Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Daring... and Winning?

Recently, I've been rereading Bob Mayer's absolutely fabulous book, Who Dares Wins: The Green Beret Way to Conquer Fear and Succeed. If you don't already own this book, do yourself a favor and get your hands on a copy!

Right now, I'm focusing on the goal section of Mayer's book. It gives the common sense (but newsflash for me) advice that we have to set up our goals in conjunction with one another. If you're not looking at the total picture, you may create conflicts. In short, you're setting yourself up to fail.

So... my efforts to work my day job 60 hours a week, write 5 pages a day, exercise regularly, feed my husband gourmet meals each night, and engage fully with my family and friends on a regular basis?

Yeah, not so much.

I've been sabotaging myself. I knowingly overload myself and then wallow in the guilt when I can't accomplish everything. It's no good. I need to change! I want to be able to enjoy my life... savoring moments, not hanging on by one stray fingernail! I also want to put my dreams (including writing) first, instead of saving them for a later that never comes. (Why is it we spend so much of our time on "have tos" instead of "want tos"?)

I'm looking forward to setting more reasonable goals, via Mayer's methods. I'll be sharing those in a later post (or perhaps in the comments section of this one).

But if you have something that works for you, or you'd like to share your own goal/to-do list, please don't hesitate to share! I'd love to have some company on the road to a more balanced life.

1 comment:

Anna Richland said...

I'm in a bit of a rut myself so I appreciate your post. I call it looking at the 50 meter target, the thing that is about to bite you, instead of seeing the 300 meter target that's lurking in the back. We just had the annual Emerald City Writers' Conference, my personal 50-meter target, and everything about my writing went on hold for way too long. All those pesky family-kids-house things piled up at 150 meters, and my book is STILL sitting out at 300. I have to move on it but it's having a hard time overtaking everything else.