It gets harder getting things done
Me: Our sense of accomplishment changes as we get older. In fact I hit a personal goal this past weekend.
Him: Oh, what was that?
Me: No one called me. It was great to be left to my own devices.
Him: I know what you mean.
Was out in Staten Island yesterday. Sat in traffic for a good part of it. There, I met up with a fella that I’m mentoring for one of the things I do in life.
We both agreed that it gets harder and harder to fight the inertia as you get older.
David Allen, who wrote Getting Things Done, said that, “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.”
And that’s the problem: I wanna do everything. There are all these projects that I have in my head and I’m loathe to give up any of them.
I’d like to fix up my laughably bad German and my crappy Chinese, write more, wrestle more, fence more, cook more, etc. And yet, I have to constantly pick and choose.
Every day we’re given 24 hours to spend and I always find and I’m a day late and an hour short.
For the most part, I’ve cut out television – which has been huge – except for the news in the morning and the occasional Jeopardy contest with the wife.
For the most part.
Me: Do you think that a larger television would make our lives more fulfilling?
Her: No.
Me: OK, think about it for a bit and get back to me.
Location: my desk, still icing my damn leg
Mood: creative
Music: never one to be late, complain, express ideas in her brain
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7 replies on “Personal Goals”
i attended this workshop/have a book about living your life at 100%. but instead of trying to do 50 things all the time, just pick one thing and do it at 100% every day for a month. every day u focus on that task and at the end of the day u evaluate how u did that day. if u’re off track, no big deal, just try again the next day to improve on it. it breaks things up into manageable bits and helps you develop habits and routines that become effortless. at the end of 12 months, u should have accomplished 12 mini goals and made it a daily habit such that u don’t even have to think about what u’re doing anymore. does that make sense?
i’m the same way with trying to do everything at once, having all these ideas, getting exhausted and burned out, and not being able to do any of it properly. then i start to feel like everything is falling apart and i’m a failure cuz i’m not accomplishing all these things in my head. i started microscopically small with my goals, like taking vitamins daily, and then eventually am at a comfortable place where my brain finally feels normal again. i think u have to build slowly and be patient with yourself and what ur expectations are. i’ve pretty much cut myself off from social media– unliked/unfriended/hid almost everything in FB, no twitter subscribers, no pinterest stalking. it’s amazing what that did for me. even tho i don’t tell everyone my business and feel a need to impress people, i had this internal sense of accomplishing, having a “story” to tell, keeping busy, maximizing time. but at the end of the day, no one gives a shit and u’re exhausted from trying to peacock and flaunt.
maybe for your “new years resolution” write out all your yearly goals and steps u need to accomplish onto a sheet of paper. cut them all into individual pieces and then throw half away. and buy this calendar 🙂
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also it’s harder to get shit done because we have all developed adult ADD. if we were singularly focused, we could accomplish so much more in less time. (don’t get a bigger tv)
I think we can only really do three things at once at any given extended period of time. So I’m really trying to focus on three if at all possible. It’s hard because, like you, I find myself being pulled in one direction or the other but being able to drown out the other noise and focus is time consuming in and of itself!
And I want a bigger tv!
Heard a great podcast Stanford lecture years ago that got turned into a book, “What I Wish I Knew When I Was Twenty” by Tina Seelig, and one of the main points was “You can do it all, just not at the same time.”
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard, and one of the hardest pieces of advice I’ve ever tried to take. I want to be a better bartender, musician, student. Exercise more, travel more, spend more time with friends, make new friends, make more money.
I think it’s a problem we’re all going to have until we either figure things out enough to write a successful book on the subject or die.
Being able to pick and choose what we actually want to focus on is always a problem for the curious, I think. Right now, I find that feel guilty that I’m not spending more time doing X instead of Y and vice versa.
And as for writing a successful book, I’m just concentrating on finishing what I start when I write; success, if it ever comes, is a secondary goal. For now…
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