The Life’s Little Instruction Book Project

Having been more than a little self-involved this last week, I felt the need to do something about it and remembered a couple of diminutive volumes I bought about ten years ago. They’re the Life’s Little Instruction Books by H. Jackson Brown Jr, and the introduction explains that they grew out of a few typed sheets of advice Brown (or Jr) gave his son as he went away to college. There are a total of 511 in the first volume, and while there are a lot of good ideas in there, I thought it’d be a good idea to be systematic about things- and, as the Vervoid has never been averse to initiatives designed to make the world a better and friendlier place, this is the result. The plan is this: every week I’ll take five of Brown’s instructions and try to apply them in some way in my daily life, and I’ll let you all know how I get on. Here goes for Week 1:

Rule 1: Compliment three people every day

Ian says: Shouldn’t be too difficult to do, whether it’s people in work who help me out or one of the women wearing something tasteful.

Rule 2: Have a dog.

Ian says: Unfortunately I don’t have a Korean takeaway near me, so I’m going to have to interpret this more broadly. Can’t have a pet in the flat either (and not really inclined to have one which needs taking out to do its business) but I can look into sponsoring a rescue dog or something like that.

Rule 3: Watch a sunrise at least once a year.

Ian says: Well, it’s a Bank Holiday weekend so I can always go back to bed afterwards- the only problem is going to be living in an east-west valley so not having much choice as regards vantage points.

Rule 4: Remember other people’s birthdays.

Ian says: That’d be like my cousin’s on Saturday? Bugger- can’t post anything in time now. Next one is my friends in Ireland at the beginning of April.

Rule 5: Overtip breakfast waitresses.

Ian says: I make my own breakfast, thankyou very much. But I’ll tip myself generously.