“To-do” lists. I don’t know about you, but I love them! Planning, for me, is almost as much fun as actually “doing.” But if you’re anything like me, maybe you get a little over-ambitious sometimes? Are there items on your to-do list (or your goals) that have been there for weeks, a month, or more, that you haven’t taken any action on? Chances are, every time you think about these items, or look at them on your list, you feel a little pang – maybe it’s guilt, dread, or anxiety, maybe it’s even a physical sensation of heaviness or fatigue in your body. Major energy drain!
I recently spent some time with my friend Erek Ostrowski of Verve Coaching, and he introduced me to a great way to stop this common energy drain. Essentially, the items, plans, or goals in question are things we are not doing. So what we can do is take them off our to-do list, and move them to our “not-doing” list. This doesn’t mean we’ll never do them. It doesn’t in any way limit our opportunity to revisit these tasks whenever we decide the time is right. It just means we are consciously choosing not to do them right now, and we choose to be OK with it. This was really helpful for me! My busy little brain creates tasks way faster than I can actually accomplish them. I really appreciated this insight from Erek, which went hand-in-hand with the realization I had after the ambassador summit about having too many goals.
The first thing I put on my not-doing list: taking a digital photography class. True, I only know how to use my “wicked fancy” camera to about 10% of its capabilities. I’m just gonna be OK with that for now! What tasks or goals have you been putting off? How good would it feel to be able to move them off your to-do list?
photo by little blue hen
No comments:
Post a Comment