I think we (or at least I) want life to be like the montage in an 80's movie. You know, the montage: the makeover/cram session/ vigorous workout - all set to a catchy beat - complete with quick cuts, and shots of our hero(ine)s being goofy. And then, the final result - a mere 2.5 minutes later - serious wow factor/passing the test/ some athletic feat.
A friend recently returned to working out after taking a few years off. She described herself after her first workout: she checked herself out in a mirror, looking for results.
And that's just it - we want nearly instant gratification, some teeny hint or indication that we have moved ourselves in the desired direction.
As much as I am a planner, I feel like my long term vision has diminished. Until recently, I committed myself to multi-year projects (like, oh say ... law school.) But now, I feel like I can't think more than 1-3 months into the future.
On second thought, maybe I'm selling myself short: a semester is about 3 months. Maybe long(er) term vision is just about slicing and dicing things into 1-3 month pieces. Had I thought of law school (or university ... or doing a marathon) as the whole big picture the entire time, I probably wouldn't have finished.
I suppose this is the next chapter in my Inner Macy series: patience. Breaking up big, intimidating goals and ideas into things that can be handled one month, one day, one action at a time.
Photo from sonico's flickr.
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3 comments:
Boy, can I ever relate to the sentiments you've expressed here!
i'm telling you, girl -- at the risk of sounding like a cult devotte, you should check out getting things done by david allen.
he talks a lot about breaking big projects into the next actionable item -- but also reviewing goals at different levels.
...end commercial...
meghan: I own "GTD", and it is inspiring ... but it just doesn't work for me. It's, if anything, TOO much. Too much breaking it down, too much to keep track of - I think some scaled down version would work, but perfectionist that I am, I haven't really tried that.
roonie: Sometimes, I'm not sure if I'm writing for myself or my (theoretical)audience.
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