Hiya, Julia Louis-Dreyfus here from the Wiser Than Me podcast, among other things.
And I've got a bit of a hot take.
Our relationship to our food can feel disconnected.
We don't always know how or where our food is grown.
And if we throw food scraps in the garbage, we don't think about where it's going, or at least we try not to.
One way that I get back a little of that connection is by using my Mill food recycler.
Sure, Mill has totally changed my home life in a lot of practical ways.
It works automatically.
You can fill it for weeks.
It never, ever smells.
But this is also really important.
When I use Mill, I'm participating in a circular system.
All the food I don't eat is helping to grow the food that I do.
It makes me feel like I'm part of something bigger, and that feels really, really good.
And it's all so ridiculously easy.
I just drop my scraps in my mill, and it transforms them into nutrient-rich grounds overnight.
I have mine sent to a small farm, but if I wanted to, I could use them in my garden or for my backyard chickens, if I wanted backyard chickens.
And I don't know, maybe I do now.
Maybe I don't.
Anyway, maybe Mill is transforming me too, just a little.
If you want to feel more connected or you just want your kitchen to feel less gross, try Mill's risk-free trial and just live with it for a while.
Go to mill.com slash wiser for an exclusive offer.
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I'm Gretchen Rubin, and this is A Little Happier.
I love paradoxes, coens, fables, and teaching stories of all kinds.
Often, a joke can be a very effective teaching story.
Here's a joke that's also a teaching story.
Or actually, it's not really a joke.
It's just a surprising and true statement.
It is a line often attributed to legendary economist John Maynard Keynes or to investor J Paul Getty, and typically it goes something like this
If you owe your bank $10,000, you have a problem.
But if you owe the bank $10 million, the bank has a problem.
The general concept behind this maxim is that small debts give power to the lender, who can use legal action against the borrower.
However, extremely large debts put the lender at risk because the borrower's potential failure could cause significant financial harm to the lender.
This kind of flip happens in everyday life, too.
For instance, if you make a small but critical mistake in a work report, you'll be held at fault and maybe lose your job.
But if instead, you're responsible for a catastrophic company-wide system failure?
Now management has a big problem on its hands and your job may be more secure than ever, because the company needs to understand exactly what went wrong.
Or say you're working with a contractor on a big kitchen renovation.
If you disagree about a small charge early on, you can refuse to pay or replace the contractor easily.
But if the contractor has torn out your kitchen, charged you deposits for a bunch of materials and begun the work, now a power shifts to the contractor because it would be so costly in money, time and energy for you to try to replace that contractor with someone new.
It's an observation that's worth keeping in mind whether you're the borrower or the lender.
Small debts burden the borrower.
Big debts burden the lender.
I'm Gretchen Rubin, and I hope this makes your week a little happier.
From the Onward Project.
Hi, Gretchen, Craig Robinson, and my little sister Michelle here.
We host a new podcast called IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson.
We know you're the queen of giving advice, so we wanted to get a few tips from you.
You know, Gretchen, a lot of our listeners are going through some major life changes.
What advice do you have for folks who are trying to stay grounded in the midst of major life transitions?
Craig and Michelle, I am so happy to be talking to you.
Here are a few questions that might help us gain perspective.
So consider questions like this.
What activities take up my time but are not particularly useful or stimulating for me?
Do I spend a lot of time on something that's important to someone else but is not very important to me?
If I could magically change one habit in my life, what would I choose?
And here's a question.
Would I like to have more time in solitude restorative solitude or would I like to have more time with friends?
You know, just thinking about questions like this can help us start to figure out how we might make our lives happier.
With greater self-knowledge, we're better able to make hard decisions that reflect ourselves, our own nature, our own interests, our own values.
In my own case, I have found that the more my life reflects my nature, the happier I get and the more grounded I feel when I'm going through a period of major change or transition.
For more great advice, search for IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson wherever you get podcasts.
You can listen to Issa Rae on letting go of certain friendships, Kiki Palmer on why disappointment is actually the key to career success, Seth and Lauren Rogan on caring for aging parents, and so many more.
