Seasonal Fun List Archives - Sustainable Sue

I quit.

As an early Thanksgiving gift to all loyal Sustainable Sue followings, I offer this message of thanks and gratitude.

This is a message about quitting.

The Yesterday Sue that drafted that Fall Fun List is not the same Today Sue that sits here writing this. Isn’t this always how it happens with goals and plans? Recently on the Conscious Contact podcast we talked about Motivation vs. Determination (spoiler: one gets you started and one keeps you going). Then we talked about Quitting (spoiler: I am in favor of it).

Prepping for and recording both of these episodes brought to mind several things that apply to this Fall Fun List. But first I want to recap where we are with this whimsical exercise.

Fall Fun Recap

The original plan poked up its head in September, and I asked you for your suggestions. After considering my time, energy, preferences, and budget I landed on five things that seemed simple at the time.

I posted updates about progress here and here. Then I traveled to the Pacific Northwest for work for 7 days for a somewhat last minute trip. When I planned the Fall Fun List, I thought for sure that the trip was going to be cancelled.

When we returned from the trip, most of the leaves had turned. Then hurricane remnants came through and leaf peeping season was over.

I still want to get more time around the fire pit, but the weather took that weird North Carolina turn and went from 75 to 29 in one day. I need to get brave enough to sit out there.

SusPro Adjustment

Let’s swing these results around to view from a Sustainable Productivity (SusPro) lens. Rarely do plans work out the way we want. Why do we continue to have the unreal expectation that they will if we just apply our iron will?

Plans are worthless. Planning is everything.
dwight d. Eisenhower

So my SusPro adjustment is to quit. I am putting a stopper on the Fall Fun List. Not a pause, a stop. I am finished with that. I quit. And it feels final and complete, not like a failure. Maybe I will try again next year. Maybe there will be other fun things I want to try instead.

The point is that hanging onto tasks, goals, and plans just to be stubborn is not productive – it is not getting me the joy of doing these things. Sure there is value in perseverance, but I will save that for important things like writing my book proposal and getting my last 3 work projects across the finish line before the end of the year. Not forcing myself to try to control Mother Nature to stop raining so I can have a fire pit to cross something off the list.

Sustainable Productivity Questions

What is something on your to do list that you are stubbornly hanging onto?
What is keeping that item on your list and what would it be like to cross it off or just let it go?

If this weekly essay resonated with you, please share it with a friend. I am trying to grow Sustainable Sue and spread the ideas of Sustainable Productivity. The best way to do that is for you to share with someone you know. I am ever grateful.

Fall Fun List – A New Recipe

I tried a new recipe a couple weeks ago. A little background before the big reveal. This is a quick update on the Fall Fun List.

I have been inspired by the current season of the Great British Baking Show (except for Mexican Week – what a dumpster fire that was) to return to the kitchen. But only for baking a very specific recipe: Cinnamon and Spice Sweet Potato Bread by Averie Cooks. I used to make this all the time. I gave it away as gifts and even the kids liked it (they were grade schoolers at the time). Then we moved to a new house and I could NOT get the settings right on the new oven.

The more Bixby tried to help me, the more pissed off I got. So I just quit making it.

Weirdly, that did not help me dial in the settings AT ALL.

Earlier this fall I returned to the kitchen, mastered the settings. Hint: Glass dishes bake veeeeery differently than metal.

Then came the Fall Fun List and trying a new fallish recipe seemed like a good idea. The contender that I put up against the champion sweet potato bread was Chocolate Pumpkin Bread from Two Peas and Their Pod.

Gorgeous bread is a photo from Two Peas and Their Pod website, not the actual loaf I made (but thanks for the confidence in my baking).

While the recipe itself was fine, it was more chocolatey than pumkiny. On the surface that is a win, but the intent was a fallish recipe. Since the pumpkin did not come through, it did not really hit the mark.

But overall, I am glad I tried it. And I am glad to have my trusty standby Sweet Potato Bread back in the mix.

What about you? Do you have any favorite fallish recipes?