Today is Remembrance Day in Canada and other Commonwealth countries.
The express purpose of the Day is to remember that at the 11:00th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, World War I hostilities officially ended with a signed treaty. It’s often marked by observing a minute of silence at 11:00am every year on November 11.
Remembering war sacrifice is important.
In addition, remembering itself is important, and can apply more broadly.
Especially since Remembrance Day falls on a Sunday this year, it seems appropriate to consider other remembrances that have shaped, or can shape, who we are.
- Especially now that I’m a dad, I quite often think back and remember that my parents made a ton of sacrifices to give us a chance at success. My Mom actually got a little choked up thinking she may have failed me in some way in her mothering and I assured her that she didn’t. Our family was wrapped up in the turmoil of China post-WWII. It’s complicated, yet still has common earmarks of many in our boat: uprooting a young family from Asia to Canada (we landed in Toronto in winter. I was 3 months old. That feat alone is herculean to me). Mom and Dad spent their lives working and saving so we could have every opportunity possible. This strikes me as a good thing to remember.
- Even more simply: think back to when you said “I should remember this” or “I don’t want to forget this.” You can hold me accountable to this: assuming my wife doesn’t see my blog beforehand, I plan to spring the question on her with roughly this scripting:
“Hey, do you remember the last few times one of us said, ‘hey, we should remember this’? Because it’s Remembrance Day today and even though we’re supposed to remember war sacrifices, I think it would be nice for us to remember those little things too.”
I actually kind of need this because I vaguely remember my wife saying “we should remember this” and actually can’t remember what it was we were supposed to remember. We’ve been quite short on sleep for the last two years and I think our memory might be affected. And also our memory (yes, that’s a joke).
- There are some things coming up that I want to remember. I’m currently reviewing a book called Stop With The BS. In it, author Shane Mac references a Tim Ferriss (the Four-Hour Work Week guy) principle: “It is not our ability to take notes, it is our ability to find them later.” A dead simple idea but so true (in the book and probably on Tim’s blog, there’s a simple enough remedy). So if I get to it, I plan to have a more indexed system of referring back to notes I’ve jotted down. Having Evernote on my phone & computer helps. Theoretically. Anyway, point also is to pre-populate some big milestones ahead, which also draws together success-related practices like visualizing and goal-setting.
So there it is: three ways to remember today.
Feel free to comment in and check up on my homework, and add your own thoughts or reactions. Wishing you a memorable day.
