To-Do

It's the time of year when lots of lists are floating around: to-do lists, christmas lists, shopping lists, resolutions, etc...

There are also lists of what we SHOULD buy, SHOULD want, SHOULD think about for the upcoming season.

Digging even farther, there are how-to lists with HOW we SHOULD go about our lives among lists: How to meet a guy, How to be the best on a first date, how to know that he's the one. It's all a detailed roadmap for how we navigate out day-to-day. What they don't say is that those days add up to a lifetime, and what is a journey when your nose is stuck in a map?

Lists are everywhere, and according to my new book du jour, Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeir Hansson, lists are the devil. We make lists that are never ending, and even worse, they block us from getting any real work done. The goal is simply to make it through the list as fast as we can without really putting forth honest effort. This is more so true for work, but we make lists for almost every section of our lives.

As a coxswain, I have a list of things that I run through in my head before and after every practice and race. I have my race plan, a list of tools that I always have on me, a list of commands and motivating sayings in my back pocket, and so on. I wonder what would happen if I didn't have everything set in my brain on how I want a race/practice to go. If we lose our way, should we execute a plan to get us back to the original plan? I find that the heat of moment, the split seconds of not-knowing in a race that are the biggest motivators. What if we made it a habit to deviate from the how things are SUPPOSED to go? What would we find then?

I still make a to-do list everyday, in order to keep my schedule straight. Without a doubt, some things are a priority and others are put on the back burner. But how I get these things accomplished is made up of simple steps; small steps that can be easily back-peddled if I make a mistake. Don't get bogged down by the expectations of others, and especially the expectations of ourselves. When we get over what we're supposed to do, we actually get something done. And usually, those make the best stories in hindsight...