an additional factor, it’s very tough to get any consideration for something cool you’re doing, and not using a presence on social media. However Twitter bummed me out, and after years of being bummed out, I burnt the hen app to the bottom.
It felt bizarre at first, however then it felt good, and now it feels nice. Ten out of ten would suggest this win for everybody.
Marrying Christina was simply the perfect choice I ever made. Simply as essential, Christina says marrying me was the perfect choice she ever made. Double win! This 12 months, we celebrated the twelfth anniversary of the perfect choice we ever made.
As a lot of you already know, my catalytic convertor was stolen twice in a single 12 months. It made for some actual drama in my life and a few actual comedy right here at Scenario Regular. Fortunately, I feel that drama / comedy got here to an finish in July as a result of I haven’t had any points since I posted the ultimate catalytic convertor story.
Doppelgänger by Naomi Klein actually impressed me. I wrote an essay impressed by Klein’s e-book, and I talked about it on my podcast, the place I shared some doppelgänger tales. That was all cool, however then one thing actually cool occurred. A scenario normie learn Klein’s e-book, then tagged me in a Be aware about it. As an creator, I do know that the one factor more durable than getting somebody to purchase a e-book is getting them to learn it, so this was an enormous win!
You learn that proper, however did you hear it? I plan to say extra about all of those wins on—await it—my podcast. You possibly can pay attention on Substack, or wherever you hearken to podcasts.
Usually, I’ve 5 questions for you. However at the moment, I solely have one.
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What have been your 2023 wins? Be daring, share!
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