I like to make up new phrases. Here are my favorites.
"Salvage the day."
I came up with this as an improvement to "Seize the day". I found "Seize the day" to be too perfectionist and stressful. Salvaging the day is all about taking the shit show that this day has been so far, accepting the mistakes you've made up until this point, and then choosing to finally do something different. You can always salvage the day because you can stop whatever are doing right now, and redeem the waking hours of the day that you have left.
- What if you woke up at 1pm, hungover and dehydrated after getting less than 5 hours sleep? Salvage the day.
- What if you watched Netflix for two hours this morning when you should have been working? Salvage the day.
- What if you just ate dinner and want to watch TV but you literally have done nothing today? Salvage the day.
"The Present is Female."
I came up with this as an improvement to the quote "The Future is Female" that everyone has on t-shirts and bags. Women have always existed. Women also exist today. Why should we wait for the future be female, when there are kick ass women doing tons of cool stuff right now? The only way to have a future that is more female is to recognize that women are doing cool stuff today that we deserve to get noticed for.
"Musical Cities"
Inspired by the children's game musical chairs, people who play musical cities are city hoppers. They move to a new city every couple of years depending on the weather, how they feel, job opportunities, after a bad breakup and to just plain start over. It was spawned by, but not limited to, the restlessness of the millennial global elites in the technology industry, who have too much money and not enough patience to settle down in one place and take the good of that place with the bad.
- New York has the arts and culture, but it has terrible weather and you want to learn Spanish? Move to Mexico City.
- You live in Austin, but you want more liberals, more chill, better weed and more skiing? Move to Denver.
- You're bored of London, bored of life, and you want to live in Asia before you find a real partner? Hong Kong will kick start your happiness, surely.
People who play musical cities are city hopping for now. But will they ever settle down somewhere? Which city will they be in when the music stops? Or will the music just keep going? I guess we'll have to get to our late 40s to find out.
"Ergonomically Reckless"
A series of terrible posture and typing positions I embodied, including straining movements that got worse with repetition, that caused me to develop Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my mid 20s.
And remember: "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman." - Virginia Woolf