I had a plan yesterday. Coming off of several weeks of disruption to my schedule and routine, my plan was to refocus my energy, get organized, prepare for the weeks of challenges and opportunities ahead of me. This plan also involved my daughter. After considerable progress, it was an opportunity to work with her to do the same thing, get caught up and prepared for the weeks ahead. We’ve both made progress with our various endeavors but now it is time to try and “stick the landing”, a new favorite phrase of mine.
Then life happened. I am not really sure where the day went off the rails. My daughter got caught on a single assignment, rather than prioritizing her time. As I criticized her, I fell victim to the same thing. It felt like being caught in the mud, tires spinning, but moving nowhere until reaching the point where you feel like you don’t have an option other than turning off the engine and just staying put. Or in my case, finishing season five of Madam Secretary and strolling needlessly around the web.
Sometimes when you have too much on your plate, you finish nothing.
With cruel irony, today we are rewarded with one less hour in the day. Spring forward “they” say with excitement, but with less running room to actually stick the landing. Sidebar: I really want to meet “they” someday because “they” seem “know” everything (note the sarcasm). But I wasted more than one hour yesterday allowing myself to get caught up in what wasn’t done, rather than invest in what I could do. So, the loss of an hour today? Inconsequential, provided I make the best use of the twenty-three hours I do have.
I am learning through my daughter’s challenges.
My daughter started to spin her wheels on one class, one assignment, one section of it that in all honestly, could have been completed in minutes and didn’t require the level of focus and attention that she was giving to it. It weighed her down and cost her progress from an overarching perspective. Today, we shook off yesterday’s lack of productivity and started with a plan – a broader look at the weeks ahead, a plan of attack on what is most important to get accomplished today, and an acceptance that we won’t check everything off of her list, but we will make meaningful progress. Celebrate that.
Ditto.
As I am finishing this post and moving forward to the next project, I am sitting with my daughter who is finishing up an assignment, as we get ready to read Siddhartha next. We may even go shopping later this afternoon for a suit, for her (yes, a SUIT) because she wants to look professional during career day this week – be still my beating heart! We are watching as my wife completes her workout. Well, we are actually listening as she swears at the instructor on the video, which is quite amusing! (Sorry Karen). We are making progress, together, and I am really not sure who is helping whom.
It takes a village.
It took my wife and I working with our daughter to get her back on track. It took my daughter helping me to understand how I needed to get back on track. All of us allowing us the time to process getting stuck in the mud, but not letting that stop our progress was critical. Focusing not on the hours lost yesterday, or the hour lost today, but instead on the ability to make the most of the hours in front of us. With that in mind, it’s time to move forward to the next project!
(you can follow me @rhoniball or connect with me at www.honiball.me)
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