It’s Murphy’s Law. Every time I’ve got something big coming up, some wrench gets thrown into the mix.
It started when I was eight and I got scarlet fever the day before my solo in the President’s Day pageant.
In sixth grade, I got pneumonia two days before going to camp.
Last fall, when I launched Career Mastermind Week, my laptop died two nights before we went live, taking with it many of the audio recordings and workbooks that went with the program. (Back up early, back up often, folks!)
And this past weekend, as I was preparing for LaunchSummit (free, live, online, go register now: LaunchSummit), I got a miserable cold. The kind that makes looking at a computer screen painful.
It helped me rearrange my priorities.
As a perfectionist by nature, I had a list of 23 things that needed to be done before the event. Tweak this, alter that, finalize the other thing. But when I was forced to make choices about what absolutely MUST be done, the list got a lot shorter.
The list became the few things that were dealbreakers. If I don’t do this then all is lost. Hundreds of people will be disappointed. All my hard work would be for nothing. Those things are must-dos.
Everything else, I had to let go.
And of course, no one will know the difference except me!
What, in your life, are the must-dos. What are you doing that no one notices but you? How else can you use your time?
Related posts:
- The Cost of Commitment: Expectations and Your Personal Brand
- My new favorite productivity tool: Toodledo
- Incremental choice and your priorities: Get what you want faster
- 5 things you can do right now to get out of your productivity hole
- REDIRECTED
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m sorry you’re not feeling well, and I hope you get better soon!
I really liked how you used the pressure of an illness to consider priorities – the “must-dos.” I never really thought about illness in those terms, but it totally makes sense. With limited resources in time and energy, it really does become more clear what things are most important.
Definitely something to think about!
Hey, I bounce back quickly.
Sometimes, the universe sends you a kick in the rear to right your priorities. It’s good to listen when it does, even if the instinct is to fight it. Thanks for your comment!