What do you want to be when you grow up?
Thoughts on resetting
Do you ever feel like you want to start over? And then you take stock and realise that you want all the good stuff you’ve already got but you’d like life to be different.
So you’re not starting again from scratch.
But you are resetting.
I am 44 and in one sense I feel I’m too late. I should have made different decisions. And on the other hand, I’m only 20 years into my working life. I’ve got another 20 years to go so I’m at the halfway mark, and hopefully I’ve got another 20 years to play with after that. It’s not too late.
I enjoy my work, I have a lovely family, and I live in a great place. I don’t want to change any of that.
But I do want to travel, read more, do another OU degree, explore new opportunities with my business.
I’d like to write a book.
I’d like to get fit again.
I’d like to get to know more people.
So I guess the question isn’t, ‘what am I going to do when I’m grown up?’ It’s: ‘how do I create the life I want?’
A friend sent me a link to a productivity planner they were testing last week. I signed up and it asked what my 10 year plan was and for my ‘eulogy’. You’ll know from my last post that that isn’t a great term for me to think about right now. And also, ‘I DON’T KNOW!’ I don’t. I don’t have a 5 year plan, let alone a 10 year plan.
Whenever I’ve made a plan over the last 10 years something has happened that’s thrown it off course.
But I’ve also realised I know more now than I did then. I’m not starting from scratch.
Goals and me don’t get on. But that’s not always been true. Before becoming a parent and a carer I was good at making things happen that I wanted.
I’ve got my work, travel, health, and life wishlist: how am I going to make it happen?
Serendipitously, this article on productivity tips was published in The Guardian this week. It was so good, I wrote my favourites down in my notebook.
I already knew and have tested some of the methods but some ideas were new to me and very simple.
No zero days – do something every day that moves you towards your goals.
Have a ‘first things’ list – this is about making my task list much more intentional. Instead of ‘create this’ or ‘sort out this’ I write down the first step to getting that done. Then tick it off. No zero days. I’m making progress.
If you don’t…. then you… – have a plan B for when you don’t take an action. I’ve been on my Plan B with Duolingo for a few months now. I play its word matching game instead of doing lessons. I need to go back to the lessons but the second option has meant I didn’t give up on learning French completely.
Start it now, fix it later – it doesn’t have to be perfect. Write something. I can edit it later.
Pomodoros – this is something I do for a while, and then I forget but spending 25 minutes on 4 tasks a day is 2 hours moving towards my goal. That could be:
doing some stretches or a lunchtime walk
writing
researching how to do something
working through a course
decluttering (sorting my house out is one of my current goals)
Kettle tasks – something quick you can do while waiting for the kettle to boil.
So the next 20 or 40 years start now. Whether I want them to or not. They’re going to happen. The question is, how much control do I have over them?
I don’t have a 5 year plan but I’m making a 90 day one, followed by a first things list, and a promise to myself of no zero days.
What do you do to keep you moving forward? Do you have non-negotiable tasks or activities in your life? Or do you take life as it comes?
I too struggle with the 5/10 year plan but do know what I want to do this year. Love these tips. I do a 2 minute today while waiting for my poached egg to cook each morning and generally manage to empty the whole dishwasher and draining board in those minutes which always feels like a productive start to the day!!
That is a good start to the day! I like the idea of making use of pockets of time.
The passing of time is so anxiety inducing. For me, it gives me a false impression that I want the option to be able to live a hundred lives in one. In reality, given the opportunity to make different choices, I bet I’d default back to a life similar to the one I have.