NOT ABOUT MORE ANYMORE
Friday Sept. 26, 2014
When did this happen?
Work overtook play.
Driving overtook travel. Homework overtook learning. Chores overtook responsibility. Subtle differences. Treadmill ceased being an exercise station – metaphor for day, after day, after day.
I have no difficulty inserting more work in each day, using more tools (Warren will be happy to know I unpacked and started using this new computer yesterday. Bigger, faster. Whiz-bang fast. Causing more work than it is saving me … ), more work, more output, more accomplishment. Which, if logic holds, ought to result in more done in less time allowing more time for rest, play and non-work pursuits.
It never worked out that way for me.
More time I saved, more I tried to do.
More I accomplished, more I tried to do.
My Ninja program has me trying to un-learn old habits.
Replacing them with new habits.
I get the theory.
Putting it all into practice has proven challenging.
Two steps yesterday.
Little ones.
New things required devoting my whole day to them – leaving way too many things not-touched yesterday. Seems, despite worst fears, walls did not come tumbling down. No fires to put out. No distress to solve aside from my own angst about what I did not get done, what I did not get to …
So few of those old-habit things fit what I ought to be doing – my decision, choice of new path.
Everything else is distraction from that.
Of hundreds of things on my agenda, diarized in my database: how many are truly important?
Few are critical.
Nothing else matters.
Agenda, diary, lists, more lists …
So, what explains piles of files, unmet self-imposed deadlines on tasks, follow-ups and things I set out to do?
I am prepared for Friday, so it must be a lucky Friday.
I am prepared to be happy.
I am prepared.
Like a little boy scout, I am being prepared.
Recent days – many opportunities to do more have come sailing in ...
Like little ships.
A project, a campaign, requests for time, requests for money, demands to re-schedule things which demand more and more.
It has not been all bad, all too-much or all too late.
Learning, it seems, is not a straight line on some graph.
It comes not the end of the task, or end of the week – it comes when someone amazes me when I least expect it. I had three of those yesterday. Two were last night, long after workday had ended.
Of hundreds of important things yesterday – only three really grabbed my attention yesterday: a call, a meeting, a confrontation with reality. Each unexpected, each profound.
None of those were on my list, in my diary or in those piles of things to do. Yet they made my day. And maybe I made their day too.
To Chuck, Nancy and Adam – you made my day, my week and quite possibly my month worthwhile.
More life is required in each day, is it not?
Today was going to be light.
Friday light.
Work-day light.
That was my plan. What began as a couple of tasks and one meeting has blossomed. Three meetings, several errands and many chores. At the end of this day there will be more in my to-do inventory than in my done-list. Still, it will be a fabulously productive day. Yes, all that – and the phone has yet to start ringing, the day has not begun to unfold in untold adventures.
A few months ago, a day like today was a daunting endless pursuit of getting everything done, done today, done fast, done completely – so I could go on to the next, the next and the next one after that.
I am still highly productive – but better focused. Better able to cope with leaving the un-done in a not-done-yet and possibly not-to-be-ever done state …
Happy.
Thrilled.
Thrilled to be alive.
It is not about more, for the sake of more – because of more, or in spite of more.
Life is more, than ever before. Speed, tasks, data, bits, bytes and tera-bytes bite into our days, chew up our lives and our work as if they were the masters.
There is only one master in my life. He has spent too many years doing what he believed was expected of him by others and only recently has he become someone new. Work in progress – not there yet, but steady progress.
The more I give my time to the Chucks, Nancys and Adams in my day I create true value in my life. The more I do that I did not need to do, the more happy I become. The more I yield to the world, the more it seems to yield to me.
And that, my friends, seems to add up to much much more. More better fine.
This is a journey I began. It will be finished when I am finished – not one day before and that is OK. Friends and family should be warned – my affairs will not be in order, everything will not neatly filed and organized, everything will be partially explained, partially complete and yearning for explanation …
If life was ever fully explained, what need would we have for tomorrow?
Mark Kolke
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: 11C/53F, rain overnight is now a drizzly overcast-ness that feels so fresh. Gusta seem disoriented at first because she has not been walked in daylight for a while …still lots of post-snowstorm tree debris waiting for pickup though, if recent weather is any indication, snowy days are a ways off yet …
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
CHANGE WAY
Good article, once again. Not that all of them are not good - some just resonate more than others. I'm in France at the moment heading to Portugal and the Algarve Coast on Saturday. Back in Vancouver October 5 and in the office on the 6th. Bonsoir, RT, Vancouver, BC
