Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Tree’s up! So… I was talking to a friend of mine this week, and another mutual friend’s name came up and I said something along the lines of, “man, that guy always seems to have a thousand things going on and never just has any time to sit back and relax”… there was a slight pause, and I answered my own statement with, “I guess that could be said about me, too – eh?”… it’s funny, because I’d rather not have all the anxiety that comes with packing thirty hours of stuff into every twenty-four hour day, but yet I can’t remember any time recently where I didn’t set my life up this way. I get brief respites – vacations, the annual trip to Florida, etc – but even then I still have to work on an almost daily basis, and in Florida I had to get a book written in three weeks as well, so… there were demands on my time. We all have demands on our time. We all have limited time. How can we use the limited time we have as efficiently as possible? It has something to do with our decision making process, and what we want to attract and/or repel. And it’s really tricky. We all have things we want, or opportunities that arise that we want to say yes to. Saying yes to everything, even if it’s all stuff we’d like to do, can create undo anxiety. I have a tendency to be obsessive/compulsive – so when I get into something, I’m usually all in. Read a book I like, get every book by that author and read them all. For years on the road with bands I got t-shirts from almost every club and/or local band we encountered – at one point I think I had 800 t-shirts. I don’t like to get rid of anything, so I still have hundreds of them, mostly XL. I haven’t worn an XL t-shirt in years. I have a fairly large baseball and football card collections (full sets) collecting dust that I haven’t looked at in years as well. So – as I look at this holiday season and beyond, we’re in a state of pandemonium here. A huge home remodel that starts in earnest next year. Two trips to Puerto Vallarta for me – both in March. Busiest December we’ve ever had at work. New goals musically for next year (solo bass recording, fusion band recording, acoustic guitar and vocal open mic that I described last week – all take time and effort). There’s quite a bit more than that going on here, but you get the drift. I’m looking at this remodel as a time to really look at some things I’ve been holding on to and consider moving on without them. Clearing out some clutter, only keeping things that bring me joy. That I use. Simplifying a little. Give a few things away, sell what I can, just find homes for the things that no longer serve me, and try to make sure that the things I’m spending time with are things that as much as possible bring joy to my life. I still use the Derek Sivers “Hell Yeah, or no” test when making decisions. Often. Should I keep my XL t-shirts and sports card collections I haven’t looked at in years? Probably not going to resonate as a “hell yeah”. Even when I’m finishing up reshuffling the deck on my musical gear, I need to make sure the things I keep are those that will get used, that make me want to play them. A few more moves to make there as well. And going forward… we see stuff, we want it. Opportunities arise, we want to do them. But packing every second with an hour of responsibilities doesn’t usually bring us much peace. Maybe having less, doing less, and making sure that the things we do, and have, bring us joy can help those of us who are a bit obsessive to relax into a bit more peace, and in so doing make sure our limited moments on the planet are used wisely.
