Intentionality #focus

#Leadercast yesterday was an overdue wake-up call. Earlier this year I said I needed to be intentional, and then since then, I have been anything but.

I have done that which I did not want to do and I have not done that which I wanted to do.

I have absolutely and totally failed to be intentional.  (I failed to focus.)

It isn't that life is always up, up, up, but if it's less up than down, then I'm headed in the wrong direction.

I'm headed in the wrong direction.

It's time to change that.

I can't snap my fingers and change that, but I need to figure out how to get those regular doses of that which redirects me back up.

Lots swirling around in my head right now. I think there's probably going to be some posts on the idea of fear, passion, opportunity, stuff like that, as well as a one on Leadercast itself and what I got from it.

Here I am today. Is it where I want to be? Some yes, some no. I should look into my reasons (ahem, excuses) at some point, I suppose.

It's time to change that.

In a day....

Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was it destroyed in a day.

Same with my clutter. I spent some good time yesterday dealing with some clutter. I pulled a bunch of stuff from the bedroom to the dining room table and then went through it as best I could. There was stuff to recycle, donate, trash and keep. But, I wasn't able to completely sort - it was just overwhelming.

But, it was a good effort, chipping away. What I took back upstairs to the bedroom was much less than I took down. I have a plan of attack:

(1) Regularly revisit the remainder, continuing to chip away.
(2) Aggressively prevent new clutter from making it into the bedroom.

This feels good, this feels right, this feels like progress.

Looking ahead...

I don't think "simplify" was entirely successful. I didn't apply it regularly and it was a little vague.

A new year was time for a new approach anyhow. So I've struggled about how to approach this. My typical M.O. was to start making a list. It was starting to become a complicated list. And that's absolutely the wrong approach. So I threw it out and made it a much smaller list.

If I want serenity, simplicity, serendipity, I need focus.

2014 = focus.

What Just Happened?

So close to the end of the year, it was a busy, busy year. It was, wasn't it? That's what I always tell myself - that I'm busy. I feel like there's always more to do go. At one point I complained to Lori that there was something important to me (painting the fake trim in Ben's room) that I was never able to get to. She pointed out that I had some time off in December and why didn't I just plan to do it then. Brilliant advice, I was able to put it off my list and schedule it. That's a great "Getting Things Done" tactic. I was able to remove it from my mind because I was confident I knew where to find it if I needed it.

A lot happened, but what? Was it the right stuff? If I think back about the year, the following themes immediately come to mind. But they come to mind just because they come to mind right now. Not because they were strategic by any stretch of the imagination. Does it need to be strategic? Or can I just live in the moment? If I try to plan things out and have an agenda or goals, am I ruining the serendipity of life? I don't think so. If I want to be able to take stock of my life, I guess I need to know whether I got to what I wanted to or not in the past year.

• Family / Autism
• Health / Diet & Exercise
• "simplify" / Project Haven / clutter / Digital
• Home / Home Improvement
• Finances
• Work / Leadership / Career

So.. what's wrong with this list? What's missing? "Family" is probably too generic and everything is chore-related. Where's "fun"? Where's "adventure"? Where's church/Christianity/faith? My life is not without fun, entertainment, intellectual exploration. But if it didn't come to mind, does that mean there's an issue? I don't need to structure or plan my fun, but I might need to be intentional about making sure there's margin for fun to occur on its own, or if life remains crazy, some scheduled outings which at least plants a flag on the calendar that says "On this date, we will travel by car to x and remain there for y hours." which at least says "You will not be able to complete 24 chores today so plan ahead."

So balance is needed. I need to understand what the main things are and then make the main things the main things. I need to understand priority so investments are in the right places. Some of those are things to specifically target but other things are just things to keep in mind and make sure I'm addressing regularly so that when we get to the end of the year I can say "Yes, I am satisfied that I focused on the right things."