Progress in 2010

I've spent a bit of time thinking through some areas of my life and deciding what I want to do in each. I've looked at:
- career
- social
- personal development
- phisical
- material
- family
For each area I've then defined a set of actions (clear expected result with timings).

This is quite interesting and good because:
- it puts targets on my mind
- it gives me a sense of control, that I am leading my life where I want it to go (and I am in fact more in control)
- it get's me moving!

This last one is the most important part. There's no point in setting objectives and then not act on them. In fact, it is negative... because it generates frustration, that I am not achieving what I expected I would... and then it starts mining my self esteem, my self confidence, etc
But if I act... then I feel good, because I am moving, in the direction of what I want to achieve.
Action is key.

Many times though, objectives will lose relevance, we will not want to achieve them as much as before. This might be because we started working towards them and realised that they are not actually what we want. That is life! It's the road, the route... If this happens, then think about what I want to achieve. And be positive, as walking towards the previous objective helped me understand that that wasn't it - I've progressed!
Other point: even if at some stage I'm not over excited about some specific action to lead towards some objective (but can't think of a better action)... just do it! Acting will lead to think of other ways, other ideas, other actions.
Action is key.

JUST DO IT!

A journey of a 1.000 miles starts with a single step.
How to eat an elephant? Break it into small pieces and start eating...

Time for reflection, time for Action

For quite a while I have been thinking and turning my head around, trying to figure out what my passion at work is. What is it that I should do that will make me feel more fulfilled? And if I am more fulfilled I will enjoy it more, do it better and ultimately, be better at it, be successful.

I've read or am in the process of reading all the books you can think of. I take notes. I summarize. I think a lot.
But real progress has been somewhat limited. I do have a much greater, incomparably deeper, understanding of myself. Of my strengths, of my mind chatter, of my likes and dislikes.

I don't have a clear vision of what I want to do. I don't know what it is. But I've got some clues, not very strong no, but some pointers.

I've been waiting for this clear vision, 100% pure and obvious to come along but I don't think it will. Probable that is not the way things work! Apart from a fortunate few who seem to know since they are kids what they were born to do, most of us need to keep at it. Digging and doing stuff, progressing.

Reflection is good, but it comes down to nothing if you don't act on it. It is time to ACT.
It reminds of meditation: I read loads about it on the internet, all kinds of comments and adivces, methods... But it did nothing for me. I started thinking of it as somewhat of a new age bullshit... Until a friend convinced me to join a course and I actually invested some time in TRYING it. In getting of my butt and actually doing something, ACTING. And then I understood its impact and its benefits. And all that I had read started to make a lot more sense.

Though I don't have the clear career vision I would love to have, it is time to ACT. To capitalize on all I've read. To move, to take risks. To leave the state of limbo and get out there, expose myself, do things, talk to people, take courses, joing classes, get out, sell, buy, experience, try... ACT.

Getting things done

Since I've started working I've managed my tasks either by ordering them in A-B-C priorities or under the S.Covey's 4 quadrants (Urgent-Important / Urgent-Not Important / Not Urgent-Important / Not Urgent-Not Important) and to be honest it has worked just fine.

Now, since I've moved jobs and am managing a team of 5 junior people and am finding myself needing to give them advice and direction on all of their projects as well as my own workload, I've found myself getting more anxious and stressed, as I can't ever seem to be on top of my actions.

Every morning I'm doing my to-do list, that I never manage to complete...

A week or so ago, browsing over the internet, I came across a couple of articles on David Allen's system 'Getting Things Done'... It got me interested and I have now been reading the book for the last few days.
And I must say I'm having a few of those wow moments, almost life changing...!!

It's early as I am still reading and only taking the 1st steps in implementation. But already a few eye openers:
- we keep our minds busy with the tasks that need to be done... building stress and anxiety as we are not doing them. And there's only so much we can keep on our minds. and, as the book says: 'This constant, unproductive preocupation with all the things we have to do is the single largest consumer of time and energy.'
- so it's key to get everything out, on to an organization system that you can trust and rely on and that you'll visit frequently.
- other key learning is that it is key to define clear next action steps for all the projects/commitments we have. Lots of times we don't progress projects and just worry about them because... we don't know what the next action step is. Adn if only think about the projects as they come up and define the next physical action we can take, then we get it going. And as we do this action, the next one should become clear. And it will quickly progress towards completion.

I'm still reading... I'll share more findings in the next posts, as I progress through the book! But I'm really really impressed!