Recently my life has been seeing a flurry of projects. My life has been anything but Boring. I wanted to address that in direct correlation with my Boredom is my Goal philosophy.
Before this current explosion of activity, my life was getting pretty Boring. I had three ongoing projects according to my Personal Control Book, but making progress against those goals was not all-consuming. I was spending a significant amount of time every night reading graphic novels. I was staying on top of all household chores, and the house was impeccably clean and tidy. I was going to bed early every night and naturally early every morning.
It was amazing.
And then an opportunity blitz hit. I haven't touched a graphic novel in a long time, and a couple of new ones are piling up waiting for their turn to be consumed. I'm going to bed late, waking by my alarm, and sometimes slogging through my morning routine to get the day rolling. The house feels cluttered and chaotic and frequently doesn't get the much-needed attention it deserves until the weekend.
"But I thought your goal was to be Bored! Why would you take on these projects instead of saying 'NO'!"
That is a direct paraphrased quote.
It might appear that I lost my way, but I don't see it that way. Instead, I see things as life happening. Each opportunity that I said "yes" to somehow fit into my Life Focuses as defined by my PCB. They might have been all different, with different actions required, and different outcomes. But, with the help of my PCB, I could quickly evaluate each opportunity and figure out if they fit or not. If it didn't, I could reject it. And some things I did decline. If it did match my PCB, and that opportunity needed immediate action, I could accept it with confidence.
So I was prepared for the chaos. It was an organized and managed chaos.
It goes beyond that, though. Throughout the entire experience, my focus was always on figuring out how to make things Boring again. I keep my graphic novels in eyesight, teasing me to get back to them. I have held my morning alarm at the same time, to prevent myself from falling too far out of my routine. These actions, among others, have helped to make sure I defined a realistic scope for each project and pushed hard to close the project out as soon as possible. It helped motivate me to reevaluate a plan so that once immediate action was no longer needed, I could shelf it. It kept me sane, knowing that this wasn't my new norm and that every week, my goal was to close out more tasks than open new ones. I knew that as long as I kept my Boredom is my Goal philosophy close to my heart, this insanity was just temporary.
We can't control life, nor can we control what is presented to us: opportunities or otherwise. We can't control other people or the unfolding of events. We can't control time and magically create more. But we can control ourselves and how we react to the world. So when life happens, if you've mentally and philosophically prepared yourself, you can roll with it, embrace it, and thrive with it.
When life happens, go with the flow!
(Written 2019.10.19)
Before this current explosion of activity, my life was getting pretty Boring. I had three ongoing projects according to my Personal Control Book, but making progress against those goals was not all-consuming. I was spending a significant amount of time every night reading graphic novels. I was staying on top of all household chores, and the house was impeccably clean and tidy. I was going to bed early every night and naturally early every morning.
It was amazing.
And then an opportunity blitz hit. I haven't touched a graphic novel in a long time, and a couple of new ones are piling up waiting for their turn to be consumed. I'm going to bed late, waking by my alarm, and sometimes slogging through my morning routine to get the day rolling. The house feels cluttered and chaotic and frequently doesn't get the much-needed attention it deserves until the weekend.
"But I thought your goal was to be Bored! Why would you take on these projects instead of saying 'NO'!"
That is a direct paraphrased quote.
It might appear that I lost my way, but I don't see it that way. Instead, I see things as life happening. Each opportunity that I said "yes" to somehow fit into my Life Focuses as defined by my PCB. They might have been all different, with different actions required, and different outcomes. But, with the help of my PCB, I could quickly evaluate each opportunity and figure out if they fit or not. If it didn't, I could reject it. And some things I did decline. If it did match my PCB, and that opportunity needed immediate action, I could accept it with confidence.
So I was prepared for the chaos. It was an organized and managed chaos.
It goes beyond that, though. Throughout the entire experience, my focus was always on figuring out how to make things Boring again. I keep my graphic novels in eyesight, teasing me to get back to them. I have held my morning alarm at the same time, to prevent myself from falling too far out of my routine. These actions, among others, have helped to make sure I defined a realistic scope for each project and pushed hard to close the project out as soon as possible. It helped motivate me to reevaluate a plan so that once immediate action was no longer needed, I could shelf it. It kept me sane, knowing that this wasn't my new norm and that every week, my goal was to close out more tasks than open new ones. I knew that as long as I kept my Boredom is my Goal philosophy close to my heart, this insanity was just temporary.
We can't control life, nor can we control what is presented to us: opportunities or otherwise. We can't control other people or the unfolding of events. We can't control time and magically create more. But we can control ourselves and how we react to the world. So when life happens, if you've mentally and philosophically prepared yourself, you can roll with it, embrace it, and thrive with it.
When life happens, go with the flow!
(Written 2019.10.19)
