I’m happy to say I often find my day full of activities. Whether it is coaching clients, facilitating a job hunt support group, going to a networking meeting, doing business for the coaching association, or my own personal errands it is rare that I find myself saying I have nothing to do. There are many times with these various activities I get them “mixed up” in my mind. For example, I’ll get up in the morning preparing for the networking meeting, and I’m thinking about the work I need to do for the coaching chapter. Or, I’ll be preparing for one client, and I’m thinking about the preparation work I know I have chosen to do to prepare for another. When this happens I find myself getting tense, frustrated, my energy draining from me. And, though I know better, I have again fallen into the trap of not living in the moment and focusing on the items I have chosen to focus on that day.
There is a sports apparel manufacturer who has a slogan of “just do it”. While I think they’re advertisements are a bit over the top and I’m not always a fan of their products and what they stand for, the three word slogan does make sense to me when I have that sense of overwhelm come across me. I’m actually a good planner. I keep an electronic calendar with my appointments. I’ll review it at the start of each week so as to recall what I have coming up, and what my time availability is for the up coming week if changes are required to be made. (Often time changes are required, because frankly things happen in life, for both me and those I interact). It is also rare that I don’t get done something to which I have committed or scheduled because I know the actual completing of the task will usually benefit others as well as me.
Why do I torture myself so with all of these thoughts running through my mind at once? Why do I fall into a trap that my training and life experience has taught me a person can never win? I know some of it is to do everything I can as well as I can. I know also I have not shaken the mindset that I’m being judged on how well I do the things to which I commit. Another part of me knows I am a product of that “multi-tasking” mindset that one has to be doing multiple things at once to get done all they have on their schedule, less they “fall behind” in what they want to accomplish or worse yet be deemed “unproductive”.
However, the path to happiness and truly enjoying what you are doing comes down to several other realities. As humans, we do our best when we devote our attention fully to one activity at a time. We also do our best when we look to do something for the process of doing it, enjoying it, as opposed to being judged on the results. Often we are our own worse self critics in terms of what we have done and our estimation of the quality of what we achieved. And, while there will be those who may judge harshly the results of our efforts, there is even a wider population that appreciates we have taken the effort, particularly if they have received some benefit from what we have taken the initiative to do.
I know the “critic in my head” is something with which I continue to struggle. However, I’m determined to work on that “voice”, because I truly want to enjoy the activities that I do for the pure joy of doing them. What about you? Have you been too hard on yourself? Are you your own worse critic? If you know what it is that you have chosen to do for that day, that period of hours, etc., “just do it” and enjoy the experience of what that activity brings to you.
