{"id":2031,"date":"2014-08-17T20:42:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T00:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/?p=2031"},"modified":"2014-08-17T20:42:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T00:42:33","slug":"if-this-then-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/2014\/08\/17\/if-this-then-that\/","title":{"rendered":"If This Then That"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"077\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If your dog is fat, then you’re not getting enough exercise. ~Author Unknown<\/p>\n

If you build it<\/a>,\u00a0he will come. Field of Dreams<\/p>\n

I had the good fortune to lunch with a new colleague this week.\u00a0 A lovely\u00a0woman with a story, as we all are, who was overwhelmed with questions about how to go about her job, about what she should know, about her instincts, about her place in the department, about, about, about.\u00a0 I found myself giving advice.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think I gave advice but the words that came out of my mouth had come out before.\u00a0 If this, then that.\u00a0 What?\u00a0 It\u2019s a formula I use for too many things coming at me at once.\u00a0 If this, then that.<\/p>\n

I found this formula many years ago when I was learning Excel.\u00a0 It truly is a formula, based in logic. Yes simple logic, conditional logic.\u00a0 With an implication.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a compound sentence that can sort out what seems like insurmountable data.\u00a0 Just basic programing that contains a trigger and an action.<\/p>\n

But I find myself using it for everything.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even realize it sometimes.\u00a0 Standing in front of the fridge I find myself saying:\u00a0 If I eat that, then I\u2019ll beat myself up all night, get adgita, weigh more tomorrow\u2026.Driving in the car: If I flip this guy the bird for thinking that he can cut me off then I\u2019ll definitely chip away at my Karmic equity.\u00a0 If I smile at this crabby barista then my coffee will be amazing and maybe their day will be better too.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t add any words like: What if I?\u00a0 No no no, that makes it an entirely different question and anything \u201cwhat if\u201d will definitely send you into an abyss.\u00a0 That\u2019s part of the coulda, shoulda, woulda family for sure.<\/p>\n

And the \u201cthen\u201d part should never be: and then I\u2019ll be happy\u2026oh no don\u2019t do that.\u00a0 If I lose weight, if I get a new job, if I find a new partner, if I dye my hair, if I wear these clothes\u2026then I\u2019ll be happy.\u00a0 Stop that right now\u2026If you want to be happy just make the choice.<\/p>\n

This is a life formula but of course there are other if-this-then-that formulas.\u00a0 IFTTT.com <\/a>gives you recipes for anything from:\u00a0 If the temperature in the house goes to 75\u2070 then turn on the air conditioning. Prevents you from heat stroking the cat as I read recently on mashable.com<\/a>.\u00a0 IFTTT.com is pronounced \u201cgift\u201d without the G.\u00a0 You can join the service for free and set up any number of trigger\/action recipes. And yes, there\u2019s an app for that.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s something called if\/then planning.\u00a0 You can use it for almost anything too.\u00a0 For example: If it\u2019s 2pm I\u2019ll have a coffee.\u00a0 If someone stays too long at my desk I\u2019ll set a timer for five minutes and sound a reminder alarm for a \u201cconference call\u201d.\u00a0 See ya yackity yack.\u00a0 Or if it’s 3pm I finish answering my emails.\u00a0 Many people find this if\/then planning helpful by preventing aimless wandering through tasks that wind up taking longer than they should.<\/p>\n

There are if\/then charts for kids now too. If there is too much arguing then you will have additional chores.\u00a0 It\u2019s got a list of the most common infractions and consequences and can be purchased through doorposts.net.<\/p>\n

Long before it was a service or a planning tool or a parental control is was simply a logical way to sort things out.\u00a0\u00a0A beautiful formula to live by, one that you could call upon at any time, in any situation.<\/p>\n

If you click here then you\u2019ll get more good advice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If your dog is fat, then you’re not getting enough exercise. ~Author Unknown If you build it,\u00a0he will come. Field of Dreams I had the good fortune to lunch with a new colleague this week.\u00a0 A lovely\u00a0woman with a story, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[492,491,494,493],"class_list":["post-2031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pause-points","tag-formula-for-life","tag-if-this-then-that","tag-ifttt","tag-sorting-out-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27hQ5-wL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2039,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}