Or change yourself a little

Do you speak too fast? Is your elocution like mine: closer to an asthmatic boar than a human being? Is your sense of smell so stunted you could tend to your garden during a zombie apocalypse and not notice a difference? Does your posture need work?

Dedicate a moment of your day to better the little things about you. Posture exercises can be done in a couple minutes, same for working on elocution. They can do wonders long-term.

It helped me to use characters in literature and movies as models for some things I wanted to change about myself. You don’t have to resemble said model in every aspect. I like Hannibal Lecter, I have no interest in casual murder, cat-and-mouse games with the law and recreative cannibalism. But I like how the character is described in the books as standing with presence and grace, how he enjoys the finer things in life through the nose while my sense of smell barely exists. This made me look for exercises to get my posture straight and got me conscious of the various dishes I cook or eat. I take a minute to focus on nothing but the smell when I have my full plate, try to make out minor differences here and there. Done every day for over a year and I reconnected with my nose. I have a handful of exercises to straighten my back and neck done that takes a couple minutes a day.

Wadsworth from the movie Clue, played by the one and only Tim Curry, has a smile and a mannerism in the way he talks and quips, and it pushed me to work on my verbal delivery. I won’t ever speak perfectly like Tim Curry or be like Tim Curry – for shame, the world would be a better place with more of him – but I know I speak too fast and don’t articulate well. I practice for a handful of minutes before the mirror to speak more clearly, speaking tongue-twisters, accentuating the words and slowing my rhythm down. The more I practice, the more I remember to moderate my pace and articulate. Results are small, but they are there.