Keep Calm, and Mind Your Own Business

Two Hours. That was all I had.

This was the result of my calculating how many non-scheduled hours I had on any given weekday, to do everything that I wanted to do. 

What about the other twenty-two hours?  Well, they consisted of the five activities we all do as part of basic life: 

(Eating, sleeping, travelling, running errands & maintaining my personal hygiene) and also my job. Stopping work after ten hours plus the 12 hours for basic activities left me a couple of hours for everything else. 

Naturally, this was an extremely unsatisfactory situation. 

I needed guidance, some answers. So, like so many of us, I tried drawing water from the well of the self-help gurus.  The result was that I developed an intense focus on using time efficiently and then setting personal goals for myself.

The idea was pretty straight forward.  Your company makes you set goals every year, for you to help the company reach their objectives.  What about your objectives in life? 

Shouldn't we have an even more important list of personal goals that we use drive us?  In a year, what percentage of time do we spend seeking the interest of an organization vs seeking to advance our own interests?  Your answers should provide some insight about what have become your priorities in life.

So I was a bit obsessed with this idea, when I dropped by my big sister's house for her birthday.  Naturally, the conversation turned to my quest of personal goal setting.

Big sis started to probe: "Why should I set goals?"

"If I'm Brian Lara, and my goal is to break the world record, and at age 25 I achieve that... is it now ok for me to sit and scratch my ass? What more is there for me to do?", she asked.  "What if I'm happy with the way life is, and have the same goals every year, does that count?"

At that point in my life my philosophy was, when in doubt, counter with a cool quote!  "No wind will serve a mariner who addresses his voyage to no certain port!" was the best I could come up with. 

She feinted, and countered quickly, "What if you just like to sail?"  I had to agree, in that case any wind is a good wind.

"I don't have anything against setting goals" she continued, "I don't want to do it just because it's something you should do."  Hmm.  I realized that she had a valid point there. 

We both agreed that if there is a life situation that you want to change, that change would most likely occur in a series of steps. After all, the situation itself developed as a series of steps, not overnight.  There is no need to weigh ourselves down with an over aggressive expectation of the changes we want for ourselves.

It doesn't really matter if we want to sail in the Olympic games or if we just like sailing.  What matters is what works for us.  Is the activity impacting our experience of this life in a positive way.  

It's our time, we can never get it back, so shouldn't we aim to devote as much as we can to activities that bring some real value to our existence?

When we are facing the end and looking back on our life, I can pretty much guarantee that this is one thought that most of us will NOT have:

"Man.  I wish I had really spent more hours at work."