CFC Blog #104: Contemplations on Over-Scheduling
Pip's piece reminds me of Rob's piece in November called "Chose Your Own Adventure" - it's always been funny to me how humans can find joy in both keeping with a routine as well as breaking it. Pip - your nuggets of wisdom here are especially thought-provoking as I think about my New Year's resolutions for 2019...I wonder what set beliefs I should consider challenging and what could ensue as a result...
- Lauren
CONTEMPLATIONS ON OVER-SCHEDULING
“Life is what happens when we are busy making plans…”
This morning (December 22) I sketched out what I want to accomplish before 1 pm today when my son Eamon and I will drive from Georgetown to Pleasantville to join in on the Christmas joy back home.
I apportioned all my 6 and a half hours of time for the morning quite carefully. There is so much I want to accomplish. So I penciled out a very specific plan… and…
…It all fit!!!
Perfectly… snuggly…
Whoo hoooo!
…and then I…
…well…
remembered juuuust one more thing I really want to do… and so I squeezed it in the time budget with juuuust a minor tweak… and all was still good again…
…phewww…
…the plan would work…
…I even outlined specifically where I would do these 10-11 items between the hotel, gym, Pete’s coffee shop… I can indeed be great at planning when I set my mind to it…
I completed my meditation and stretching (pigeon)… I did 75 push-ups…
…on my way…
…and I joyously headed down to breakfast where I could journal, read and reflect knowing it all would work out time wise. I would be off to the gym at about 8 am…
As I write now it is 9:14 am… I am still at breakfast… having the time of my life…
My time budget is severely breaking down but my life seems to be opening up…
Hah!!!
A funny thing happened…
During reflection and journaling, I wonderfully and somewhat unexpectedly dropped deep into fresh energizing insights and had so much fun that I lost track of time…
I let go of my smart, well-calculated plan…
I have been thinking all week about what the “conditions of possibility” (idea: Xiaochang Li) are for me to make differences in the world and I have made some of the usual lists you might expect in the usual categories such as food, exercise, sleep and so on… I am doing all this with a far higher excitement than maybe EVER but I am still somewhat operating in the typical categories.
I have also thought of Jullien Gordon’s notion that for humans to successfully change, an act must first occur to change one’s core belief…
IF a change in a core belief happens the "action change" follows naturally and consistently. Without the core belief change, our “action change” will fail as predictably as 90% of any New Year’s resolution
SO I have been thinking a layer deeper about recognizing fresh core beliefs that are sinking in, with a nod to my blown-up time schedule this morning and an appreciation for my life, simultaneously opening up even more.
Key core belief candidates for me:
+ I benefit from having space to “make life up” each day a good bit more than I do.
+ I generate more insights when I have space/time that isn’t constrained.
+ I may be over-scheduled, but I am not over-used! I may subconsciously be mistaking that I can make the biggest difference through my volume of action, but this may also be curtailing my growth from which I can make more powerful differences more and more.
+ If I actively avoid being over-scheduled, my life may open for me making a bigger difference and I may become joyously over-used!
So this morning I took the first step…
During breakfast, I went up to my room, grabbed my laptop and I came back down to breakfast and wrote this draft… and I ignored my self-imposed plan for something that sure seems even better.
I let go of my schedule.
The action flowed from a belief change.
And I noticed a quote on the windows just in front of me as I look out on to Wisconsin Avenue.
“We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it…”… Lauryn Hill
It certainly seems to fit.