My thought for the day 2 (April 19th) is about the unrelenting passing of time
I don’t write these every day but as I woke up this morning my pressing thought for the day was about time passing.
As we get older this is not an unusual recognition, how time seems endless when we are young but flies by as we age. However, with the sun rising earlier every day was reminded that we are already well passed the mid-point of April and I have missed a deadline for publishing a series of Job Search Techniques workshops.
It is not that these are not important to me, they are – mostly because I absolutely know they will help a lot of people. More about these in a different post though.
Rather than beating myself up I started to examine why my focus has not been consistent. There are many different excuses I could use: these will be great for everyone but are not absolutely necessary right now; I need to focus primarily on other commitments that are time bound and earning an immediate income, etc.
However, when I delve deeper there are other reasons why I have let things slip.
Procrastination
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- This is a personal goal so does not have an externally driven sense of urgency. So I am letting no one down (as I haven’t yet spoken about them to you!!) except for myself.
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- The two outstanding workshops need a little more research to check the factual information so require a little more effort (excuses, excuses …).
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- I am not as excited about recording the sessions as I would be running them. I am passionate about the topics, but much prefer a live audience.
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- I love running workshops but really hate the sound of my own voice when it is recorded so I always shy away from it.
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- I keep getting distracted by other exciting and shiny ideas that could help people – any reason to procrastinate.
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- My excitement has gone off the boil a little which slows me down. I am essentially a ‘stick’ person when I am in procrastination mode.
The carrot and the stick
The origin of the carrot and stick story is not definitively known but I have always understood it to describe how donkeys were urged to keep walking forward by dangling a carrot in front of them, and if they still didn’t move to prod them with a stick.
Carrot People: if you are a carrot person you can visualise your goals and keep them front and centre of your thoughts, so you are constantly working towards them.
Stick People: Being a ‘stick’ person will often denote someone who works best from a fear of the consequences (in our case it is not usually a physical poke, but something more emotion like guilt, or in the work environment disappointing, or being disciplined by, the boss).
Personally, I am a bit of both. I can get very excited by ideas and motivated by the desire to develop them. However, if I don’t actively keep hold of the ‘vision’ a longer-term goal can lose its intensity and I will start to operate more from the stick (which in my case is a very nagging internal critique).
If I listen to this critique I am often tricked into taking action without preparation or prioritisation, and end up not achieving the result I wanted. That is why I always advocate stopping, breathing and considering what I really want to accomplish today. I love the life hack ‘7 ways to make the most of your time’
Inner Voice or Intuition
When I wake with a singular focus I tend to treat is as an intuitive nudge. Telling me that whatever I am thinking about really deserves some attention. If I pay no attention my inner voice will join the chorus and start to nag until I either push it out the way – often with something more exciting – or dig in a get it done.
I think this is an important message for many people who are thinking about changing their career, or their lives in general. If you are wanting to make changes to your work or how you live day to day, to bring in more of whatever is important to you; may be job satisfaction, financial prospects, fulfilment or joy etc.
Don’t expect it to be a short or consistently exciting journey. The greater the transition or transformation you are looking at, the more temptation there is to lose focus and get distracted.
Seeing as most of my clients are what we would commonly term ‘middle-aged’ (really what an awful label!) I know that the vast majority of those of you reading this article will already experienced the feeling of time running through your fingers.
Start as you mean to go on
If you are serious about making changes to your situation (life or work) make sure you get a good visual first. One that excites, engages, and compels you to keep moving forward. Otherwise, the danger is that whilst you will start your journey it could suffer from a lot of stop/start which will bring frustration and doubt.
Give yourself the gift of starting off right:
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- Work on creating a wonderful picture of how you want things to change.
- Examine and challenge your limiting beliefs (see Mindset Matters)
- Share your vision with others.
- Ask for support if needed.
- Wherever you feel your confidence dipping, ask yourself what you need to build your resilience and keep going. The article Travelling Through Uncertainty might help).
- Break your transition down into bite sized steps.
- Prioritise your efforts.
- Make your goals time bound so you remember to keep going.
- Track your progress.
- Keep refining and reinforcing your dream.
Then take action – the first step is always the hardest.