Punctuation?!
I am noticing that I often lead my life like it is a run on sentence. No punctuation.
No beginning, no clear end point, and no time to take a breath.
In asking why I love my life so much, I continue to find habits that need tweaking. Adding punctuation adds a lot more ease and focus. Adding punctuation may move me to the top 1% of achievers also.
This insight was clarified for me by a discussion with John, my martial arts instructor. He told the young people he works with that most people never get started on anything, but of those who do get started, 90%+ fail to complete what they start. They get most of the way and quit. John pointed out how that he is assessing who they are just by the way they paint their figurines. He notices if some are painted and some not, if some are half painted, the attention to detail. This tells him which of his young mentees will make an impression in the world.
I thought this is a lot like completing a sentence with the punctuation. It is not that I don't finish my projects as many do get finished, though not all. Instead I allow things to run on and on without boundaries, without clear starting and stopping points.
Take work for example. I have a fantasy of building my business. I have done the research phase enough to make a plan but I keep on amassing input til I am overwhelmed. Then I don't think I have done enough in the day so "work" slides on over into after hours. I can have the illusion of working hard as I put in lots of hours but the quality of my output is poor. I have little to show, I am not rested, my loved ones don't get my full attention.
So today I am getting out my timer and my "easy button". It has worked very well for my sit still do nothing time. 45 minutes to finish clearing my work space. Then I get to hit my button that says, "That was easy"!
My timer is set. Ready.....Begin....
No beginning, no clear end point, and no time to take a breath.
In asking why I love my life so much, I continue to find habits that need tweaking. Adding punctuation adds a lot more ease and focus. Adding punctuation may move me to the top 1% of achievers also.
This insight was clarified for me by a discussion with John, my martial arts instructor. He told the young people he works with that most people never get started on anything, but of those who do get started, 90%+ fail to complete what they start. They get most of the way and quit. John pointed out how that he is assessing who they are just by the way they paint their figurines. He notices if some are painted and some not, if some are half painted, the attention to detail. This tells him which of his young mentees will make an impression in the world.
I thought this is a lot like completing a sentence with the punctuation. It is not that I don't finish my projects as many do get finished, though not all. Instead I allow things to run on and on without boundaries, without clear starting and stopping points.
Take work for example. I have a fantasy of building my business. I have done the research phase enough to make a plan but I keep on amassing input til I am overwhelmed. Then I don't think I have done enough in the day so "work" slides on over into after hours. I can have the illusion of working hard as I put in lots of hours but the quality of my output is poor. I have little to show, I am not rested, my loved ones don't get my full attention.
So today I am getting out my timer and my "easy button". It has worked very well for my sit still do nothing time. 45 minutes to finish clearing my work space. Then I get to hit my button that says, "That was easy"!
My timer is set. Ready.....Begin....
posted by Patricia @ 8:44 AM
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