Just do it
Remember Nike’s famous ad? It tapped right into America’s Puritan work ethic. We seem to love to make stuff happen. To power through.
At least I sure do. I’ve got more going on than most people I know, and when I set my mind on a goal (or more often, goals), I’m driven to make it (them) happen.
The problem is, the “just do it” mindset can make it very hard for me to let go and just be.
I’m still coming off of last week’s “work fugue” (deadlines up the wazoo, culminating in my parents’ 50th anniversary celebration over the weekend), and the compulsion is strong to get back on track with all of my goals that had to be set aside while I fought more urgent “fires.” Plus I leave on Saturday for a week making music in the woods, so there’s no time to dilly-dally.
Now there are all sorts of Puritan work ethic voices rattling around in my head:
“If you want your blog to be taken seriously, you must post consistently, on the same days every week.” (Ack! I must be a total failure!)
“You really need to be writing (and posting) every day.” (Ack! Again I’m a total failure!)
“When you have a goal, you must put it first at all times, and even let everything else slide in order to accomplish it.” (Loser! Loser! Loser!)
Because last night I did not put my big goals first. I’d been invited out to dinner, and instead of following my usual Stay-Up-Late-and-Power-Through M.O, I decided to go.
Not such a big deal, right? Except that I’d made a commitment to myself to publish a blog post, and I’d also made a commitment to myself to get to sleep by midnight. Dinner out would make it impossible to achieve both of these goals; I’d have to pick one: either get to sleep by midnight, or write a blog post.
Oh, how I tortured myself!
“A serious blogger would skip dinner and just write.”
“How can you be out enjoying yourself when you have so much to do?”
“You don’t deserve this R&R until you’ve accomplished more!”
Oh, for God’s sake!
It took the entire first half of dinner for me to let myself relax and enjoy myself. (Some good red wine seriously helped!)
The overarching goal: happiness
It also helped to remind myself that, regardless of my current goals, commitments and deadlines, happiness is my overarching goal.
And part of happiness is taking time to enjoy life, just because, even if that doesn’t help me meet my current deadlines.
Yes, I have a ton of things I’m trying to accomplish, and I’m okay with working hard (for awhile) to make that happen. But it’s important to remember that working hard and burning the midnight oil is not the ultimate goal, just the means to an end.
Don’t I want to have time to relax and just enjoy? It seems like I’ve almost forgotten what that feels like!
Maybe tipping my toe into that pool every so often isn’t such a bad idea. Maybe I do deserve to have some fun, relaxation time, even when I’m powering toward my big goals. Maybe it won’t actually mean total disaster to take a little time for me.
I sound like a psycho workaholic, don’t I? Clearly it’s time to reset the foundation. Thank goodness I’ll be in the woods all next week, away from work, away from my regular routine. Even away from internet and phone.
Ha! No powering-through for me!
Except that instead of lying around reading for a week, I’ll be fully immersed in music classes. Powering through again, just in a different part of my life.
Huh. I even wrote about the importance of not always powering through just a week ago.
Apparently, I’m incurable.
Melissa, I’m glad you’re focusing on happiness rather than meeting a strict blog schedule. I try to do the same thing. Yes, I have goals, but the main one is to live a full and happy life.
Have fun making music next week…
Thanks John! Of course the ongoing challenge is to figure out exactly what will lead to a full and happy life, what with Blisses constantly evolving an all. 🙂
All part of the journey.
Yes, that truly is the challenge — a life-long challenge.
Indeed! I fully expect managing my evolving Blisses to keep me engaged for the rest of my life.
I’ve always considered “Just Do It” to be a slogan for athletes and Marines. Or as we used to say in the Army: “Do, then talk about it.”
What you describe brings to mind a one-time motivational icon (you’re much too young to have known him), W. Clement Stone, and his motto: “Do It Now, Do It Now, Do It Now.” At one time that was helpful advice. Today, with intrusions fueled primarily by electronic devices and rampant specialization (fueled by over-population?) in the workplace, that’s the one that’s hard to live by.
I’m slowly coming to the realization that, if ones activities can be made to serve the larger happiness objective (what I believe you call Bliss), they lose their “task” quality. They, in and by themselves, become part of the happiness. So if the things I am doing seem like chores, I try to take a hard look at them. Are they serving my larger goal of self-satisfaction? If not, they may not be necessary to do at all. I still may not be able to “do it now” in every instance, but the paring-down gets me closer to Stone’s goal.
Keep learning.
PS: I’ve shared the web address of your blog with several friends who I think can relate to your journey as well.
Your comments are always perceptive and thought-provoking, Jim! Stone’s motto is definitely hard to live by these days, and perhaps counter-productive for some of us, when taken too far…
You’re absolutely right about the “task” quality going away when the activity serves the larger happiness objective. When you do the thing you love you’ll never work a day in your life, right? Sometimes, of course, we have to do things we don’t love so much, because although it may not be so fun in the moment, it will serve the larger happiness objective in the long run.
It’s useful to look at everything we do and assess it from that perspective. Is it serving my larger happiness objective? If not now, is it helping me get where I want to go? And if no to question #2, why am I doing it?
Keep learning indeed. And thank goodness! Otherwise how boring would life be?
Thanks for sharing my blog with your friends! I appreciate the vote of confidence! Means a lot. 🙂
Melissa