And on the topic of being busy, that happens to be what today's post is all about! Today I was frustrated as it's crunch time for that snowflake commission and I can't get the last 30 or so finished fast enough to have a safe buffer between then and the due date (Thursday!). This is mostly because tomorrow happens to be my birthday, so for once, screw school, I am going home at noon - or maybe even a bit before that!
So, what do I do when I'm frustrated and feeling out of time? I try to tell myself, or ask myself, "How will this affect me in 20 years?" As in;
"In 20 years will I regret not sleeping in?" - Probably not.
"In 20 years will I remember this peer, and this specific moment, that is agitating the heck out of me?" - Definitely not, let it go.
"In 20 years will I regret not doing more work?" - It could be life changing, I better stay and do it!
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| It's hard to find good images of hour glasses online. |
You get the drift, right? My coping mechanism is to think of how today will really affect the future, so that I will hopefully spend my time more appropriately. Needless to say I've discovered that not going online actually makes me accomplish a lot more, unfortunately I still always have accress to an i-pod with Spider Solitaire on it, so I often get distracted playing that (I still can't beat the darn 4 suit level, not even once!).
I want to clarify here that I am not, at all, imagining what my life might be like in 20 years. Zodd no, I do not actually want to gleefully imagine myself as a 41-42 year old. I think it's more like, if anything, I try to do things right so that wherever I am when I'm 42, I should be able to look back 20 years and be proud of myself. Have you thought of that lately? How one day you might look back and say, "Gosh, I spent my entire life on the internet," ? I digress, I don't have too many of those specific thoughts either. Somewhere along the way I must have picked up the idea to ask myself, "Will I regret this in 20 years?" as a way to tell myself to shove on through, and it just stuck.
I wish I had more to write about this subject but I feel like I'd just be repeating myself and tooting my own horn. All I can do is hope that referring your future self to your current self will do something to help you - if it does, you'll understand, if it doesn't, then maybe you won't.
2 comments:
Well,not wanting to burst your balloon, but I have to say, being 20 years older, that you do indeed think about specific instances of personal interaction from back then... some of them pretty insignificant, but for some reason your neurons fire, and boom you remember it for no real good reason. I've found that if I live my life without out regrets, and make the best decisions with the information I have at hand that I can stem the tide of self recrimination. Then when things flashback on you they end up being pleasant, rather than so embarrassing your stomach turns in knots even 20 years later... oh! here comes one now... no wait, best decision possible with info on hand...ah... that's pleasant...
Hogwash!
I know I will remember incidents that were not consequential, but I hope that after twenty years I will finally be able to come to terms with the fact that I am not a witty person. That or I'll spend all my time thinking, "Ooooh I should have said that!
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