What’s at the root of that growing to-do list?
I’ve been updating my annual plan. It’s something that I look at every Monday, as a refresher for what my goals are for the week. Then, every quarter I tackle it with more gusto. Fine tuning plans, challenging prior assumptions and dreaming about the future. I’m always amazed by what I can accomplish when I have a detailed, strategic plan. My goals seem more attainable, the direction is clear and execution just seems to work its’ way out. However, this time around, I was experiencing a different sentiment. How can it be that there is always so much to do? The to-do list is growing, like rabbits in heat. And yet I’m always busy and taking things off the list. Why am I not making any progress? When I left the corporate world, I was in a state of frustration and overwhelm most of the time. One of the reasons? The growing to-do list. I couldn’t feel successful because I wasn’t getting ahead. Now… I’m beginning to feel this way again. WTF. How can this be? I changed my career entirely, to get away from this. But it’s found me again… like a bad rash! The analyst in me went to work. It was time to figure out what was going on. How could I possibly be underperforming in a career that I love, when I’m working so hard? Sadly, I came up empty handed. I then turned to a friend and fellow coach, asking her to help me work through it. All I can say is that it was a beautiful conversation filled with ah-ha’s. Here’s a brief overview of what we came up with:
My old career was like a red trench coat… well worn, experienced, been through a lot and trained to be waterproof/bulletproof. I was like superwoman in that coat; along with the big boots I had to fill for myself.
My new career was supposed to be like a soft yellow sweater… comfortable, easy, light, beautiful and full of opportunity and possibility.
The lesson for me: There’s no place for me to really enjoy the yellow sweater, the new career, if I’m using the same tactics that were developed for the red coat. If I’m going to stop the insanity, the large to-do lists and expectations for myself, I need to do something different. In fact, I need to do a lot different. My old habits are going to produce old results. I want new results. New beginnings. So I’ll need to work on new habits, new approaches and theories, to obtain my new desire: That my to-do list is controllable and will yield huge rewards. What about you? What red coat habits do you need to ditch, so that you can embrace the yellow sweater of opportunity?
