August 10, 2020 — I love a fresh week! It feels like an expanse of potential time to get a series of things done, or to further an important project. Right??
But more often it comes off like a series of fire-fighting days, never getting anything REAL done other than keeping the most dire of emergencies more or less at bay, am I right?
WHY IS THAT?
This is something I’ve been pondering: (AKA drowning in) the constant state of life’s chaos. What I have finally noticed is that when we ALLOW all the distractions in, they overtake any potential for us to really FOCUS on something, and we are pretty much dead in the water.
“I’LL JUST CHECK MY NOTIFICATIONS REALLY QUICK”
We give (yes, GIVE) our precious time, energy, and attention away all the time. We need to be so much more SELFISH. I am giving you blanket permission RIGHT NOW to be more selfish! It’s YOUR time after all…but you must FIGHT for it.
The Eisenhower Matrix says it all very clearly: the important-yet-urgent tasks will suck away our time and attention leaving us no headspace for the important-yet-not-urgent tasks. It’s that URGENCY that trumps everything.
Oooooo and be especially vigilant for those urgent-yet-not-important tasks: ie other people’s requests of your time and attention. If you’re a pleaser, these requests will rise above your own tasks because you’re a wonderful person who wants the world to be happy all the time.
HEL-LO!! BE MORE SELFISH!!!
There’s good news: when you plan ahead for the day/week…YOU are the one in control (mostly!) and can put those important-yet-not-urgent tasks on there so YOU can work on your DREAMS!
Example from MY world: I’m writing a book. This is not urgent (I don’t have a literary agent giving me a deadline) but it is IMPORTANT to me and my dream of being an author and writing a book to help people stop being last-minute all the time. If I don’t look at my week on Sunday/Monday morning and find a block of time to work on that book, it will not happen. Yes, things might come up and that block of time will get pushed (sad, isn’t it?) but if things stay as I planned, I WILL work on it.
Another example: I have an elderly relative I need to visit. Time is of the essence here…there are no guarantees of how long I will be able to connect. I can keep telling myself, “I’ll call this week, for sure” but if I don’t put it on the calendar, it won’t happen. I have an uncle who passed before I made the time to visit with him; I’ll never forget that! I had the time until I didn’t.
SOMETHING ALWAYS COMES UP.
Are you going to keep letting circumstances dictate YOUR priorities?
I challenge you (as I challenge myself, too) to put it on your calendar NOW. Choose to elevate the chances of your actually doing that thing. Be SELFISH.
YOU HAVE TO. THE WORLD NEEDS YOU.
