A dangerous pastime for some!

 

 

I am at heart a procrastinator…….. I may be somewhat of a reformed procrastinator, when my will dominates my very easy going nature. Which basically says "why do today what you can put off till tomorrow." So I have learned to be disciplined and get things done over time, but it certainly does not come naturally.

 

 My observation is that the very thing that we think is going to save us from our procrastination just provides a further smoke screen. I am referring to planning and goal setting. You may say well if you only planned when you are going to get things done your problem would be over!

Not so unfortunately for some it can give a false sense of achievement. We emotionally feel like we have actually done the job when we have only planned to do it. The real achievement is actually in completing the task not just planning it! So I have learnt to go past the good feeling of planning and actually just do it! I do not deny procrastinators need to plan and goal set like everybody else but they  must also complete the task! This provides honest and real sense of achievement not just an emotional high!

 

Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet!

The Panoramic View

I started to think about my 2017 and what that might look like using the brainstorming method. I worked out the categories and activities I wanted to give attention to over the coming year.
Deciding:

• What that might look.
• What preparation that might need from me before 2017.

As I sat back and pondered that process I decided that I also need to take a longer term view. This  may be partly because of my age, as I am acutely aware I am not getting any younger. I want to make sure that my time counts for something in the coming years. I guess I am starting to think "legacy", what will I leave behind? What did I exchange my life for?

London Panorama

I decided I needed to think bigger! Take a panoramic view if you will.  Starting to say where do I want to be in 5 years time? What do I want to be doing? What might I have achieved?

So I decided to take each of those major categories and extend out my goals in broad terms towards 2021. Where do I see myself in 2021 as far as career, family, recreation, and yes, health because the decisions I make today will influence my health in the coming years about diet and fitness. I have just lost 7Kg in weight I have a little more to go. However if I do not change my life style I will gradually lose all that I have gained. I know because I have done it before! I must enjoy my success absolutely! Then make a plan to maintain that desired weight level. As the blog title says I must be intentional!


So where do you want to be in 2021?  If you are not sure, it is worth some thought. I know I am starting to pay more attention to living intentionally not just drifting from one year to the next with short term to planning. I have done it all my life bounced over here and then moved over there with what should be happening.. I need to focus on what my long term goals are to see things achieved.


Things that matter!!

Until next time.
Paul

2017 in Macro

As I started to share last week I am planning for 2017. So I am going to share the process I am using with you. Hopefully it will help as you look at 2017 for yourself. As with painting or writing sometimes we just need the big themes or ideas down on paper.

A mind map if you will:

• What are the ideas, categories, streams of interest I need to cover?
• What do I need to develop?
• What do I need to add to the list that was not there this year?
• What things or areas need to go?
• What are the important categories?....................................Significant Other, Family, Employment or Career, Recreation/Hobbies, Faith, Learning and Personal Development and whatever else may fit.
• You may also choose to be a little more specific in some areas say in "recreation" and hobbies you may come down to Holidays, sports, a specific hobby or daily fitness. Whatever fits for you.

A Mind Map is a Graphic Organiser which simply allows you get your thoughts down in categories, in a visual way that you can understand . Hence the term graphic means visual. For us older bodies it may be new, but it is very common in modern schooling to help children organise their thinking. So that is the object of our exercise to organise our thoughts quickly and succinctly with few boundaries. You just keep adding more layers from our 2017 centre.

Give it a go you never know where you will end up!

2017 is just around the corner!

In line with the Ritchie McCaw movie last week I was thinking about how our plans don't always work out the way we expect. I would say it is quite rare for things to go as planned. There is always a need to reassess where we are, and from that there may be a need  make new decisions, to modify our thoughts, to reposition ourselves for further action. But.....................how often are we able to do that?

I think a lot of our difficulty comes for the fact that we often act first then decide we need a plan. When we are impulsive it leaves us vulnerable because we simply have not considered all of the possibilities we face. It sounded like a good idea at the time!! Even when we plan our planning often only covers the areas we want to consider, not taking areas of risk into account.

I know come next year I will need to have some plans in place for what I think 2017 could  bring. It is so easy to drift along even if we have a vague sort of idea about where I think I could end up or what I want to do. Because everything is a little bit vague it is so much easier to just give up because we don't really know what is working and what is not. A destination point is not a plan it is at best an itinerary and unless it shows detail on the way not even a good one of those.

This is all very counter cultural to my nature, I am a BIG Picture thinker. I get the idea of destination but not always the concept of the detail of how this might happen. So for me I need to put into practice all that I know about planning.  Coming up with some staged plans that will allow me to actually stand a reasonable chance of seeing that which I have a vision for coming to fruition. It is far to easy for me just decide it is not working and QUIT! Changing direction because I feel I am not getting where I want to go. I need some basic and simple planning using S.M.A.R.T goals that will allow me to step forward into 2017 with some confidence. Now is the time to plan for 2017, not January 1st, it is all a bit late by then, at that stage you only end up 10 months to work with, not 12!

Most of us don't fail we just QUIT!

If we don't have a plan how can we make new decisions, modify our thoughts, reposition ourselves for further action.

Looking for change in 2017! It is time for us to do some "Intentional Living". We are going to plan together!

Until next time and some S.M.A.R.T goals!

Paul

It's all in your head!

I recently went to see the movie "Chasing Great" the story of Richie McCaw the ex -All Black captain in the year leading up to the second winning of the Rugby World Cup in 2015.

The part that interested me was about the journey in the mind towards the winning of both world Cups. The difference between the All Blacks last two campaigns in the World Cup compared to the previous three. Where they failed was their mental strength and preparation. Ritchie McCaw in particular examined carefully the mental preparation that had gone into the previous campaigns or should I say the lack of it. He reasoned that these teams were as physically prepared as they could be and they had a skill base the equal if not better than their opponents yet they still failed. Therefore there had to another factor and it had to be their mental preparation.

He and the team then went through a process of mental preparation that ensured that they were as mentally well prepared as they were physically . Their back to back World Cups prove the point that this was effective.

I began to think how many times we not do as well as we could simply because we are mentally under prepared for the position we find ourselves in. How do we cope when we are faced with the unexpected the occurrence, the thing that doesn't our way. What do we do with this type of occurrence? Conversely what do when we succeed beyond our wildest dreams. How do we cope? Developing our mental and emotional strength maybe the difference between success and failure, between average and outstanding.

                                          

                                           The battle is won first and foremost in the mind

Can we solve "Catch 22"?

Over the last little while I have been thinking about recreation time. What might that look like? Does it have to be a sport, a project or a hobby. What is recreation anyway?

 I like to think of it as Re.....Creation something that builds me , gives me life.

So I began to think, my nature is to love to sit and read a book for hours or use the model trains I have to do shunting puzzles. Is this realistic however, to actually think that I might have hours to do those wonderfully relaxing things. If I was completely honest I would have to say no, because nothing else gets done. Therein lies "Catch 22", if I consistently relax and  just do those enjoyable things, then other things; lawns gardens, house maintenance  and washing cars gets behind and  a level of angst sets in. That kind of defeats the purpose.

Now I know that some people are highly energetic in their relaxation pastimes riding, climbing, running but they would seem to have same glitch as the book and the train i.e. nothing else gets done.
So the question is can I get enough enjoyment out of the lawns gardens, house maintenance  and washing cars to call it recreation. I thought I won't know until I try. Now I must admit I did not think the answer was yes. Might be that I am naturally sedentary and like things to relax that don't take a lot of physical exertion. So I didn't like my chances at making this work.

I must after trying some of these things over three weekends in a row I have actually got a lot of satisfaction from these activities. I have done lawns, gardens for three weeks  and washed three cars as this last Sunday afternoon. I must say that I have a great sense of achievement that has given a really good sense of well being, True Re...Creation! I think that it was because I decided to give it a good try not be half hearted, but make a choice to enjoy it if possible.

I think the attitude as I said in  a previous blog makes such a huge difference. The other thing That I did was to read a little and use my trains a little and I finished the weekend feeling content and relaxed. You can't beat a balanced approach.

What brings you life........ can you balance those things out with the chores you have to do?

Good as it maybe ......NO!

I had a list of things to get done today. Most of them were OK things that I did not mind doing. It was going to be a good day. Then I was given an opportunity of another good option to go a great movie! It would have been a great thing to do. However it would mean putting off the things I was doing now and needed to get done. For instance writing this blog for you. I had already prioritised the things I needed to do over other activities before this movie offer.

So here I am, with a number of possibilities

1.  I can go to the movies and not worry about it put off the list things.
2. I can finish the things I needed to get done and not go to the movies.
3. I can finish the things I needed to get done and go to the movies at a later time.
4. I can just prioritise the list and worry about other things another time.

My first choice in the end was Choice #4 because it catered for the need I knew I had to get this stuff done.

 I may end up with Choice #3 later in the week it still is an option
.
Sometimes we have to say NO to good things, even fun things because in the end it will cause more stress than they are worth. I would probably not really enjoy the movie as I should because I know I should being doing my list. When the movie is over I will still have the list to do but with time pressure, because I am 3+ hours behind.Most of the time when I am saying no to good things it is not allowing procrastination to take hold. I am a natural procrastinator, so it is time to engage the brain.
A simple "big person" decision. Just because it is good and fun doesn't always make it the best option.

Hey I will go to the movie Next week!

Are you a procrastinator?