What's The Plan?

Last week I wrote about the waiting room and within a few hours of sending that post out, I received an email regarding my waiting room experience and without going into too much detail, it was an invitation to the next room. So begins a new chapter and with it some new challenges and new experiences. My personality is typically, structured and organised, so without a plan or at least a detailed to-do list, I feel completely out of control and as a result have a whirlwind of thoughts spinning around my head. A colleague once asked me if it was normal to feel so over-whelmed with the volume of work to be completed within the specified time-frame, that one ends up actually doing nothing (other than stressing about that work). I now know exactly what he means, as a week has passed and I feel that I have not accomplished nearly enough. In fact I have not even made my list!

Brad's To-do List:
-Make the List !!!

(I feel better already.)

Any project of great success should be prepared for by planning what needs to be done, by when and by whom. If this is done early enough, then priority can be assigned to the items requiring early completion rather than incorrectly focusing on less urgent items and then missing deadlines on the more urgent activities. This, of course, has to be continually reviewed and adjusted, as life is dynamic and this can affect how we have predicted the plan.

What are you planning for? Do you have an organised to-do list that you are working through?
Perhaps you are renovating your house, buying a new car, embarking on a new business venture, or getting married. Each will require some form of plan as a vehicle to get you to your goal. It may be a detailed gantt chart with measured milestones, each with carefully calculated budgets and timings. Maybe your personality type thrives on spur of the moment action and the thought of developing a list would put you into an instant coma; suffocating your creativity, so you work on a loose idea you have in your head and make the necessary adjustments along the way. Both have their appropriate place and work for different people and different scenarios. As mentioned, I am a list-person so nothing happens in my world without a list.

For your plan, try different methods and find what fits and works for you and your particular goals. If it doesn't go strictly to plan, that's ok. Review and adjust. Don't abandon the goal just because the plan didn't work out the way you envisaged. Perhaps the detour will teach you something new...

Waiting Room Survival

I found myself at the Doctor's rooms this week with a throat infection I just could not shake with natural remedies. More than a week of lemon-ginger tea brews, homeopathic drops, salt water gargling was more than I could stand, so time to get the antibiotics. While in the waiting room, I always enjoy observing what the other patients do. It's one of those elevator-type environments where the wait is too short to initiate some sort of interaction and we all seem to have this almost embarrassment of being ill, so we convey a courteous oblivion to everyone else in the room. There is no talking, some flicking through of the available magazines but most people these days, just look down at their phones as a convenient way to not make eye-contact with anyone else in the room. It's almost a relief when there is a boisterous child in the room to absorb all the attention.
I'm sure there are psychologists who have studied this phenomenon and can explain exactly why it is that we behave like this, I just find it interesting to watch.

What other waiting rooms in life have the same effect? I'm not referring to physical rooms but rather a period in your life when you are waiting for something to happen. Your plans are progressing but there is about to be a major change and you find yourself waiting for it. You find yourself in that room, keeping your head down, just keeping busy while waiting for your name to be called to be allowed to move into that next room.

I have previously written about "Losing the Now", and whether I am consciously aware of the waiting room environment or whether I am able to escape and feel 'free', I have really tried to make the most of every day. I can't say I am always successful, but I am at least aware of what I should be doing.
Reading the news, there are so many people who don't get to have a tomorrow. What if their last day was just a waiting room experience? They were waiting for better things and hoping for a better life but lost so much by their waiting-room behaviour.

Celebrate every new day as if was the day you have been waiting for. Connect with the people around you. They too might be in a 'waiting-room' and a friendly gesture might just ease their tension as well as provide a mechanism to change your focus. Don't keep your head down with your eyes trapped on your phone.

Escape the waiting-room and celebrate your now!

Podium-Vision

With the Olympic Games well under way I find it hard not to be inspired by the athletes who put every ounce of effort they have into their event. Seeing the absolute elation of achieving something so few could ever achieve. Grown men and women brought to tears by their sense of accomplishment. How can you not feel inspired? When last did you have a goal so grand, so huge, that it scared you? Are you currently working towards achieving that goal? Have you envisioned yourself on your 'podium' receiving the medal you have had set your eyes on?
I have an enormous goal I am working towards. One that makes me nervous. In fact when I think about it, I am terrified by it, but I believe with all my heart that the goal is so worth working towards that I press on through the anxiety and stresses that I feel. Some days however, I do question my goal and feel I have turned down the wrong path. Days when I seem to be facing closed doors with every step I take. My podium-vision needs to be crystal clear on those days, so I can pick myself up and take another step, knock on another door and move closer to my goal. Staying put, in a heap on the ground, with that closed door in front of me, is not going to take me anywhere. Stand up and take another step forward. Those athletes believe in themselves and want to have the race of their life on that day. They don't want to look back and think, "I actually could have done better if..."
In my race I want to say, "I put it all out there, gave it the best of what I had and then some!" No regrets or remorse or what if's. I believe it is going to happen. I believe I am going to stand on that podium and receive my medal. I believe I too will cry when I grasp that my goal has become reality.

What is your podium-vision?

Let it Linger

What a strange thing National elections can be! I don't know if I was the only one in South Africa who experienced unusually courteous behaviour after our people had the opportunity to vote. People were smiling more to the point I thought I had some left over muesli stuck to my face. A taxi even stopped at a pedestrian crossing, gave a toot on his hooter and gestured for me to cross, also smiling broadly! There just seemed to be this silent agreement to be friendlier, regardless of whom they voted for. I imagine it is the sense of empowerment and equality experienced that 'levelled' the mental self-importance field. I just hope the agreement is not short-lived and the emotions generated by that voting process linger a little longer.

I imagine the reverse emotion may also come into play, if you vehemently believe that the party you support is better than everyone else, to the extent that you are willing to use violence and intimidation to 'encourage' others to follow too. How short sighted as this is the best method to further supporters from your cause!

I read an article the other day, that I couldn't quite agree with. It revolved around our brains instinctive responses. The flight-or-fight sector was monitored in response to stimuli. In this case a person's racial group. The results indicated that a reaction was generated when a person of dissimilar race was presented and the conclusion was that humans may be predisposed to be racist. There was no discussion about the subject's community up-bringing, racial exposure or anything of that matter that may program a person's thought pattern, instinctive or cognitive. I recall a story my sister told me when she was back-packing through Africa and visited remote villages where no (or very few) white people visited. The people were fascinated with her and kept rubbing her arm to see if it was paint and stroked her straight hair as they had never seen anything like this before. I am sure the instinctive parts of their brains were responding in hyper-mode and not because of their predisposed racial tendencies but merely because they were seeing something different. My point is that we are different! We have different opinions, different priorities, we look different and we will support different political parties. What we have to do is not pretend that there is no difference but rather appreciate those differences and engage in one another's worlds to experience something new, even if your flight-or-fight receptor is buzzing.